Beer Bottle Found on the Ocean Floor With Tiny Creatures Hiding Inside

Marine biologist Hanna Koch found a beer bottle while snorkeling in the Florida Keys. Big deal, right? It’s the keys. There are probably thousands of bottles of Margaritaville rum down there alone. What made this one so special?

Nothing, at first. But she kept it with her if only to properly dispose of it later. She wanted to make sure she got every last bit of liquid and debris out of it, so she peered into the bottle to give it one last peek to make sure it was okay to be tossed.

She found several eyes peering back.

Beer Bottle Found on Ocean Floor Has Surprise Inside

According to a report from Vox and The Dodo, this wasn’t an ordinary bottle. It was home to an octopus and its brood of babies.  

Instead of taking the bottle with her, Koch handed it to a colleague, who carefully placed it back on the seafloor. Experts believe A fellow marine biologist from Florida Atlantic University named Chelsea Bennice thinks the octopus was of a pygmy species.  

Octopuses often take refuge in discarded objects like beer bottles. It sounds cute on the surface, but the reason it was in the bottle in the first place isn’t as cuddly. Every issue that plagues our oceans and the survival of its creatures has conspired to destroy coral reefs that the octopus calls home. Particularly the big three destroyers of near-shore reef habitats—climate change, pollution, and overfishing.

They’re running out of places to call home, so they’re turning to the trash we callously toss into our oceans into their new homes.