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So we've just published this new
report on the 2025 octopus 

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bloom. 
So hi, I'm Doctor Bryce Stewart.

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I'm a Senior Research Fellow at 
the Marine Biological 

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Association and associate 
Professor at our University of 

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Plymouth. 
So we've just published this new

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report on the 2025 octopus 
bloom. 

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This is the common octopus, as 
it's known by its scientific 

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name, Octopus vulgaris. 
In the coastal waters of 

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southwest UK, we've seen this 
incredible increase in numbers. 

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So we were commissioned to do 
some research into why this has 

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happened, what the consequences 
might be, particularly for the 

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fishing industry, and then also 
what the future might hold. 

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So we're lucky enough to receive
funding from Defra, from 

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Plymouth City Council and from 
Devon County Council to be able 

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to do this study. 
So it's led by the Marine 

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Biological Association. 
But we're also doing that work, 

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importantly with partners at 
Plymouth Marine Laboratory, the 

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University of Plymouth, and also
an independent consultant called

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Doctor Simon Thomas. 
Yeah. 

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So what we've discovered, well, 
we've really confirmed how 

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unusual this event is. 
We've looked back through 

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history over 150 years. 
There's only a few instances 

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where this sort of thing has 
happened before. 

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So this is probably now the best
documented, particularly because

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of the reservations from 
fishermen. 

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A, this is a really unusual 
event, but B, we think we found 

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a really clear link with climate
change. 

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So we looked at both the 
environmental conditions around 

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this bloom in octopus, but also 
those are the previous ones over

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the last 100 years or so. 
But during the year of the 

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bloom, but also the year before 
when the octopus would have been

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breeding, we saw unusually warm 
temperatures in the sea water 

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and in the atmosphere compared 
to the sort of other years 

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around that period, what we call
a marine heat wave. 

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So that was consistent with all 
of those other blooms. 

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And this one sort of makes sense
because this is a warm water 

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species, right? 
So when the water's warmer here,

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you expect to see them here. 
The other thing that we've done 

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is actually model the dispersal 
of the young octopus after 

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they've hatched from eggs. 
So octopus are pretty cool. 

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Anyone who's seen My Octopus 
Teacher will know the females, 

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once they've been fertilised, 
actually lay eggs in a den. 

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They'll guard those until they 
hatch. 

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And then those little tiny baby 
octopus actually disperse in the

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ocean currents. 
And we were able to show that if

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there had been lots of breeding,
say in the Channel Islands, 

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Guernsey in particular, where we
know there was lots of octopus 

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last year, those baby octopus 
would have actually come on the 

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ocean currents to the southwest 
coast of the UK, exactly where 

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they've been found. 
So we're pretty clear that 

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there's this link with warmer 
temperatures and also that they 

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can actually have come from 
other waters as well. 

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The octopus, once they've sort 
of arrived near our coasts, have

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obviously been moving around. 
That's very difficult to study. 

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And that's something we'd like 
to look at more in the future. 

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Yeah. 
So obviously what I've said is 

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the fishermen were the first 
ones to detect these octopus, 

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but to begin with it And it 
wasn't very positive, to be 

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honest. 
Particularly crab and lobster 

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fishermen were finding that the 
octopus were getting into their 

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pots and they were eating 
everything in there. 

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It was like a seafood buffet for
them, you know. 

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So fishermen were pulling out 
pots and they'd find bits and 

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pieces of crabs and lobsters and
even scallop shells that the 

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octopus seemed to have brought 
into the pots to eat later. 

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So they're, you know, they're 
quite the connoisseur. 

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That was obviously very 
disturbing. 

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Catches of crabs and lobsters 
were really down for the first 

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few months. 
Then at least some of the 

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fishermen, unfortunately not 
all, were able to actually focus

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on catching the octopus instead.
Some of them did quite well out 

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of that and offset their the 
loss of their catches of crabs 

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and lobsters. 
And so for a period of time, 

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probably short of four or five 
months, you know, the earnings 

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were still relatively good. 
Not for everyone, as I said, and

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that's important, but from about
August onwards, catches of 

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octopus have dropped off quite a
lot, but catches of crabs and 

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lobsters and scallops haven't 
come back. 

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So we're really in a, in a sort 
of, I guess, an uncertain future

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and a worrying time for the 
fishermen because if those 

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populations of crabs and 
lobsters and scopes don't 

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recover, obviously that's going 
to affect what is a long 

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standing fishery for those 
species. 

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But also if the octopus don't 
come back either, then they've 

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kind of got almost nothing to 
catch. 

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Now that leads us to the 
question of will the octopus 

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come back? 
They are still here. 

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We're still getting reports of 
fishermen catching them. 

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Divers are seeing them as well. 
One diver last week. 

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So six of them in a single dive.
So they're obviously around. 

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We know they've been breeding as
well. 

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There's lots of observations of 
that and of the eggs as well. 

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And even some small baby octopus
have been seen here. 

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So chances are they will be here
again, particularly if we have a

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relatively warm winter. 
So they'll survive over the 

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winter and we'll see them again.
Exactly how big the numbers will

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get, I guess that remains to be 
seen. 

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But I think we do have to get 
used to this almost new reality 

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that climate change is bringing.
It's disrupting marine food 

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webs, it's causing these 
changes. 

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And for us, as I guess both 
fishermen and divers, that's 

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something that we're going to 
just need to adapt to.