Octopus Lashes Out at Beachgoer in Amazing Video from Australia

Fascination with an octopus can lead to a painful experience, as author Lance Karlson found out recently.

Karlson had a close encounter with an octopus in Geographe Bay in Dunsborough, Western Australia, the Daily Mail reported Wednesday.

In a March 19 post on Instagram, Karlson summarized the creature as “the angriest octopus in Geographe Bay!”

Karlson said his interaction with the octopus began while he was walking on the beach with his 2-year-old daughter.

“After going after a seagull it then decided my daughter and I deserved a lashing! I later discovered its home amongst a crab graveyard, where it came after me again!” Karlson said on Instagram.

At first, the 34-year-old former lifeguard said he wasn’t sure what he was seeing.

“I thought it was a stingray at first,’ he told the Daily Mail Australia.

Then a seagull came too close.

“I saw the tentacles of an octopus come out of the water and lash out at a seagull,” he said.

“I walked with my daughter in my arms up to the octopus and took the video,” he said. “The octopus lashed out at us.”