Dad cooks ‘massive’ dead octopus after finding it near beach
Ziggy Austin spotted the 7ft creature while fishing with his daughter Lauren in Torquay, Devon.
A dad who found a "massive" dead octopus near a beach decided not to let it go to waste and cooked it for dinner.
Ziggy Austin, 40, spotted the 7ft creature while fishing with his daughter Lauren in Torquay, Devon, on Monday.
It was so large that when he first saw it at Hopes Nose, he thought it was a fishing net but after closer inspection, he realised it was a dead octopus.
Determined to make the most out of the creature, he has since put it on ice and is slowly eating it bit by bit.
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Austin, who won the Torquay edition of Channel 4 TV programme Come Dine With Me in 2014, said: "I had some of it last night, it was delicious.
“After I caught it loads of people around Hopes Nose were giving me advice on how to cook it.
"On the advice of one gentleman, I simmered it for 45 minutes and then marinated it in teriyaki sauce and served with stir fried veg.”
He added: "I've had friends messaging me asking for pieces, so I've given away a leg or two."
Austin, who runs Rock Solid Coasteering from his home in Maidencombe, believes a seal had bitten off the entire bulbous head of the octopus - leaving the rest of the body intact.
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He added: "I was out fighting with my daughter and I spotted what looked like a abandoned fisherman's net.
"Then it started sort of moving a bit, so I climbed down to the water's edge to take a look. That's when a wave came in and rolled it over - and then I saw the suckers.
"It's absolutely not normal to see an octopus that size. I've been a man of the sea all my life, and I've never seen anything like it. It was larger than my daughter.
"I knew straight away that I had to try and get hold of it, so I used the end of my fishing rod to sort of reach into the water and tangle it around the octopus to pull it out.
"When we got the behemoth up onto the rock we stretched it out we could see that a seal had bitten the head clean off the top.
"I'm not sure how big an octopus' head is compared to the rest of it's body, but it must have been massive with the head on too. It just had it's eyes left."
Austin posted a video of the creature on his YouTube channel.
The sea life lover and scientist filmed himself dissecting the creature showing what its beak and other features looked like.
