Octopus steals underwater camera from diver - while it's recording

Tom Phillips - 21st April, 2010

A New Zealand diver was forced to chase an underwater camera-stealing octopus which wrestled his brand new device from his hands and swam away, with the camera still recording.

The incredible video gives a tentacle-covered view of the five-minute chase, which only ended after the diver used his speargun to prise the camera back from the thieving octopus's grip.

Victor Huang was diving near the Wahine Memorial off the south coast of Wellington on Thursday when the octopus suddenly burst out of a bed of kelp. Huang 'freaked out' at first as he thought the octopus was attacking him - before realising that the octopus was actually just after his shiny new Panasonic Lumix camera.

A wrestling match ensued between the two as Huang tried to hold onto the camera as the octopus attempted to prise it from his grip. And in the end, the tentacle proved too strong - and the octopus 'swam away very quickly like a naughty shoplifter', Hung said on his YouTube video of the event.

The video then shows the camera's-eye view of the chase that followed - mostly covered in suckers - as Huang frantically swam after the octopus in an attempt to get his camera back.

It took five minute for him to catch up with the creature, at which point he managed to get his speargun under the creature and, when it grabbed hold of that as well, use it to pry the camera from its grasp.

He then spent a few more minutes taking the octopus for a ride on his speargun, which he says the octopus seemed to enjoy. He doesn't think the octopus meant him any harm - it had just become fascinated by the gadget.

'I honestly believe that it saw the bright blue digital camera and went ‘oh I need that’, you know?' Huang told stuff.co.nz.