Some 25 curled octopuses, which grow to a length of 50 cm, were seen three nights in a row crawling on New Quay beach in Ceredigion in west Wales. Some were later found dead, washed up on the beach.
“It was a bit like an End Of Days scenario,” witness Brett Jones told the BBC. “There were probably about 20 or 25 on the beach. I have never seen them out of the water like that,” he added.
According to the witness who also runs Seamor dolphin-watching boat trips, seeing octopuses out of the water like that is “really rare.”
“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,” Brett said.
“As the areas where they are exhibiting this odd behavior coincides with the two areas hit by the two recent low pressure depressions and associated storms of Ophelia and Brian, it could be supposed that these have affected them,” Wright said. “It could simply be injuries sustained by the rough weather itself or there could be sensitivity to a change in atmospheric pressure,” he added.
