- Six dead octopi wash up on the beach in a week
- Texas Parks and Wildlife does not know why
- Padre Island residents are posting their reactions on social media
Six dead octopi have been spotted washed up on the beaches of Padre Island over the past week.
Douglas Harms has been living on Padre Island for about six years now. He's never seen anything like what he saw last week on the beach.
"So my friend Sonya and I were driving down the beach and and we saw this weird white thing and it turned out to be an octopus and I was just amazed. I’ve never seen that before here," Harms said.
Harms shared a photo of the octopus he saw in the North Padre Islanders Facebook group. This led to a chain reaction of comments and pictures.
Two other Padre Island residents named Kellie Garza and Tess Clark saw multiple octopi washed up last week. They commented on Doug's post about how shocked they were to see these on Padre Island.
"I’ve been here for a while. And I’ve lived in Corpus my whole life and I’ve never seen that before," Harms said.
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Fish Kills and Spills Team does not know why the octopi are washing up from the Gulf now. Alex Nunez, Fish Kills and Spills expert said that there has not been enough octopi washed up on shore for them to detect any kind of pattern.
One potential theory about why they are washing up is related to the recent Arctic blast and cold water temperatures in the Gulf.
“I thought maybe because of the cold front. That might of had something to do with it," Harms said.
Most of the comments on Harms Facebook post of the octopus were shocked and surprised reactions.
“I didn’t know what I was looking at at first because I was so amazed," Harms said.
The experts advise not to touch an octopus if you see one washed up on the beach. Even if they are dead, they can still spray ink and release a foul odor.
For the latest local news updates, click here, or download the KRIS 6 News App.
