{"id":158197,"date":"2025-10-08T16:46:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T16:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/interior-news.com\/2025\/10\/08\/right-place-right-tide-rare-7-armed-deep-sea-octopus-found-on-bc-beach\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T19:36:35","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T19:36:35","slug":"right-place-right-tide-rare-7-armed-deep-sea-octopus-found-on-bc-beach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/interior-news.com\/2025\/10\/08\/right-place-right-tide-rare-7-armed-deep-sea-octopus-found-on-bc-beach\/","title":{"rendered":"Right place, right tide: Rare 7-armed deep-sea octopus found on B.C. beach"},"content":{"rendered":"

A wolf eel carcass or a Bigg’s killer whale’s discarded harbour porpoise snack might make for a gruesome but fascinating shoreline discovery – but for South Pender Island’s Kathleen Durant, that’s small fry.<\/p>\n

During an August morning ramble with her Australian shepherd pooch near her waterfront home, Durant stumbled upon what some call the “white whale” of the cephalopod world: a seven-armed octopus.<\/p>\n

“I thought it looked very, very odd … and that it may be a squid or something like a really big lion’s mane jellyfish, because it was very gelatinous and shiny,” Durant said. “Then I saw this big eye staring back at me, and thought, ‘Oh, you don’t look like a jelly.’”<\/p>\n

Mystified by the strange creature washed ashore, Durant turned to the Field Naturalists of Vancouver Island Facebook group for help, sharing her photos online.<\/p>\n

That’s when marine biologist Casey Cook, from the Port of Bellingham Marine Life Center, took notice. A self-described “octopus nerd,” Cook says she knew right away Durant’s find was something special.<\/p>\n

“The seven-armed octopus is one of the most elusive species,” she said. “And that makes it just like a ‘white whale’ … to be able to see a photo of one is very cool, because people don't see them often and we know so little about them.”<\/p>\n

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A seven-armed octopus was found washed ashore on South Pender Island in August. Courtesy of Kathleen Durant<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

According to Cook, only a handful of confirmed sightings of the deep-sea species, which is also known as the blob octopus, have been recorded in the Pacific Northwest – including one by Victoria diver Cam Polglase, who filmed the creature in waters near Ogden Point in 2023.<\/p>\n

Most documented encounters come from the Atlantic Ocean, where the species was first identified – hence its Latin name, haliphron atlanticus.<\/p>\n

For Cook, Durant’s discovery raises new questions about the species’ range. “Can we even call it an Atlantic octopus anymore?” she asks.<\/p>\n

The South Pender specimen now has a permanent home at Victoria’s Royal BC Museum (RCBM), who confirmed it to be a juvenile female, measuring almost four feet in length – one of its eight legs stretching more than 31 inches.<\/p>\n

Eight legs? <\/p>\n

Yes, you read that correctly – so why the oxymoronic name?<\/p>\n

The male of the species has one specialized arm used for reproduction, which it keeps coiled in a sac beneath the right eye. Because of the animal’s thick, gelatinous tissue, the arm is so well concealed that at first glance, it appears to only have seven arms. <\/p>\n

The female, on the other hand – or should that be tentacle – has no reason to hide any appendages, keeping all eight on display.<\/p>\n

"So initially, the findings were that this was an animal with only seven arms – not due to injury, but because that's all it had,” explains Cook.<\/p>\n