A wildlife lover has told of the moment she rescued an octopus from a horrible death after it was left stranded on the sands of a Mearns beach.
Catriona and Franz Komlosi were walking at St Cyrus beach when they spotted the red sea creature in the water.
They had no idea what it was until the animal – believed to be a “curled” or “horned” octopus – ended up washed up on the beach itself in the baking sun.
Mrs and Mr Komlosi, of Stonehaven, run the NE Scotland Wildlife group and both spend their spare time photographing nature across the region.
NHS Tayside dietitian, Mrs Komlosi, said:”We were walking along St Cyrus Beach on a glorious sunny evening, there was this red thing that we thought was seaweed. As it got closer we realised it was an octopus and we thought ‘wow’.
“We watched it in fascination for a while. It then came out of the sea and we thought maybe it was looking for food. It crawled out of the sea. We just thought how fascinating, we then thought that this is maybe not quite right. It was a sunny night.
“We tried to think of all the nature programmes we’d seen on TV. We decided it didn’t seem right out of the sea.
“You think: Will it bite me? Will it sting me? Will I hurt it? And ‘gads, it’s slimy’.
“I really didn’t know how to pick up an octopus.”
She said they first tried digging a tunnel back to the sea, but the octopus just climbed out of it.
They also tried standing in front of its path, thinking the sight of two humans would deter it from moving any further up the beach. However, this didn’t work either.
In the end, she realised a plastic carrier bag which she had on her would be ideal for the job.
She filled this up with sea water and scooped the creature up using the open end of the bag,
The encounter took place last Thursday.
Mrs Komlosi, 50, added: “I thought, what have we got with us to pick it up with? I saw the carrier bag and thought ‘okay, sorted’.
“I just paddled out with it, it sort of floated a bit to start with. I just watched it until I couldn’t see it anymore.
“It was breathtaking to watch. It was just amazing.”
Mrs Komlosi shared a video of the octopus making its way along the beach using its tentacles on social media, with thousands of people watching it.
