If you're wandering the beaches this winter, there's something else to watch for besides incoming tides: sea turtles.
Winter storms can push these creatures into colder waters, tiring them out, making them sick, and leaving them stranded on the shoreline.
Laura Todd is with the Newport Field Office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. She says if someone comes across a washed-up sea turtle...
"They shouldn't touch it, they shouldn't move it," advised Todd.
"If you move them and warm them too quickly, it can actually cause more damage than help. So really the thing to do is get them to a facility that knows how to handle turtles as quickly as possible.
"Here on the Oregon Coast, that's the Oregon Coast Aquarium. And they're the ones that are our authorized agency for dealing with the turtles, and they really are pretty good at being able to do that properly."
Pacific Green and Olive Ridley Sea Turtles are the most common species found stranded in Oregon. Both are endangered.
The Oregon State Police tip line for stranded turtles is 800-452-7888.
