A woman was walking her dogs on an Oregon beach when she saw a small shark struggling.
It was lucky timing for the salmon shark, which was suffocating in a low tide area near the shoreline.
"I was essentially nervous about touching it at all," Colleen Dunn, wrote in a text message Wednesday. "I have three kids so I didn't wanna put myself in a dangerous position."
At first, she thought it was a baby great white.
Dunn called her husband at an office at Nehalem Bay State Park for advice, but got no answer. So, with her dogs waiting patiently, she grabbed the 3-foot shark by the tail and rushed it to deeper water while taking a video of it on her phone.
This screenshot taken from video provided by Colleen Dunn shows a salmon shark on a beach near Portland, Ore., Oct. 2025.
Colleen Dunn via AP
The shark was able to push water through its gills once again, and then swam out of view.
Dunn says she posted about the encounter last month on a local social media group, and nobody reported the shark washing back up on shore. She used to live in Hawaii and recently moved her family to Manzanita, Oregon, near the park where she saw the shark. The ocean and the creatures in it give her a sense of belonging, she said.
"I've lived in other places across the Pacific, and the ocean has always been my grounding place. Being engaged with it, watching the tides, noticing the wildlife, even stepping in when a creature needs help keeps me present and humble," Dunn said.
In this screenshot taken from video provided by Colleen Dunn, Dunn carries a beached salmon shark on an Oregon beach back into the ocean near Portland, Ore., Oct. 2025.
AP
Meanwhile, a dead shark washed up on another beach in Oregon this week, according to Seaside Aquarium. CBS affiliate KOIN-TV reported the aquarium received a report that a small shark with a long tail washed ashore, noting the shark ended up being a four-foot female blue shark.
"While sad, the shark was in great condition and we were able to recover it," Seaside Aquarium said.
The aquarium explained that it would have been too difficult to determine the shark's cause of death, so they will not perform a necropsy.
"With fish and sharks, it is harder to tell the cause of death unless it is very obvious," Seaside Aquarium told KOIN-TV. "When found on the beach, they've usually been dead for too long to send any samples in for testing and testing can be expensive."
