MANZANITA, Ore. (AP) — A woman was walking her dogs on an Oregon beach when she saw a small shark struggling.
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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.
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.
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. (Colleen Dunn via AP)
“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.
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