Extremely rare blanket octopus spotted ‘dancing’ above the Great Barrier Reef

Virgin Radio

14 Jan 2022, 10:09

One of the ocean’s most rare and beautiful creatures was filmed ‘dancing’ just above the Great Barrier Reef this week.

Jacinta Shackleton, a marine biologist and reef guide, spotted the colorful octopus just off the coast of Lady Elliot Island in Australia as she was diving. The creature has only ever been seen a couple of times in its natural habitat, so this is a pretty big deal.

It was a completely unexpected find, as the octopus doesn’t usually venture so close to the coast. Understanding how rare this discovery was, Jacinta decided to film it as the animal floated in the water above the reef.

Speaking about the experience in an interview for The Guardian Australia, Jacinta said: “When I first saw it, I thought it could have been a juvenile fish with long fins, but as it came closer, I realised it was a female blanket octopus, and I had this overwhelming sense of joy and excitement.”

According to Jacinta, there have only ever been three previous sightings of a blanket octopus in her area. The first was made around 21 years ago, just north of the Great Barrier Reef.

Understandably, Jacinta couldn’t believe her eyes. She said: “I kept yelling through my snorkel, ‘it’s a blanket octopus!’ I was so excited I was finding it difficult to hold my breath to dive down and video it.”

She did manage to capture the gorgeous creature on film eventually and decided to share it on her Instagram for other people to enjoy.

It seems her followers were just as excited as she was, as the post soon racked up thousands of likes!

For Jacinta, this is one of the highlights of her career and life. She explained to The Guardian: “Seeing one in real life is indescribable, I was so captivated by its movements, it was as if it was dancing through the water with a flowing cape. The vibrant colours are just so incredible, you can’t take your eyes off it.”

A fun fact about female blanket octopuses is they can grow up to two metres in length, whereas their male counterparts can only grow to around 2.4 cm.

They are also the only sex in the species that can grow the breath-taking, colourful ‘blanket’ that gives the creature its name and can shed it at any point to elude predators.

Talk about girl power!