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Divers help little octopus living in trash find a better home [Video]

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  • A group of divers found a little coconut octopus while on a diving adventure in Indonesia.
  • The octopus was hiding in a plastic cup.
  • The divers helped the creature find a safer home.

Pall Sigurdsson and his buddies had no idea they’d end up playing “realtor” to a little marine creature in desperate need of a new home when they set out on a diving adventure in the waters near Indonesia last December.

Sigurdsson saw a little coconut octopus hiding inside a clear plastic cup while he was searching the ocean floor. 

Garbage cluttering the undersea environment was depressing enough, but Sigurdsson knew that this specific piece of rubbish was endangering life. Not only was it failing to conceal the octopus, but any predators hunting for a quick meal would almost certainly consume the cup as well.

Sigurdsson and his colleagues got to work. The rest of their dive was spent gradually presenting the octopus with several clamshells until he chose the one he liked.

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The group’s air supply was quickly depleting, so time was of the matter during their short house-hunting excursion, but happily the betentacled creature eventually made his decision.

“Coconut octopus are famous for being very picky about which shells they keep,” Sigurdsson posted online. “So we had to try with many different shells before it found one to be acceptable.”

The octopus is finally safe, but the problem of pollution in his home isn’t just his.

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Sigurdsson told The Dodo:

“We tend to focus on plastic pollution because of the part of it that floats and it is easy to see, and comprehend how bad it is. I spend a lot of time diving ocean floors around the world, and the amount of trash on the bottom is overwhelming also.”

Every year, between 4.8 and 12.7 metric tons of plastic reach the world’s oceans, endangering the lives of countless species. This number can be difficult to comprehend, but hopefully, the story of this little creature’s octopus’ housing experience will bring this issue to light.

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Source: The Dodo

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