A freediver in Cornwall has shared fascinating footage of a mammoth octopus he saw off the coast of Cornwall.
“It took us less than two minutes to find our first octopus,” says Gio Prince on Instagram. “This is a common octopus – a species which I’ve encountered many times before but never in UK waters. I also don’t think I’ve ever seen an individual quite as big as this one.”
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Prince spent lots of time in the water watching the enormous octopus before the cephalopod swam away. The freediver loves spending time with these clever critters.
“These creatures are so intelligent that sometimes you get some incredible interactions with them,” he says. “This species intelligence is comparable to that of a dog or a cat which, for an invertebrate, is incredibly impressive.”
Although exciting, this wasn’t a rare sighting. “Let me tell you, there are so many octopuses around at the moment,” says Prince. “Overall, we saw six of them during this session but people are seeing them every day in the southwest.”
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