Octopuses Taking Over Britain’s Coast as Catches Surge Nearly 1,500%

Britain’s southwest coast is seeing a major octopus population explosion, with catches increasing by nearly 1,500 percent since 2021.

The creatures have become so widespread that fishermen, scientists and government officials gathered for an “emergency discussion” about what the sudden population boom means

According to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), annual UK vessel octopus landings into British ports have surged from an average of approximately 220 tonnes to more than 3,700 tonnes.

For some fishermen, the unexpected arrival of large numbers of octopuses has presented a somewhat lucrative commercial opportunity to flog calamari to the Spanish.

For others though particularly those who rely on shellfish, the phenomenon is considerably less welcome as crab, lobster and scallop stocks have been decimated by octopus consumption

Octopuses are formidable marine predators, feeding on crustaceans and other animals that support valuable fishing businesses.

Defra’s chief scientific adviser, Anjali Goswami, said the phenomenon demonstrated how “rapidly marine ecosystems can change.”

Although octopus populations have historically fluctuated around Britain’s coastline, the current rise is nuts in its scale.

Prior to this four major population blooms’ have been recorded in the past 125 years: in 1899-1900, 1932-33, 1950-51, and now since 2025, according to the Marine Biological Association (MBA).

“The sudden arrival of this fast-growing, short lived and highly predatory species into British waters upends a lot of our established knowledge and expectations about our coastal ecosystems,” said National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations CEO Mike Cohen.