Riverhead’s marine rescue center releases sea turtle named Pegasus after long rehab

The sea was choppy as about 200 people gathered on a brisk but sunny day at Tiana Beach in Hampton Bays to await a special guest. At 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 24, staffers from the New York Marine Rescue Center and the National Aquarium arrived with their precious cargo — a female loggerhead sea turtle named Pegasus.

The 250-pound turtle, with a tag attached to her hard shell, briefly gathered her bearings before lumbering down the beach and disappearing into the chilly Atlantic waters.

The ceremony capped a difficult journey for Pegasus, named somewhat ironically after the flying horse of Greek mythology. She had spent the past six months in a large outdoor tank at the Riverhead center after being found stranded on a beach in Ocean City, Md., last summer.

Pegasus, estimated between 25 and 50 years old, was initially taken to the National Aquarium in Baltimore for rehab. She was considered severely debilitated, a general term when turtles have a number of symptoms but no clear diagnosis. 

“There’s lots of little things going on, but we don’t know what the crux of the diagnosis is. So these animals end up being listless, malnourished, clearly dehydrated,” said Maxine Montello, the executive director of the New York Marine Rescue Center.

Pegasus had been spotted floating close to the shoreline in Ocean City, a sign that the animal was having issues with buoyancy.

“That’s very dangerous for these animals in the ocean, because it could lead to vessel interactions and predators. They’re just very weak at that point,” Ms. Montello said.

The biologists from the National Aquarium’s team began the slow process of helping Pegasus regain her strength.

“They actually used weight to help kind of alleviate the buoyancy that she was having, so putting weights all over her carapace using Velcro allowed her to naturally get to the bottom over time,” said Ms. Montello.

As she recovered, the four-foot tank at the National Aquarium became too shallow, since Pegasus needed to dive deeper.

The Riverhead rescue center, with its larger outdoor tank, offered to continue her healing in May. 

“Being exposed to outside elements for the first time in a year definitely was a big change. And so this tank really allowed her to have kind of like a pre-release and be exposed to these elements before she went to the big ocean,” said Ms. Montello. “I put a satellite tag on that turtle so that we could track where she goes.”

The staff at the center were inspired in 2020 to complete their large outdoor tank to help Queen, an even larger loggerhead, which can grow to 300 pounds. The project was aided by a grant from Suffolk County to modify the tank for four-season use.

“She really pushed us to understand how our resources could be stretched to cover the support of her. So she got our tank up and running, and we were able to get her released and tagged,” said Ms. Montello.

The New York Marine Rescue Center cares for more than just turtles. They also help in the field with entanglement cases, boat strikes, and ingestion of hooks for sea turtles and seals.

Upcoming events to benefit the center include the fourth annual Turtle Crawl between four local Riverhead breweries on Saturday, Sept. 27, from 1 to 6 p.m., and the 5k Run for the Ridley on Saturday, Oct. 18. Race check-in begins at 7 a.m for both days.

There are also multiple opportunities for volunteers.

“If people have a background in marketing or fundraising, or office management, we’re always willing to get some extra support, because we are a small team with a lot of work on our hands,” Ms. Montello said.