Octopus attacks man’s neck while swimming in WA
A man has been attacked by an octopus while swimming at a picturesque beach in Western Australia.
Lance Karlson was walking along the beach at Geographe Bay in Dunsborough with his two-year-old daughter when he saw the tentacles of an octopus lash out at a seagull in the water’s surface.
Curious at the sight, Mr Karlson walked up to where it happened and filmed an octopus rapidly swimming towards him. The octopus whipped its tentacles at the pair before retreating.
A short time later Mr Karlson went swimming, and found the octopus sitting on a bed of shells.
He told 9News.com.au as he was looking at the shells when the octopus attacked him, physically striking him on the arm and connecting to the back of his neck.
“My goggles were too fogged to see what had happened and I swam back to shore in pain,” Mr Karlson said
“The imprints of the tentacles quickly formed raised marks across my skin.”
The author and former surf lifesaver quickly instructed his wife to pour Coke over the wound, which was stinging as he left the water.
“There was some stinging, but after being a life saver for some years I’ve been stung by blue bottles and it was not anything like that,” Mr Karlson said.
“It was more the pain from the physical strike of the octopus.”
Mr Karlson has since shared the video on his social media, where a number of octopus researchers have remarked how unusual it is to see this kind of behaviour.
