World Octopus Day

World Octopus Day falls on 8 October. Aquariums in the UK, including Hastings' Blue Reef Aquarium and Bristol Aquarium, have marked it with talks, feeding demonstrations and family activities.

There are around 300 species of octopus, found in every ocean, according to National Geographic. Bristol Aquarium adds that about 800 species of living cephalopods, the wider group octopuses belong to, are known to science.

Most octopus species live no more than a year, the Monterey Bay Aquarium notes. The giant Pacific octopus lives longer, about three to five years. A female lays 18,000 to 74,000 eggs and stays in her den for up to six months, fanning them and not eating, and usually dies soon after they hatch.

Octopuses are also quick learners. In aquariums they can open jars, solve puzzles and interact with their caretakers, and in the wild they can match the colour and texture of their surroundings.

To help on the shore: leave rocks and shells where you find them, do not take octopuses from tide pools, and support marine protected areas.

From Waste to Wonder at AVALON Artisan Gallery begins with the sea's leftovers: more than 50,000 tonnes of green mussel shells are discarded in Thailand each year, and we reclaim them as MyraShell and MyraGem. Meet Little Octopus in the Sea Soul collection.