A young girl and her family who found a giant Pacific octopus stranded in a state park at low tide helped rescue the creature by alerting park authorities. The octopus likely would not have survived without all of their help.
On March 15, a family from Vancouver, British Columbia, was visiting Bay View State Park, Washington, when they came across a coral-colored giant Pacific octopus, the largest octopus species in the world. Because the tide had retreated, the roughly 8-foot-long creature was struggling with its almost 100-pound body weight in the mud about 200 meters from the water’s edge.
(Courtesy of Washington State Department of Ecology)
The concerned family alerted park ranger Brandon Hoekstra who later called staff at the Padilla Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve for help. While they waited, the little girl along with her family gently tipped sea water over the octopus using a sand bucket….