Today is World Octopus Day,

a sea creature that's quite a mystery,

their fossils date back to over 300 million years,

placing them before dinosaurs in history.

They come in various shapes and sizes,

so whilst swimming they look stunning,

they can also learn how to solve problems,

get into small spaces, an octopus is cunning.

The Blue Ringed Octopus lives in the Western Pacific, particularly Australia, although it is not very aggressive, its bite can kill man, the poison is tetrodotoxin also produced by dart frogs and puffer fish. Octopuses have arms not tentacles, they have three hearts and are highly intelligent, they have thousands of suckers and blue blood. they are a member of the cephalopod family. A pregnant female can lay roughly 90,000 eggs after finding a suitable cave. More than 50,000 tons of octopus are caught by fishermen each year, stocks are diminishing fast, too fast.

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