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A critically endangered sea turtle’s scheduled return to the Atlantic Ocean has been postponed by a week because of the Canadian wildfire smoke that’s blanketed New York City.
According to Wildlife Conservation Society spokesperson Nat Moss, the event was delayed to Thursday, July 23, as a widespread plume of wildfire smoke hangs over parts of the Northeast.
The endangered Kemp’s ridley sea turtle, affectionately named Pancake, was originally slated for release at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday at 602 Surf Ave., located on the beach behind the New York Aquarium, MassLive reported.
The 11-pound turtle was rescued on Nov. 22 by the Massachusetts Audubon Society after being found at Duck Harbor Beach in Wellfleet. Pancake was cold-stunned, a condition in which sea turtles become very weak and inactive from exposure to cold temperatures.
“This is the great part about what we do when we find these turtles on the beaches of Cape Cod,” Aaron Gouveia, Mass Audubon’s public relations director, told MassLive. “Sometimes their heartbeat is down to one beat per minute from being cold-stunned and the New England Aquarium does such a great job with helping to save the most endangered sea turtles. It’s what we do this for and it’s just fantastic.”
While Pancake waits out the haze, the smoke emanating from ongoing wildfires burning in western Ontario, Canada, and northeast Minnesota is expected to arrive mainly after 1 p.m. in most parts of Massachusetts, according to the National Weather Service.
The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection has issued an Air Quality Alert until midnight on Thursday, warning that the air is unhealthy for children, older adults, and people with heart, lung, or asthma conditions. Those sensitive groups are advised to limit their outdoor activities.
The wildfire smoke is expected to linger through the evening, covering skies in Western Massachusetts until 11 p.m. and in Central and Eastern Massachusetts until 3 a.m. on Friday.
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