Rare blanket octopus found at Pakistan's coastal belt: WWF-Pakistan

KARACHI: World Wildlife Fund (Pakistan) has disclosed that rare blanket octopus has been found along Pakistan’s coastal belt, ARY News reported on Thursday.

They are commonly known as blanket octopodes, in reference to the long, transparent webs that connect arms of the adult females, Mohammad Moazzam Khan, technical adviser on marine resources at the WWF-Pakistan said in a statement released by the WWF-Pakistan.

Blanket octopus pairs are some of the undersea world’s oddest couples. What’s so startling is the size difference: Males are about the size of a walnut—less than an inch long—but some females can reach to six feet height. They can also weigh up to 40,000 times more than males.

Three specimens of blanket octopus were recorded from different spots along the coastal belt of Sindh and Balochistan this week, World Wide Fund (WWF) Pakistan said.

A 0.8-metre long blanket octopus was recorded by fisherman Saeed Badshah from offshore waters of Balochistan on December 7. This was the first live authentic report of this octopus species from Pakistani waters. While fishing 45 nautical miles south of Ormara in Balochistan fishermen caught the octopus in their gillnet. Considering it a new and rare find, they released it safely back into the waters, the statement said.

Another octopus of the same specimen, the officials said it was reported by fisherman Ameer Rehman and was caught about 103 nautical miles southwest of Ghora Bari in Sindh on December 8. This one-metre long specimen was also released back into waters.

A third specimen was caught by fisherman Hasnat Khan who caught a blanket octopus about 92 nautical miles southwest of Cape Monz at the confluence of Sindh and Balochistan on December 9. This octopus was about 0.8-metre long and was released back immediately, the statement added.

Khan pointed out that blanket octopi (Tremoctopus violaceus) are oceanic cephalopods, which are found in surface to mid-waters in subtropical and tropical oceans.

They are known as blanket octopus because of their long, transparent web that connects the dorsal and dorsolateral arms of adult females, he said.

The female octopus can reach two metres in length, whereas males are much smaller (2.4 cm). He also shared that when threatened, the female octopus unfurls her large net-like membranes that spread out and billow in the water, largely increasing her apparent size; thus avoiding predation by fish and other animals. These animals also use ink to intimidate potential predators.