Octopus hugs diver and plays with camera – SWNS / Chris Mullen
Two stunned divers have spoken about the ‘crazy’ moment the world’s largest species of octopus came out to play with them before taking a selfie.
35-year-old Canadian Chris Mullen was scuba diving off the coast of his hometown of Vancouver Island with his friend John Roney when they encountered a Giant Pacific octopus.
While nearing the end of their dive in early August, the curious cephalopod came out from underneath a rock and stretched out its arms to take hold of John’s camera and become a videographer itself.
“(It was) carrying around my camera for about five minutes,” John told CBC news. Then suddenly, it “was jumping over to give Chris a big hug.”
Chris, who has been diving since 2015, told SWNS news: “We originally saw it on our way out, we passed it at the beginning of the dive, and took a couple of pictures when it was underneath a rock.
“30 minutes later, we passed back on the way home and it stretches quite far from where it was to grab hold of the camera. It really went out of its way to get hold of John and his camera.” (See the video at the bottom…)
Giant Pacific Octopus Plays With Dive Camera – SWNS / Chris Mullen
“I like to give them space, but as I tried to swim away, it dropped the camera and started moving towards where I was going to—effectively following me.
“It briefly stopped to interact with another octopus, and then saw me up higher filming it, and it made a beeline right for me and jumped on me next.
“It was wild,” recalled Chris. “It was crazy what was going on.”
Video of the encounter off Canada’s western coast has racked up thousands of views on Chris’s Instagram page.
Fellow diver John added, “The moments where you see these animals, where they’re choosing to have this interaction and controlling the interaction, willingly participating in it, it really displays in the intelligence of these animals.
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A Giant Pacific Octopus encounter off coast of western Canada – by Chris Mullen / SWNS
“Because the camera was still rolling it gave us this really unique look at the underside of their suckers.
“Chris has got same great photos of it actually holding the camera and aiming it towards the wall. We were joking the octopus was a videographer too.
“Moments like that really capture people’s curiosity. It shows them a world they might not get to see otherwise.”
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WATCH the video below…
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