VIDEO: Octopus battles B.C.’s bomb cyclone on ocean floor [Video]

Even with eight legs it was difficult to hang on during this week’s bomb cyclone in British Columbia, with a remote camera capturing an octopus battling currents whipped up by the hurricane-force winds.

The giant Pacific octopus was spotted by an Ocean Networks Canada video camera on the sea floor off Vancouver Island’s west coast, clinging to rocks and coral buffeted by the currents early Wednesday.

The video shows the octopus using its tentacles to hang on, while its mantle — the sac above its head — is rippled by the fast-moving water.

Kate Moran, president of the organization based at the University of Victoria, says the shallow waters off Bamfield where the octopus was spotted have current speeds that typically increase to about 60 centimetres a second over 12 hours.

But she says that during the bomb cyclone, the currents were rapidly changing directions and cycling between speeds of …