Giant Pacific octopus floats through waters near Vancouver (VIDEO)
There’s no shortage of species that are strange and fascinating living below the ocean’s surface, but every so often we’re reminded here in the Lower Mainland of just how close some of the creatures come to home.
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Case in point, a recently-shared online video shows a giant Pacific octopus on the hunt near Bowen Island – just a 20-minute ferry ride from Horseshoe Bay and visible from West Vancouver.
The video comes courtesy of Adam Taylor, who had a “fabulous 20+–minute encounter” with the creature, just off off Seymour Bay on Bowen Island.
“The walking locomotion always mesmerizes me,” Taylor writes on Facebook.
“I love how he is oriented into the current and seems to be ‘scooping’ the water column.”
According to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, these creatures are primarily nocturnal predators that feed on crabs, prawns and a variety of molluscs and small fish.
Taylor’s encounter with the creature follows another recent moment with a creature of the deep, this time in the form of a giant “fried egg” jellyfish, off BC’s Sunshine Coast earlier this month.
And across the pond (okay, ocean), a human-sized jellyfish was spotted off the coast of England.
It just goes to show that no matter how the water may look on the surface, what lies underneath can be full of surprises.
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