Among the marine creatures washing ashore on California beaches in recent times are little sea horses.
A woman hanging on the beach in Coronado came to the rescue of one after she found him in the sand.
"I could still feel him moving in my hand, which was really unique and special," Laura Orozco told Fox 5 San Diego. "It was pretty amazing."
The Coronado resident then ran to the ocean to put the helpless Pacific sea horse back into the ocean (much like the time brave rescuers helped a stranded shark get back into the water in Cape Cod).
"His eye opened and then his tail kind of curled around my finger and I just freaked out and ran down to the water," she said. "I put him in the water and off he went."
The sea horse is just one of many that's been washing ashore. Leslee Matsushige, the curator of the Birch Aquarium Scripps Institution of Oceanography, told the news station, "The frequency of us seeing them is attributed to the same time of year or the same seasons we’ve had warmer periods of warm water in the ocean which many people attribute to El Niño."
It's important to put sea horses back into the ocean in cases like these because the protected species is threatened. Removing one from a beach can also get you arrested.
Watch below and please SHARE to spread the importance of saving these little creatures!
