common or Mediterranean octopus<\/a>, Octopus vulgaris, is native to UK waters but ordinarily in such small numbers that it is rarely seen. A sudden increase in the population \u2013 a bloom \u2013 is caused by a combination of a mild winter followed by a warm breeding season in the spring, and researchers say the surging numbers in UK waters are likely to be linked to warming seas and wider changes in the marine environment.<\/p>\n\u201cNow we have warmer waters much more suited to these animals, we are seeing a huge increase in numbers,\u201d Stewart said.<\/p>\n
\u2018It is a shake-up of the whole ecosystem.\u2019 Photograph: Kirsty Andrews<\/p>\n
The current bloom has sparked growing interest from the public, with hundreds of divers and snorkellers helping scientists to survey the burgeoning octopus population.<\/p>\n
The bloom has been mixed news for fishers. Those relying on traditional shellfish have been badly hit as octopuses, which are highly effective predators, target crabs and lobsters often from fishers\u2019 pots. However, others have cashed in with record hauls of octopuses.<\/p>\n
Stewart said the octopus catch increased by 7,700% in 2025 and just last week at Brixham market in Devon, where most of the catch is sold, a record 100 tonnes of octopus was sold in one day.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome fishermen have had to sell their boats because of the impact on crab and lobster populations, while others are doing extremely well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Stewart said the influx of octopuses was also upending the marine ecosystem. As well as preying on shellfish and some other fish, the octopus were providing food for seals, conga eels and the rare risso\u2019s dolphins. \u201cIt is a shake-up of the whole ecosystem,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Record numbers of octopuses found off the south-west coast of England last year have now spread as far…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":723594,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-723593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=723593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/723594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=723593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=723593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=723593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}