Report a stranded, injured or entangled animal

If an animal is hauled out, injured, dead, or wrapped in line or net, a trained responder needs to hear about it. Below: who covers your stretch of coast, what they will ask you, and a details block you can copy straight into a call or email.

Call first, always

Stranding 1-866-767-6114 Entangled whale 1-877-767-9425 911 / VHF 16

Before you get closer — don't

Stay back at least 100 feet (150 yards for whales) and keep dogs leashed and away.
Never pour water on, feed, move, or push a stranded animal back into the water.
Resting seal pups on the beach are usually normal — mum is often offshore. Report and observe, don't intervene.
Never try to cut gear off an entangled whale. Free-swimming whales drag boats and kill people; trained teams only.
Dead animals can carry disease. Don't touch, and keep dogs off.

Build your report

Fill this in, copy it, then call the number for your area and read it out.

Beach or access point

Coordinates

What you're seeing

Reported via TideEx — https://tideex.org/report

Email this report

What they'll ask you

Exact location — coordinates, beach name, and the nearest access point.
What the animal is doing: alive and moving, lethargic, injured, or dead.
Rough size and species if you know it, plus any tags, brands or wounds.
Whether gear, line, net or plastic is wrapped on the animal, and where.
Photos or a short video from a distance — never approach closer than 100 ft.
Your name and a callback number, plus the time you saw it.

Sharks, jellyfish & stingrays

How to avoid them, what to do in the first ten minutes, and who to call. Any bite, breathing trouble or embedded barb is a 911 call first.

Jellyfish stings — lion's mane & sea nettle

Salish Sea and outer coast, worst July through October when lion's mane and sea nettle bloom. Detached tentacles on wet sand still fire for hours, and so do jellies drying in the wrack line.

Avoid

· Scan the swash line before you wade — where jellies are stranded on the sand, they're thick in the water.
· Wear a rash guard, wetsuit or dive skin; most stings land on forearms, ankles and the neck seal.
· Don't handle stranded jellies, and don't let a dog nose one — mouth and eye stings are the bad ones.
· Rinse gear and wetsuits before you peel them off; nematocysts transfer skin to skin.

If it happens

· Get out of the water and rinse with seawater. Do not use fresh water — it makes undischarged stingers fire.
· Lift tentacles off with tweezers or the edge of a card. Never rub with sand or a towel.
· Immerse in hot water, 110–113 °F / 43–45 °C, for 20–45 minutes, or use a hot shower if that's all you have.
· Vinegar is for tropical box jellies — skip it here; on Pacific lion's mane it can worsen the sting.
· Cold pack and an oral antihistamine for the itch afterwards; expect welts for a few days.

Trouble breathing, swelling of the lips or tongue, chest pain, faintness — anaphylaxis. Call 911.
Stings to the eye or mouth, stings covering more than half a limb, or a sting on a small child.

Stingray strikes — shuffle, don't step

Common in warm shallow sand from Point Conception south, and possible on sandy central California flats in late summer. Rare north of Cape Mendocino, and effectively absent in Washington's inland waters.

Avoid

· Shuffle your feet through the sand instead of stepping — the vibration moves rays off before you stand on one.
· Enter through rippled sand, not a smooth depression; rays lie buried in the flat spots.
· Booties help against the barb glancing, but the shuffle is what actually prevents the strike.
· Warm, calm, shallow water on an incoming tide is peak risk.

If it happens

· Get out of the water; the wound bleeds heavily and the pain peaks in about 30–60 minutes.
· Immerse the limb in the hottest water you can tolerate, 110–113 °F, for 30–90 minutes. Heat denatures the venom and is the only thing that touches the pain.
· Irrigate the wound and let it bleed a little; barb sheath fragments are common.
· Get it seen — puncture wounds from a barb frequently need imaging, cleaning and antibiotics, plus a tetanus check.

Any wound to the chest, abdomen or neck — call 911 and do not remove an embedded barb.
Uncontrolled bleeding, numbness, or the barb still in the wound.

Sharks — sighting, hooking, or a beached animal

Washington and Oregon: sixgill, spiny dogfish, salmon shark and the occasional basking shark; bites are essentially unheard of. Northern California from Bodega to Monterey (the Red Triangle) has a real, small white shark risk that peaks August through November near pinniped haul-outs.

Avoid

· Don't swim or dive near seal and sea lion haul-outs, river mouths or bait balls, especially in low visibility at dawn and dusk.
· Stay in groups, skip shiny jewellery and high-contrast kit, and get out if you see a pinniped bolt for shore.
· Never tow speared fish or a full harvest bag on your body — clip it to a float line well behind you.
· Leopard sharks and dogfish in the shallows are harmless; give them room and they'll leave.

If it happens

· If you accidentally hook one: don't drag it up the beach or gaff it. Keep it in the water, cut the line as close to the hook as you safely can, and let it swim off. White sharks and basking sharks are protected — taking one is illegal and they must be released immediately.
· Beached or struggling shark: keep people and dogs back, don't grab the tail or straddle it, don't push it back out. Note the size, species and location and call the state fisheries line or the NOAA hotline at 1-866-767-6114.
· Shark bite: call 911 first. Get the person out of the water, apply hard direct pressure or a tourniquet high on the limb, keep them warm and flat, and don't wait to see how bad it is.
· Any shark bite, no matter how minor it looks, needs hospital wound care — the puncture infection risk is high.

Bleeding that soaks through pressure — tourniquet and 911.
A large shark actively circling swimmers: clear the water and notify the lifeguard or park staff.

Spiny fish & urchins underfoot

Rocky intertidal coast-wide: sculpin and rockfish spines when you handle tidepool fish, and urchin spines in surge channels.

Avoid

· Never grab a fish out of a tidepool bare-handed; sculpins have venomous dorsal spines.
· Wear stiff-soled boots in surge channels and don't brace a hand into an urchin crevice.

If it happens

· Hot water immersion, 110–113 °F, for 30–60 minutes for a spine sting.
· Remove visible spine fragments; urchin spines that snap off deep need a clinic, not tweezers.
· Watch for infection over the next few days and check your tetanus status.

Spreading redness, streaking or fever in the days after — get antibiotics.

Shark or ray to report

1-866-767-6114NOAA West Coast stranding hotlineBeached, stranded or dead shark, or a shark tangled in gear, anywhere in WA, OR or CA.
360-902-2700WDFW fish program (WA)Sixgill, salmon shark or basking shark sightings and accidental catch in Washington waters.
541-867-4741ODFW marine resources (OR)Shark sightings, accidental catch and beached sharks on the Oregon coast.
1-888-334-2258CDFW white shark reporting (CA)White shark sightings and incidents in California; white sharks are protected and must be released immediately.
911Life-safety emergencyShark bite, serious sting reaction, or anyone in the water in trouble — Coast Guard and EMS.