A video of what appears to be a giant Pacific octopus in British Columbia has gone viral on social media.
Brooke Sattar, of Port Alberni, BC, shared a clip of the octopus on TikTok on Wednesday, where millions of people have since seen the marine life.
“Today’s catch got us! The octopus held on for a bit, then let go and swam back down. The coolest sight I’ve ever seen! #pacificoctopus,” Sattar captioned her post.
Sattar tells CTV News She was with her family last week setting shrimp traps in the waters of Vancouver Island’s Alberni Inlet.
After retrieving one of the traps, the octopus clung to his side, arms wrapped around the cage. Sattar said the squid held on for two or three minutes before swimming away.
“Growing up out there, I’ve never seen an octopus just totally latch on to a shrimp trap,” Sattar said. “It was super cool.”
In the video, the family can be heard screaming with excitement after seeing the animal.
“Wow! Look at that!” said a man while a woman said, “You’re kidding! That’s so huge.”
As of Saturday afternoon, the video has garnered more than 37.2 million views on TikTok, with more than two million likes and 15,000 comments.
Tiktok users shared their amazement at the octopus, some also shared their fears.
“That’s the octopus right there,” wrote one user.
“100% why I don’t go in the sea,” shared another.
“People just casually giggle at an octopus,” one commented.
“This octopus is huge!!” someone else added.
“Why am I kinda scared of this,” one person proclaimed.
“People say it’s an octopus when it’s clearly Cthulhu…” said another person.
In early November, another woman in British Columbia shared stunning video of her encounter with an octopus in the Salish Sea.
Andrea Humphreys, a high school teacher in Campbell River, BC, said she had been diving for 12 years, but this was the first time an octopus had come up to her and hugged her. It stayed
“It just crawled onto my camera, crawled onto my lips and hugged me. These giant tentacles were over my face and mask,” Humphreys said Guardian, adding that it spent almost an hour near her. “Every time I backed away from it, the octopus just kept coming at me. And it was just so amazing and inspiring.”
