Watch: Octopuses washed up on the beach after recent storms

By SWNS staff

This video show two octopuses washed up on a beach in the wake of recent storms.

Local wildlife guide Joshua Pedley and Francesca Fitzpatrick discovered the marine mollusks on a Welsh beach after Storm Franklin.

Whilst one of the octopuses was able to make it back to the sea safely, the other needed assistance.

The pair spotted it coming under attack from a huge herring gull, and intervened to save its life.

The rescue took place at New Quay Beach in Ceredigion, on Monday.

Josh said he and Fran acted in “exceptional circumstances,” and stressed the importance of “interacting with the natural world in a respectful and responsible manner.”

He said: “Fran carefully picked it up to move it. It is worth promoting a look and don’t touch message though. We acted in an exceptional circumstance.

“However, had it been summer, it probably would have been put in a kid's bucket and prodded and poked to no end. So we would quite like to promote a message of enjoying wildlife responsibly.

“To our knowledge they made it back to safety, we waited until the tide came back in and they had been safe up until that point.

"They likely won’t have gone too far out to sea as you would expect to find them in the bay. I have seen a seal eating one from the harbor wall before.”

Josh, who is a local wildlife guide for SeaMôr Dolphin Watching Boat Trips, said a family was already on the scene when they arrived, but Josh and Fran watched over the pair until dusk, when the tide returned.

He added: "They are a species called Curled Octopus.

“I don’t know too much about them actually. It was a first for me to see one alive. They are definitely out there, it’s just unusual to see them walking on the beach."