A young girl and her family who found a giant Pacific octopus stranded in a state park at low tide helped rescue the creature by alerting park authorities. The octopus likely would not have survived without all of their help.
On March 15, a family from Vancouver, British Columbia, was visiting Bay View State Park, Washington, when they came across a coral-colored giant Pacific octopus, the largest octopus species in the world. Because the tide had retreated, the roughly 8-foot-long creature was struggling with its almost 100-pound body weight in the mud about 200 meters from the water’s edge.
The concerned family alerted park ranger Brandon Hoekstra who later called staff at the Padilla Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve for help. While they waited, the little girl along with her family gently tipped sea water over the octopus using a sand bucket.
“An octopus can’t survive out of water for more than several minutes; it collapses their gills,” Annie England, a scientist with the Washington Department of Ecology stationed at the reserve, said in a statement. England confirmed that the family’s actions were spot-on and advised others to do the same. She also added that it’s best to avoid touching a stranded octopus and call an expert for help.
England, alongside Mira Lutz, an employee of the reserve, and volunteer Sean Petersmark, managed to scoop the octopus into a large plastic tub and carried it to the water’s edge, where it deftly maneuvered itself back into the ocean.
The reserve also gave a special “shoutout” to the family who reported the stranded octopus to the ranger.
