Comments by "Helmuth Schultes" (@helmuthschultes9243) on "American Freaked Out By The Scariest Animals In Australia" video.
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Ian, many years before these Blue Ring Octopus were even known to be dangerous, I had one close to handling it.
I was snorkelling off a local beach some 15 km, near enough 10 miles, from home where we often went to go swimming on our Port zphilip Bay at Melbourne.
On this occasion I was ranging from beach to near 0.5km from shore. At one point I saw a medium Scallop shell on the sand in about 3 m water, 10ft, these are like the SHELL petrol shape with one side flat. It was clear that it was a dead scallop, but both halves still joined at the hinge. I simply grabbed it and to keep hands free just tucked it into my swim togs. After some half hours or so, chasing fish diving fir other shells, I returned to the beach towels up near the bushes at top of the beach, where my sister and cousin were relaxing too. Sorted some of the shells, and found the scallop shell was tightly held shut. After some effort I got it prised open. It contained a small octopus that initially did not look all that special streaky greeny-brown regions with some splotches. I poked at it with my finger. Suddenly these bright blue rings appeared. Normally I would easily be tempted to take the little creature and handle it. I showed the beautiful blue colours to my sister and cousin. Then realised I had it out of the water fir a number of minutes and it was in hot dry sunny conditions, at least above 30°C to 40°C. So instead decided it best to return it to the water. With its arms reaching at my fingers holding the flipped open shell I went down to the water front, many people and children there in the water let it swim away in the shallows among the crowd.
Some 5 years later a scuba diver among a group climbing up a ladder from the water at a tall jetty reported to one of his friends that something bit him as he held onto a pier pile at the ladder base. He died within minutes on the pier, as breathing became paralysed. Investigations of the following weeks and autopsy determining a extreme venom as having killed him, this little octopus was isolated as venomous in the extreme. That was a NEW discovered hazard creature to add to our list.
The area we went swimming is within a mile or two of a rocky stretch of Bay coastal area of our bay, that apparently is a major habitat of these Blue Ring Octopus, a coastal area of over 15 miles, with small beach bays where many go swimming, between Frankston and Dromana on what here is part of the Mornington Peninsula . Almost certainly this Octopus exists from Victoria up the east coast to Queensland.
I suspect I was close to death. Had that octopus exited the shell while tucked into my swim togs, or if I had handled that harmless looking little octopus, I would have been close to 100% likely to be bitten. That blue ring pattern is its extreme danger warning, under stress.
By the way in the same times, I regularly gather Mussels for fishing bait from the pylons of the Frankston jetty, swimming out near the outer end with a Hessian sack pulling a kilo or two of mussels into the sack by bare hands. These octopus also exist among these mussel collections growing on the pylons. Never did see any there though.
So yes among catching venomous snakes, scorpions, spiders even being bitten by a fat female Red Back Spider weeding in the garden, catching 5 inch Centipedes. I have experienced a Blue Ring Octopus when they were even unknown as dangerous.
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