What to do if you find a sea turtle stranded on the Oregon Coast

EUEGEN, Ore. — The Oregon Coast Aquarium on Wednesday asked beachcombers to be on the lookout for stranded sea turtles after a wayward sea turtle was found dead last week on an Oregon beach.

“Sea turtles that are near our shoreline this time of year have become enveloped by colder water as the warmer summer currents dissipate and winter sets in here in the Northeastern Pacific,” Jim Burke, director of animal husbandry at the Oregon Coast Aquarium, said in a statement. “This environmental change slows the turtles down, which decreases their ability to migrate south (and) feed. … This can lead to dehydration, malnutrition and hypothermia as the animal physiologically shuts down. They then often become victim to the currents and waves, which can bring them crashing onto our beaches.”

The aquarium, in Newport, and the Seattle Aquarium are the only rehabilitation facilities in the Pacific Northwest that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service authorized to rehabilitate sea turtles. The Oregon Coast Aquarium treated three sea turtles in winter 2017-18, the first found on Thanksgiving on the southern Washington coast, but none of the big reptiles survived. The aquarium crew named the Thanksgiving turtle Turkey, said Oregon Coast Aquarium spokesperson Sally Compton, and didn’t name the other turtles because their injuries were so severe.

Pacific green sea turtles and olive ridley sea turtles are the species most often stranded along the Oregon Coast, according to the aquarium. Both are listed for protection under the federal Endangered Species Act.

The Oregon Coast Aquarium advises anyone who finds a stranded sea turtle not to touch or move the animal, and instead call the Marine Mammal Stranding Network at 866-767-6114. Mammal network officials will coordinate a recovery of the reptile to the nearest sea turtle rehabilitation facility.

Stranded sea turtles may have broken bones or other unseen injuries so people should let the animals be while calling for help, Compton said.

Cell service can be spotty on the coast, so whoever finds a stranded sea turtle might have to leave the animal to call for help, she said. She recommended collecting details about the stranded sea turtle, such as nearby landmarks and where the animal is compared to the low tide line.

“The most important thing you can do is note its location,” she said.