Killer Octopus

Tourist holds deadly blue-ringed octopus | Nine News Australia

Published on Jan 28, 2019 Nine News Australia

"A tourist has filmed himself holding what is believed to be a deadly blue-ringed octopus in his hand while walking on an Australian beach."

Via Gizmodo:

The venom of the blue-ringed octopus, which contains the neurotoxin tetrodotoxin, causes paralysis and the sting is so small that most people have no idea that they’ve been poisoned until it’s too late.

To make things even more horrifying, there’s no anti-venom available for the blue-ringed octopus. The only known treatment is to massage the victim’s heart until the venom works its way throughout a person’s body in a matter of hours.

And from Traveller:

Marine ecology expert Michael Keough from the University of Melbourne said picking up an octopus exposes the hand to the beak, a few millimetres-long horny barb located on the bottom of the octopus between its tentacles.

"It can only bite if it's on top of something," he said.

Designed to pierce the exoskeletons of crabs, the octopus's beak releases a neurotoxin from its glands that causes paralysis, causing its prey to stop breathing and die "within an hour".