Beach days usually come with seashells and seagulls — not an unexpected eight-armed visitor. But one lucky beachgoer at Padre Island National Seashore (PINS) snapped rare photos of an octopus making a surprise shoreline appearance.
Padre Island Madre told MySA she saw the octopus along PINS on Monday, December 9. The beachgoer, who frequents the beach multiple times a day, said it was a rare occurrence for her. She said, “I have also never heard or seen anyone in the area post anything like this. The last photos I have seen were dead ones found in the 2021 freeze.”
Jace Tunnell, who serves as the community engagement editor for the Harte Research Institute at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, told MySA that the species is a common octopus and not uncommon in the area. He said octopuses tend to wash up on the beach during cold weather, like a freeze.
However, beachgoers don’t often get to see them, as they blend in with their surroundings and rarely come up onto dry land. The species has eight arms, as expected, and about 2,000 suction cups, which are used to grasp onto their food. The octopus also has three hearts, one on the right side and another on the left, to pump blood to their gills. The other heart pumps throughout their entire body, according to a beachcombing episode from Tunnell on February 1, 2024.
The common octopus is a mollusk and is related to clams, oysters, snails, and squid. They sleep all day and are active at night, experts say. They have surprisingly short lifespans, 12-18 months. Females guard their eggs until they hatch, then die, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
Below are more photos captured of the octopus: