Ashley Blankenship: Super Giant Octopus found on Indonesian Coast… Octopus has enough Venom to kill 26 adults within minutes

Looks delicious barbecued as Octopussy Skewers?

An authentic photograph shows the body of a massive octopus washed up on the coast of Indonesia.

In early June 2024, an image allegedly showing a giant octopus washed up on an Indonesian beach went viral. Numerous posts on X claimed it was a photograph taken in Bali.

A dead Giant Squid that washed ashore in Indonesia

The image showed five tentacles and the body of the octopus, with several beachgoers standing near it and more bystanders in the distance.

(X user @mulder_17)

(X user @CMDRVALTHOR)

A video that purported to show the so-called octopus from different angles on the beach.

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“The Mourning of the Abyssal Titans”:

In the quiet hours before dawn, the world’s beaches trembled. The waves whispered secrets, and the sands shifted uneasily. The enormous octopus, its eyes like ancient moons, emerged from the depths—a titan awakened. Its tentacles, thick as ship masts, reached for the shore. Dead creatures clung to its suckers: bloated fish, forgotten sailors, and lost treasures. The sun rose, casting a sepulchral glow upon the beast.

Tourists fled, their sun hats abandoned. Lifeguards blew whistles, but their warnings were futile. The octopus pulled up more corpses—seagulls, crabs, and driftwood. The beaches became a graveyard.

Scientists arrived, cameras clicking. They measured the creature’s span: nine meters, a record-breaking giant. The world watched in awe and horror as the octopus mourned its fallen kin.

Beachgoers wept, their toes touching the cold, lifeless bodies. Children built sandcastles atop whale bones. And the octopus, its eyes haunted, retreated back to the abyss.

The tides whispered its lament: “Weep not for the dead, but for the forgotten. For we all return to the sea, whether by storm or by choice.” And so, the beaches bore witness to the sorrow of ancient depths. 🌊🐙

US presidents eating octopus

POTUS eats Octopussy pic.twitter.com/kwya0gZTcC

— Eddie Hardie (@MrEddieHardie) June 10, 2024

Blue-Ringed Octopus Has Enough Venom To Kill 26 Adult Humans Within Minutes

Several social media users claimed the bite is painless and that no antiserum exists

Blue ring octopuses can inject enough venom with a painless bite to kill 26 adult humans within minutes.

In June 2024 and for years, rumors have spread that a very small, beautiful octopus covered in blue rings has enough venom to kill 26 adults within minutes:

The blue-ringed octopus, despite its small size, carries enough venom to kill 26 adult humans within minutes.

Their bites are tiny and painless, with many victims not realizing they have been envenomated until paralysis begins.pic.twitter.com/Wj2udj41lc

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) June 5, 2024

While blue-ringed octopuses never attack humans, they can bite when they feel threatened, for example if someone steps on them or picks one up. According to the Natural History Museum in London, U.K., they carry the same powerful neurotoxin as pufferfish, newts or salamanders. It’s called tetrodotoxin (TTX), and it is about 1200 more toxic than cyanide. The Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California, confirmed that the dose delivered in a blue-ringed octopus bite may be sufficient to kill 26 adults.

The neurotoxin causes progressive paralysis. Victims usually die of asphyxiation, as their diaphragm ceases to contract and relax. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) listed the symptoms that can result from the ingestion of TTX:

First stage: Numbness and sensation of prickling and tingling (paresthesia) of the lips and tongue, followed by facial and extremity paresthesias and numbness, headache, sensations of lightness or floating, profuse sweating (diaphoresis), dizziness, salivation (ptyalism), nausea, vomiting (emesis), diarrhea, abdominal (epigastric) pain, difficulty moving (motor dysfunction), weakness (malaise), and speech difficulties.

Second stage: Increasing paralysis, first in the extremities, then in the rest of the body, and finally in the respiratory muscles; difficulty breathing or shortness of breath (dyspnea); abnormal heart rhythms (cardiac dysrhythmias or arrhythmia); abnormally low blood pressure (hypotension); fixed and dilated pupils (mydriasis); coma; seizures; respiratory arrest; and death.

There is indeed no antivenom for TTX as of this writing, according to the same CDC fact-sheet on the toxin. However, it is not impossible to survive a bite with appropriate, immediate treatment. For example, in 2006, a four-year-old boy in Australia survived two blue-ringed octopus bites because his mother identified the threat and sought care within 20 minutes of the bite. The hospital staff intubated and ventilated the child, who was able to move his muscles spontaneously 15 hours later.

Researchers believe there are about 10 species of blue-ringed octopus in existence, though they’ve only named four of them. They typically live in southern seas, around Australia, the Philippines, India, Papua New Guinea or the Solomon islands. Specimens of the four species listed can range in size from 12 to 22 centimeters (4.7 to 8.7 inches) including tentacles.

They are beautiful, but it is best to steer clear of them. If you find yourself in the shallows of Queensland or Vanuatu, take care to avoid them, and never do what this woman did, which is to pick one up: