Young boy’s deadly find closes popular Sydney pool
A popular Sydney ocean pool was temporarily closed on Friday morning after a blue-ringed octopus was spotted inside by locals.
The deadly find startled beachgoers with one person sharing a makeshift sign, placed at the Ross Jones Memorial ocean pool at Coogee beach, that indicated it was closed.
"Pool closed. Blue ring octopus," the sign read.
Another shared an up-close photo of the octopus on Instagram stating: "Deadly but beautiful."
A mum told Yahoo News Australia her young son spotted the octopus and rushed to tell lifeguards while she kept her eyes on it.
When contacted, Coogee Surf Life Surfing Club told Yahoo News Australia that Randwick Council was handling the reported incident.
A council spokesperson later told Yahoo the pool was temporarily closed and drained "as a precaution" however there was no further sighting of the octopus.
The mum hailed the quick actions of the lifeguards, saying their response was "great".
Blue-ringed octopus are one of Australia’s most venomous animals, usually found in rock pools, old shells, discarded bottles throughout Australia.
Blue ring octopus bites are painless but fatal, causing paralysis in about 90 minutes. Despite only being between 10-20cm, they carry enough venom to kill 26 adult humans within minutes.
The octopus occasionally makes headlines when unwitting beachgoers handle them unaware of the danger they pose.
Earlier this year, a tourist filmed herself holding the deadly animal in a TikTok video.
The video shows Ms Phillips holding the small sea creature in her hand while a friend splashes water on it as the octopus moves around her palm, oblivious to the fact she was holding the deadly blue-ringed octopus.
In 2019, a backpacker dangled a blue-ringed octopus on the arm of his friend. The pair were later criticised for their stunt.
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