Video shows octopus ‘hanging on for dear life’ during bomb cyclone off B.C. coast

Humans weren’t the only ones who struggled through the bomb cyclone that formed off the B.C. coast this week, bringing intense winds and choppy seas.

Underwater video captured by Ocean Networks Canada shows a giant Pacific octopus being thrashed around by high-velocity currents on Wednesday, the second day of the storm.

The creature’s tentacles and mantle are seen rocking back and forth, as the octopus appears to clutch onto the sea floor.

Kate Moran, president and CEO of Ocean Networks Canada, said her first reaction to viewing the video was: “Wow, that octopus is having a bad day.”

“I thought that he or she was hanging on for dear life,” Moran told CTV News. “That’s how I interpreted it.”

Some of her fellow researchers at ONC – which collects real-time data from Canada’s three coasts – speculated that the octopus might actually been enjoying the unusual conditions.

“That’s hard to judge, but you can take a look at it and see what you think,” Moran added.

The video was recorded near the Vancouver Island community of Bamfield, on one of ONC’s many thousands of sensors that are set up across the country, picking up high-resolution video and other information that can be accessed for free online.

“When we’re conducting research in the ocean, it’s important not only to measure the parameters – like temperature, salinity and oxygen – but also to actually have images of what’s happening, because then you can correlate any impact on biology,” Moran said. “And that’s exactly what we saw at this location.”

Having that data is more important than ever as researchers attempt to understand the impacts of climate change on oceans, she added.

At the time of the video, waves at that location were reaching heights of 10 metres – approximately 10 times what they would normally be – and currents were speeding up and slowing down at a dizzying pace, according to the ONC.

Normal tidal currents speed up gradually over 12 hours, reaching about 60 cm per second at that sensor before slowing down. While the octopus was being jostled on Wednesday morning, Moran said the currents at one point went from “200 cm per second down to 15 cm per second – in four seconds.”

The conditions were so intense, they also took out the sensor that captured the recording.

With another storm approaching, the team is not rushing out to repair the device, but said once they do they hope to find out what happened to the octopus after its wild ride on Wednesday.

Moran invited the public to watch ONC’s videos, which capture all kinds of appearances by marine wildlife, online at the organization’s website.