This is an old video from 2011 but we felt it needed to be reshared. Bryce hooks into an octopus while he was kayak fishing. He originally thought it was a snag but then it let loose allowing him to bring the octopus into the kayak.
Obviously no angler wants to harm a fish or any other animal if they don’t need to. Looks like this was a mistake and rather than letting the octopus go with a 6″ hook in its mouth, they kept him and let no part go to waste.
On the video they have the following disclaimer:
Bryce hooked into an octopus which he originally thought was a snag. I was able to get some pretty sweet underwater shots while it was next to his kayak. The octopus was kept and enjoyed. It swallowed a pretty large hook so its survival was unlikely.
I used a Kodak Playsport (Zx3) to film this. Further info for the people commenting: This animal was not wasted. Its sacrifice was well respected among those that did eat it. I’m not a biologist of any kind, but a simple search on the internet shows that octopuses are not a rare animal. In fact, there is evidence that suggests they are overpopulated in their range. They have a life-span of 3 to 5 years so I’m guessing because of its size that this one was nearing the end of that span.
So, I would rather it be killed quickly and not wasted than it be set free to suffer and starve for the last year or so of its life with a six inch hook in its mouth.
Photo and video pulled from the Youtube channel: rawkfish
