Sea turtle strandings on the Oregon Coast pick up in the winter, when cold water leaves the animals too weak to swim or feed. For years, the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport could warm a stranded turtle and stabilize it, but the long recovery had to happen in California. That’s about to change. The aquarium expects to finish its $12.5 million Sis-Xa Xwee-Nish Marine Wildlife Center in December, the Lincoln Chronicle reported Nov. 9, giving the central Oregon Coast a purpose-built hospital for stranded, injured and endangered marine animals.

The center is going up on the south side of the aquarium’s South Beach campus, near Southeast Ferry Slip Road and Southeast 30th Street. You won’t be able to walk through it, but its reach goes well past Newport. The aquarium is the only facility in Oregon, and one of three in the Pacific Northwest, authorized to provide critical care to endangered marine animals such as sea turtles, Guadalupe fur seals and snowy plovers. Until now, it has done that work out of an outdated, repurposed warehouse.

Quick facts

• What it is: The Sis-Xa Xwee-Nish Marine Wildlife Center, a rehabilitation and veterinary facility for stranded, injured and endangered marine animals
• Where: Oregon Coast Aquarium campus, 2820 SE Ferry Slip Road, Newport
• Cost: $12.5 million
• Expected completion: December 2026
• Size: More than 10,000 square feet indoors, plus an outdoor bird holding area of similar size
• Patients: Sea turtles, seabirds and marine mammals, including endangered Guadalupe fur seals and snowy plovers
• Sea turtle rehab: Expected to begin in 2027
• Public access: None. The center is not open to visitors, and no public opening has been announced.
• Designed and built by: Capri Architecture of Newport and general contractor Quality Construction
• Found a stranded animal? Call the Oregon State Police Tipline at 800-452-7888 or the West Coast Marine Mammal Stranding Network hotline at 1-866-767-6114.

Why Oregon’s beaches needed this building

Some animal rehabilitation has happened at the aquarium since it opened in 1992, but the space was never built for it. Rescued animals were often stabilized and shipped out fast, according to the Chronicle, with marine mammals usually headed to Sausalito and sea turtles to San Diego. “There is a big gap between California and Washington for any wildlife rehabilitation of marine mammals,” Jim Burke, the aquarium’s director of animal care, told the paper.

Sea turtles have made the longest trips. “In the past, we would triage a sea turtle as it came in and work quickly to get it to southern California,” Burke told the Chronicle. “Now we will be able to stabilize those animals and address any ailments here.” Turtles will still go to California eventually for release, he said, but the aquarium will be able to keep them longer, until they’re closer to returning to the ocean. The two species that most often strand in the Pacific Northwest, Pacific green and olive ridley sea turtles, are both protected under the Endangered Species Act, according to the aquarium.

Aquarium President and CEO Carrie Lewis sees the need growing. “We are seeing more and more stranded marine life on our beaches all along the coast,” she told the Chronicle. The aquarium works alongside the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Oregon State University’s Hatfield Marine Science Center and its Marine Mammal Institute, and it treats an average of 275 marine animals a year.

What’s inside the Sis-Xa Xwee-Nish Marine Wildlife Center

Most of the indoor space goes to animal care and rehabilitation. There’s a room set aside for sea turtles and a rectangular pool for sea otters that will get a domed lid to keep the animal contained. Outside, the bird holding area is planned with deep pools for birds like pelicans and shallow ones for sandpipers, all under netting so staff can monitor and treat them. Two smaller buildings handle water treatment and necropsies, and the aquarium describes the whole project as three buildings and outdoor areas totaling just over 21,000 square feet.

The clinical side matters for the aquarium’s own animals, too. Burke told the Chronicle that staff sometimes drive animals to Corvallis for care, and that the new center will let them do blood work and X-rays on larger animals on site. The aquarium has said that limiting trips to a veterinary hospital an hour away spares injured animals extra stress and health risks. One small design detail came from Capri Architecture: color-coded doorways that tell staff at a glance what happens behind each one.

The building is also meant to teach. The aquarium plans a veterinary student practicum, and the Chronicle reported that the center will host training conferences and has its own area for staff and volunteer education. Aquarium staff have already trained in areas ranging from entanglement response to hazardous waste operations and emergency response.

A name chosen with the Siletz Tribes

Sis-Xa Xwee-Nish means “ocean life.” The aquarium partnered with the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians to choose the name, which uses Athabaskan words from the tribes’ heritage, including Na-Dené, Alsea and Yaquina, in recognition of the Indigenous peoples of Oregon’s central coast. If you’re wondering how to say it, the aquarium’s future plans page offers help with the pronunciation.

Who paid for it and who built it

The money came from grants, individual donors, private foundations and some of the aquarium’s reserves. The biggest single gift, $4 million, came from the Roundhouse Foundation in Sisters. “This project would not have gotten off the ground if we hadn’t received our cornerstone gift from the Roundhouse Foundation,” Lewis told the Chronicle. The aquarium’s donor list also includes the State of Oregon, the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, the Hearst Foundations and the Spirit Mountain Community Fund, and the aquarium’s puffin license plate program has helped fund the work, according to 2025 coverage in the Lincoln County Leader.

The aquarium kept the build close to home. Crews broke ground in late 2024, and the Chronicle reported the project is mostly on time and on budget, which Burke credited to buying specialty parts before tariffs took effect and to hiring a reliable local contractor. South Beach cabinetmaker Dennis Fry did work in the exam rooms. “We chose to do this building as local as possible because local people care about the aquarium,” Burke said.

Can you visit the new wildlife center?

No. The public won’t have access to the center, the Chronicle reported, and no public opening date has been announced. The aquarium plans to share the center’s work inside its public building instead. “We will share the story of this facility within the aquarium quite a bit because we want to inspire people who care about wildlife,” Burke said. The rest of the aquarium stays open as usual, and our Oregon Coast Aquarium guide covers what visitors can see there.

What to do if you find a stranded animal on an Oregon beach

The aquarium asks beachgoers to report wild animal concerns to the Oregon State Police Tipline at 800-452-7888 or the Marine Mammal Stranding Network hotline for Oregon, Washington and California at 1-866-767-6114. If it’s a sea turtle, note exactly where it is, stay nearby to watch it if you safely can, and don’t move it. Putting a turtle back in the water raises its risk of injury and delays rescue, the aquarium says. Cold-stunned turtles are fragile even with fast help. In 2024, a stranded green sea turtle found at Manzanita died after two days in the aquarium’s care.

Seals and sea lions are a different case. They rest on shore as a matter of routine, and harbor seal pups alone on the beach usually aren’t stranded, according to Oregon State University’s Marine Mammal Institute. NOAA Fisheries asks people to keep themselves and their pets at least 100 yards away, and the institute points out that it’s illegal for unauthorized people to disturb, handle or feed marine mammals. Its guidance also notes that there are no rehabilitation options for most sick or injured seals and sea lions in Oregon, so a report doesn’t always lead to a rescue. To report an entangled whale or other marine mammal, NOAA’s entanglement hotline is 1-877-767-9425.