Octopus numbers exploded around the UK’s south-west coast in 2025 – a new report explores this rare phenomenon

By Bryce Stewart, Associate Professor, Marine Ecology and Fisheries Biology, University of Plymouth; Marine Biological Association
Emma Sheehan, Associate Professor of Marine Ecology, University of Plymouth
Tim Smyth, Head of Group: Marine Processes and Observations, Plymouth Marine Laboratory

Cold spray whipped off the ropes as a diesel engine throbbed in the background. One by one, empty shellfish pots came over the side of the fishing boat, occasionally containing the remnants of crab and lobster claws and carapaces. Something strange was going on.

Then the culprit revealed itself – a squirming orange body surrounded by a writhing tangle of tentacles. A few minutes later, three more of these denizens of the deep came up in a single pot, and then, incredibly, a final pot rose from the water completely rammed full of them, more than a dozen together in a squirming mass.

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