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Deadly Blue Ring Octopus across metro adelaide


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From The Advertiser:

 

A SURGE in blue-ringed octopus sightings has experts and surf clubs warning beachgoers to keep their children away from rocks, rubble and other ideal hiding places for the tiny yet deadly animal.

Surf Life Saving SA marketing manager Sita Bacher said she has received at least five reports of the highly venomous creature during the past three weeks.

“I’ve worked here for five years and I’d never heard of them in metropolitan Adelaide,” Ms Bacher said.

“They’re very small, you’ll find them under rocks, they’re nocturnal so watch out at twilight.”

Ms Bacher said the sightings were reported all the way down to Aldinga Beach, but mostly around Glenelg and Brighton and Somerton.

One of the deadly blue-ringed octopuses found on Somerton Beach last month by Emma Flemin-Soubrier and her young son.

Somerton Surf Life Saving Club youth coordinator Brad Keighran said his squad spotted 17 blue-ringed octopuses on a single day three weeks ago.

“It was a very low tide and we have a (naturally occurring) gutter that was exposed,” Mr Keighran said.

“There’s a lot of rocks down there, so we checked, picked up and relocated 17 blue ring octopuses.

He said in his eight years involved with the club he has never seen so many in one place.

“We saw them six years ago, there were two on the beach, but I’ve never seen anything in the numbers like that before.”

A blue-ringed octopus bite can be painless, but within minutes the victim will start to experience numbness and breathing difficulties.

If left untreated, bites can be fatal.

Adelaide University marine biologist Zoe Doubleday said it was unusual to see so many in one location.

“They’re usually quite solitary,” Dr Doubleday said.

“But they could be brooding females staying in one place.”

She said the sudden surge in sightings could be due to increases in food, temperature or habitat.

“They can be very responsive to changes in the environment, so that may be sudden increases in food such as crabs,” Dr Doubleday said.

“(Or an) increase in habitat, octopuses like dens and hard structures, so they may be going into more human structures like breakwalls or litter.”

Brighton Surf Life Saving Club president Chris Parson said the sightings were “absolutely a concern”.

“They’re quite deadly, but as soon as we see them we try to section the area off and make sure the public is aware,” Mr Parson said.

“We normally sight one or two a year, but this year from the reports there seems to be more than normal.

“It’s just something to be cautious about.”

The blue-ringed octopus is found in tide pools and rocky reefs and generally don’t become aggressive unless disturbed.

Victims are advised to report to surf life savers for application of a compression bandage before being taken to hospital.

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