Stranded Giant Pacific Octopus Rescued By Quick Thinking Girl. A stranded Giant Pacific octopus was returned to the sea in Skagit County, Washington State on 15 March 2023 thanks to the quick thinking of a girl, her family, and researchers.
The octopus became stranded on the beach as the tide retreated at Bayview State Park. Fortunately for the humungous cephalopod, a Vancouver family visiting the beach spotted the struggling creature and alerted ranger Brandon Hoekstra. It was about 200 feet from the water, and struggling as the tide was going out.
Hoekstra called staff at the Padilla Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve for assistance. The octopus was able to survive out of the water until more help arrived, thanks to the girl’s action to use her sand bucket to pour water over the stricken mollusc.
”An octopus can't survive out of water for more than several minutes; it collapses their gills," said Annie England, a scientist with the Washington Department of Ecology stationed at the Reserve.
The unfortunate eight-legger, which weighed 80 to 100 pounds and was 7 to 8 feet long, was not making much headway as its body weight was too heavy outside its usual aquatic environment. However, England, Mira Lutz of the Reserve, and volunteer Sean Petersmark were able to get the octopus into a large bin and push it to the water, where it slowly crept out and returned to the ocean.