Video: Octopus filmed in Dutch waters for first time

Hobby diver Mark Barto recorded remarkable footage of a small octopus while diving in the North Sea off the coast of Callantsoog on Saturday. His footage turned out to be even more remarkable than he thought - this is the first time ever a live common octopus was recorded in Dutch waters, NOS reports.

Barto was diving at a shipwreck eight kilometers off the Noord-Holland coast when he saw the animal. "When I just swam away from the ship, I saw the octopus sitting on the bottom", he said to NH Nieuws. He immediately knew that this was a special occurrence. "I've seen an octopus in tropical areas, but they always shoot away when you get close. I've never seen such a beast in Dutch waters." The octopus was sitting on the sandy ocean floor at a depth of over 20 meters. "And I could film him up close too. This is why you do it. Such a kick!"

And his find was even more remarkable than Barto initially thought. "According to experts from Naturalis [the Netherlands' national research institute in the field of biodiversity], a small octopus has never been spotted alive in the North Sea. Fishermen sometimes find dead specimens of this octopus in their nets and they sometimes wash up on the beach, but apparently there were no images of it until now", he said to newspaper AD.

The small common octopus can grow to about 50 centimeters in length and a weight of 1 kilogram. The animal lives along the coasts of the northeast Atlantic and in the Mediterranean Sea.