A little girl is being credited with saving a Giant Pacific octopus that was stranded on a beach in Washington.
Annie England with the Padilla Bay Reserve told KING in Seattle that they got a call from a ranger at the Bay View State Park in Mount Vernon about an octopus that was on the shore — alive.
England said when they arrived, they saw that the girl had been keeping the octopus alive by dumping water on it with her “little sand bucket.” See the video of the rescue in the video player above.
The animals typically don’t survive after several minutes out of the water, or else their gills will collapse, she said.
“I wasn’t anticipating finding such an alive, healthy octopus,” England said about the rescue, which happened on March 15.
The rescuers were able to place the octopus in a bin and drag it back to the ocean. Then, they released it into the water.
“We had to be very conscientious on where we were putting our hands while we were moving the octopus thankfully, we were able to get it into the bin and then we were able to drag it out,” she said.
England said she doesn’t encourage people to move or touch octopuses, but the girl did the right thing by pouring water on it.
Finding an octopus alive out of the water is uncommon, she added.