New blue octopus species discovered near Galapagos Islands

A new species of octopus, blue in colour and about the size of a golf ball, has been filmed for the first time by scientists from the Charles Darwin Foundation at a depth of over 1,700 metres off the coast of the Galápagos Islands in in Ecuador.

Octopus expert Janet Voight said she had last seen a new octopus in 2023, off the coast of Costa Rica. The first sighting of the new blue octopus was made in 2015 near Darwin Island, named after the English scientist whose visit to the Galapagos helped him form the theory of evolution.