Tourist unknowingly picks up octopus with enough venom to kill 20 humans in minutes
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TikTok users were left horrified after footage of a tourist picking up an octopus with enough venom to kill 20 humans went viral.
The ocean can be a scary place at the best of times, if you needed a reminder of the kinds of frightening creatures lurking beneath the ocean’s surface, then look no further.
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Last year, TikToker user @kataphillah, posted a video of them handling a blue-ringed octopus - one of the deadliest organisms living on the planet.
Don’t be fooled by its size, as this frightening creature contains enough venom to kill up to 26 humans in just minutes.
So, it appears the TikToker had a very lucky escape from a situation that could have become deadly very quickly.
Horrified viewers took to the comment section of the post sharing their dread at stumbling across the video.
One wrote: “All Aussies just gulped and shook their heads.”
A second added: “Once in a lifetime experience.”
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“Don't waste any more money on lottery tickets because you just used up 2x lifetimes of luck," third said.
However, a fourth user wrote: “They’re not dangerous until the rings turn blue.”
It is true that blue-ringed octopuses show off their blue pigment when they are alarmed or attacked - but it's probably best to leave them be anyway, eh?
It appears the individual in the video really had no clue just how dangerous the creature was, as one person commented how ‘lucky’ they were, to which the original poster replied: “Yep. I didn’t know until half hour later what it was.”
And when you find out exactly the damage that the octopus could have done, you'll be even more sure to avoid these little beasts.
Their bites are often painless because they're so small, but once the venom starts to set in, the victim's body becomes paralysed and they start to suffer respiratory depression, aka their breathing slows dramatically.
So, the unfortunate victim is dying, but remain conscious - which is perhaps the worst part, really.
You probably don't even have enough time to signal for help before the effects start to kick in.
To make matters even worse, there is no anti-venom available as of yet, so if this tourist did get bitten by the octopus they were handling then it could have proven fatal.
The victim would only be able to survive as long as they were hooked up to a breathing device - but those aren't just floating around everywhere.
Hopefully this near-miss experience will be a warning to tourists picking out random creatures from the sea.
