On the evening of Friday, October 10th, I encountered a stranded salmon shark (I didn’t know it was a salmon shark until later, it looked like a great white!) near Nehalem Bay State Park in Manzanita, Oregon. I immediately attempted to contact the state park to report the situation and seek guidance, but I was unable to reach anyone.

It was clear that the shark was in distress and urgently needed to be returned to the water. The tide was going out and it looked like that he got stuck in a small tide pool of water. The tide had pulled out too far for him to be able to swim back into the ocean, so I needed to take matters into my own hands and fast! With no one else around and daylight fading, I made the decision to act quickly and safely move the shark back into the ocean myself. The reason I had my phone out was because I was trying to record for local officials, and because this was absolutely amazing footage, also if things went bad fast, I wanted to have evidence of what happened. Also, I wanted to share with my three kids that, as humans, we can help animals in need (safely). I also wanted evidence of anything went south since I was alone.

After releasing it, I remained on the shore for approximately ten minutes to ensure it did not wash back up. The shark appeared to swim away on its own and did not return to the beach.

I was alone at the time, with my dogs waiting about 40–50 feet away. Since sharing the video of the event on Facebook, the post has received significant attention, with over 500 likes and engagement from the local community. No additional reports of a stranded shark have been made in our active local Facebook group, suggesting the animal successfully returned to the water.