The #Southwest #OctopusBloom was in focus on ITV Friday night, with PML's Dr Molly James explaining how a warming climate and ocean, plus sustained easterly winds may have caused the dramatic octopus bloom last year, which is continuing to this day.
🐙 #Octopus larvae movement between the #ChannelIslands & the #UK - could this help explain the recent #OctopusBloom in #Southwest UK?
Ocean current modelling suggests that sustained easterly winds may have transported young octopus larvae to the region. Thread 👇🧵 (1/3)
The study, ‘Common octopus (Octopus vulgaris) blooms off the Southwest of the UK: History, trends, causes and consequences’, was funded by Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), Plymouth City Council and Devon County Council, led by the Marine Biological Association (MBA) in collaboration with Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML), the University of Plymouth and an independent consultant, and draws on data from scientists, fishermen and citizen scientists.
Hear directly from the scientists uncovering the mystery behind the #OctopusBloom: Dr Bryce Stewart, Prof Tim Smyth & Prof Emma Sheehan explain why #octopus numbers exploded off the #UK’s #SouthWest coast in 2025 - in their new article for @uk.theconversation.com🔗 theconversation.com/octopus-numb...
🔗 Read the full report — mba.ac.uk/octopus-bloom-off-southwest-uk-new-report-reveals-scale-causes-and-consequences/
#OctopusBloom #SouthWestFisheries #ClimateChange #MarineScience #FishingCommunities #UKFisheries
Big news on the Octopus Bloom… more tomorrow.
Video by Dr Keith Hiscock, MBE
#OctopusBloom
#Octopus are cool, and I am loving working on them. But I'd feel better if they took their tentacles off my #scallops! Share your observations of the 2025 UK #octopusbloom through our newly launched public surveys. Links in the story below
www.mba.ac.uk/public-surve... @thembauk.bsky.social 🐙
