Octopus spotted along Padre Island beach stuns beachgoers<\/a><\/p>\nJace Tunnell, the director of community engagement at the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi, said these events tend to happen when sudden temperature changes slow an octopus\u2019 body down, leaving it weak or disoriented.<\/p>\n
\u201cCold water can essentially shut them down,\u201d Tunnell said. \u201cWhen that happens, waves and currents can push them into shallow water or onto shore.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the sightings may appear alarming, Tunnell said the\u00a0common octopus is actually common along the Texas coast. What is rare is seeing them stranded on land.<\/p>\n
Tunnell said most octopuses found on shore are\u00a0already dead by the time they\u00a0are discovered.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey also have very short life spans,\u201d he explained. \u201cMany only live about one to two years, and females die after laying their eggs.\u00a0Some of the octopuses found on shore may\u00a0simply\u00a0be older animals that have reached the end of their natural life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tunnell recently encountered a cold-stunned octopus himself\u00a0that was\u00a0still alive but moving slowly. Believing it may have been affected by cold temperatures, he carefully warmed it and returned it to the water, where it swam into nearby rocks.<\/p>\n
He says that\u00a0situation\u00a0was rare and does not mean the public should attempt similar rescues.<\/p>\n
\u201cOctopuses are\u00a0really smart\u00a0animals\u00a0there\u2019s\u00a0movies about them, books about them,\u201d Tunnell said.\u00a0\u201cThey\u2019re\u00a0sort of\u00a0this mysterious, charismatic animal.\u00a0So, when you find one washed up, you feel bad for it, and people immediately want to help.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tunnell adds that Octopuses are mollusks that breathe through gills, unlike sea turtles and other animals that can breathe air, which makes a difference when regulating their body temperature.<\/p>\n
As Gulf water temperatures stabilize, experts expect fewer cold-stun cases. Still, they say these sightings are a natural though uncommon result of winter cold snaps along the Texas coast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Octopus sightings on Corpus Christi shores, linked to sudden cold snaps, intrigue locals but are a natural occurrence,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149066,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[155,157,156],"class_list":{"0":"post-149065","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-corpus-christi","8":"tag-corpus-christi","9":"tag-corpus-christi-headlines","10":"tag-corpus-christi-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}