Why Are These Octopi Beaching Themselves?
Out of the many bizarre stories that have come out of 2017, one of the most bizarre might be this bit of cephalopod intrigue. In this case, the harbinger of dark tidings is in the form of washed up curled octopi, who had been turning up by the dozens on the shores of New Quay Beach in Wales in the UK for a few nights in a row.
According to Bret Jones, who runs dolphin watching trips along the coast, "It was a bit like an end of days scenario. There were probably about 20 or 25 on the beach. I have never seen them out of the water like that." While Jones tried to return some of the beached octopi to the ocean, invariably, some dead ones would remain washed up on the beach.
This happened for a few days, which is significant because octopi are not in the habit of bringing themselves onshore. Jones speculated, "Maybe they are getting confused by the bright lights in New Quay harbor and maybe they are dying off after summer or getting knackered after the recent storms."
While it remains unclear exactly what caused this mass octopus event, James Wright, the curator at the National Marine Aquarium, shared with the Telegraph, "[The octopi] even being found in the intertidal is not common and suggests there is something wrong with them I am afraid. As the areas where they are exhibiting this odd behavior coincides with the two areas hit by the two recent low pressures depressions and associated storms of Ophelia and Brian, it could be supposed that these have affected them."
"It could simply be injuries sustained by the rough weather itself or there could be a sensitivity to a change in atmospheric pressure."
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