Octopuses Filmed in Mysterious Beach Walk-Up in Wales After Storms

Waves whipped up by the wind of Hurricane Ophelia crash against the rocks on Oct. 16, 2017, in Holyhead, Wales. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

The incredibly rare sight of octopuses walking up a beach has been captured on film in Wales.

The sighting is echoed by other reports along the west coast, with marine biologists saying that the strange behaviour may have been caused by the recent storms, Ophelia and Brian.

Brett Jones was returning from a sunset boat trip when he spotted octopuses crawling up out of the sea and onto the beach at New Quay in Wales.

Jones, 39, the owner of SeaMor Dolphin Watching Boat Trips, said that a friend told him it had happened the night before as well.

“They were coming out of the water and crawling up the beach,” Jones told Wales Online. “We don’t quite know what’s causing it.

“Perhaps it’s because the sea has been quite rough recently but I’ve never seen anything like it before. They were walking on the tips of their legs.

“A friend of mine said it happened the night before and there was about 20 last night.”

A video of the moment was posted to their Facebook page, and also uploaded to their YouTube channel.

The particular species, the curled octopus, is common in waters around Britain.

James Wright, curator at the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth, said he had heard one or two other accounts last week along the North Devon and the Welsh coasts.

“This account of a number on the same beach is quite odd,” he told the Telegraph.

He said that they are not typically found in the “intertidal zone,” suggesting something was wrong with them.

“As the areas where they are exhibiting this odd behaviour 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.

Dr Steve Simpson, a lecturer in marine biologist at the University of Bristol, told the Telegraph it was “extremely odd” behaviour and incredibly rare for octopuses to venture on dry land in such a manner.

Seamor Boat Trips posted various images of the octopuses on its Facebook site, as well as another video.

They wrote on the post to the original video on Oct 28: “We went down the beach yesterday to watch the octopus that are coming ashore at night. We collected the ones that were totally out of the water, and plopped them back in at the end of the pier, hopefully saving them from getting stranded.”