Arthur Dewhirst has enjoyed a windfall via the multiplicity of the eight-limbed creatures. Photograph: Andrew Testa/New York Times
Expecting his normal catch of plaice, turbot and Dover sole, Arthur Dewhirst was surprised when his nets spilled their contents on to his ship’s deck earlier this year. Instead of shiny, flapping fish, hundreds of octopuses wriggled and writhed.
His first thought? “Dollar signs! Dollar signs! Dollar signs!” he recalled with a laugh, sitting in his trawler last month in the harbour at Brixham in Devon, England.
Across England’s southern coast, fishing crews reported an extraordinary boom in octopus catches this summer. Sold for about £7 a kilogram (€8 per pound), it was sometimes worth an extra £10,000 a week to him, he said.
In Brixham, home to England’s largest fish market, the octopus invasion is the talk of the town.
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