A rare viewing of an octopus was made in the coastal waters off Callantsoog over the weekend, Noord Hollands Nieuws reports.

The curled octopus (Eledone cirrhosa) was discovered by diver Mark Barto who was filming a shipwreck eight kilometres off the coast.

‘I was swimming away from the wreck for a bit when I saw it sitting on the bottom of the sea. I was the only one with a camera. (..) When you meet octopuses in tropical seas they are very shy but this one I could film close up. This is why I like what I do, it really rocks!’ he told NH Nieuws.

According to Naturalis biologist Auke-Florian Hiemstra, the footage of the octopus is very special. ‘There had been no pictures so far of an curled octopus moving on the ocean floor in the Dutch part of the North Sea,’ he said.