A wolf eel carcass or a Bigg’s killer whale’s discarded harbour porpoise snack might make for a gruesome but fascinating shoreline discovery – but for South Pender Island’s Kathleen Durant, that’s small fry.
During an August morning ramble with her Australian shepherd pooch near her waterfront home, Durant stumbled upon what some call the “white whale” of the cephalopod world: a seven-armed octopus.
“I thought it looked very, very odd … and that it may be a squid or something like a really big lion’s mane jellyfish, because it was very gelatinous and shiny,” Durant said. “Then I saw this big eye staring back at me, and thought, ‘Oh, you don’t look like a jelly.’”
Mystified by the strange creature washed ashore, Durant turned to the Field Naturalists of Vancouver Island Facebook group for help, sharing her photos online.
That’s when marine biologist Casey Cook, from the Port of Bellingham Marine Life Center, took notice. A self-described “octopus nerd,” Cook says she knew right away Durant’s find was something special.
“The seven-armed octopus is one of the most elusive species,” she said. “And that makes it just like a ‘white whale’ … to be able to see a photo of one is very cool, because people don't see them often and we know so little about them.”
According to Cook, only a handful of confirmed sightings of the deep-sea species, which is also known as the blob octopus, have been recorded in the Pacific Northwest – including one by Victoria diver Cam Polglase, who filmed the creature in waters near Ogden Point in 2023.
Most documented encounters come from the Atlantic Ocean, where the species was first identified – hence its Latin name, haliphron atlanticus.
For Cook, Durant’s discovery raises new questions about the species’ range. “Can we even call it an Atlantic octopus anymore?” she asks.
The South Pender specimen now has a permanent home at Victoria’s Royal BC Museum (RCBM), who confirmed it to be a juvenile female, measuring almost four feet in length – one of its eight legs stretching more than 31 inches.
Eight legs?
Yes, you read that correctly – so why the oxymoronic name?
The male of the species has one specialized arm used for reproduction, which it keeps coiled in a sac beneath the right eye. Because of the animal’s thick, gelatinous tissue, the arm is so well concealed that at first glance, it appears to only have seven arms.
The female, on the other hand – or should that be tentacle – has no reason to hide any appendages, keeping all eight on display.
"So initially, the findings were that this was an animal with only seven arms – not due to injury, but because that's all it had,” explains Cook.
Growing to a size of around 13 feet, the seven-armed ‘blob’ rivals the giant Pacific octopus as the largest of the species.
Although typically a deep-sea dweller, Durant says RBCM staff believe, based on the limited research available, that juveniles may spend time nearer the surface before moving into deep water as adults.
If that theory holds, Cook speculates that the Pacific Northwest specimens could have been transported in the ballast water of tankers and ships navigating trade routes, then released into unfamiliar territory.
Because of the ongoing B.C. General Employees’ Union provincewide service strike, museum staff were unable to comment on the most recent find when approached by Victoria News.
Durant, who hand-delivered the frozen octopus to Victoria, says the museum plans to preserve it using formaldehyde, which is injected into the animal slowly as it thaws.
The experience has deepened Durant’s passion for the ocean – and the value of citizen science.
“You never know when you might stumble on something important,” she said. “I just happened to be in the right place at the right time, and it turned into something that contributes to science.”
As for future walks along South Pender’s shores, Durant says the seven-armed octopus discovery will be tough to top – though with the ocean, you can never be too sure what secrets the next tide might reveal.
“The ocean’s mysteries don’t always swim at 6,000 feet,” she says, quoting Cook. “Sometimes they’re right at our feet.”
