Clarence Jay Bandiala Tamula, a fisherman and fishing content creator, experienced several seconds of panic in front of his own camera when an octopus, fresh out of the water, wrapped its eight tentacles around his face and neck. The video has gone viral.
The incident occurred in early August in the waters off Puerto Princesa City, Palawan, in the southern Philippines, during a routine octopus fishing trip. According to Tamula’s own account, his intention was to bring the animal close to his face to bite it around the eyes (a method he says is a quicker way to kill it), but the octopus reacted by clinging tightly to his skin.
The struggle, which was captured on video and shared on social media and by news outlets around the world, lasted nearly a minute. “When the octopus’s eight tentacles clung to my face, I had a really hard time getting it off and I panicked—I didn’t know what to do. Every time I yanked on the octopus, it clung to me even tighter,” Tamula recounted after the incident. In the footage, she can be seen pulling on the animal’s head and even using a stick-like object to pry the tentacles loose.
The video, which was first shared by the Filipino program YouScoop, generated thousands of reactions due to the unusual nature of the scene and the tenacity with which the octopus clung to the fisherman.
The tenacity with which the animal clings to the fisherman’s face—and, by extension, to life—reopens a highly topical debate. Spain has initiated a legislative process to ban the farming and sale of octopuses in aquaculture facilities, recognizing them as sentient beings with a complex nervous system capable of solving problems, using tools, and displaying distinct personalities. The initiative is supported by scientific studies documenting the suffering of these animals in captivity: their solitary and territorial nature leads to erratic behaviors such as cannibalism and self-mutilation when they are confined to small spaces.
The political catalyst was the plan to establish the world’s first commercial octopus farm in the Canary Islands. While the industry defends aquaculture as the only sustainable way to curb overfishing, the legislative movement argues that the ethical cost is too high, and Spain could thus join jurisdictions such as California or the United Kingdom, where this practice is already banned.
The law also highlights the lack of slaughter methods that guarantee a painless death (the ice-water procedures, initially proposed, have been cited by experts as slow and painful). The law would not be limited to octopus farming in Spain; it would also seek to prevent the sale of products derived from octopus farms in other countries.