Can you guess what they were?
Anytime a storm passes through Tampa Bay, Florida, Brianna Varner pays a visit to Pass-a-Grille beach. Since storms often leave animals stranded on shore, Varner tries to help them out by bringing them back to the water.
As Varner was exploring the beach, she came across an open pen shell. She knew animals sometimes like to hide inside big shells, so she turned it over and was delighted to find a bunch of little eggs inside.
At first, she thought they were snail eggs. But after touching them, she realized they were much more gelatinous than any snail eggs she’d encountered before.
“[There were] all these little, like, bubble-looking things in there,” Varner told The Dodo. “I gently touched the edge of it and noticed that they were super soft and squishy.”
As Varner looked more closely, she realized something shocking: She could see tiny embryos moving around inside the eggs.
“I noticed you could see the little eyeballs,” Varner said. “And as I kept looking closer, you could see the tentacles.”
At that point, Varner assumed they were squid eggs. She moved the shell back into the water so the embryos wouldn’t dry up.
Later that day, Varner found a beached pygmy octopus near where she’d found the eggs. While she doesn’t recommend most people touch wild animals, she decided to risk picking up the octopus and moving her back in the water to save her life. In protest, the octopus bit her, but Varner quickly recovered and brought the animal to safety.
Varner continued exploring the beach and ended up finding another pygmy octopus. This one was curled up in a shell — protecting bubble-like eggs.
“That’s when I connected it,” Varner said. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, those are octopus eggs.’ And that was a mom who had gotten separated from her brood. So of course she’s going to bite the heck out of me.”
Mama octopuses are known for protecting their eggs at all costs. Even though Varner was bitten, she was honored that she got to help the octopus and her eggs.
“To think about how fierce of a defender she is and the fact that even such a small creature can be so powerful to defend her babies was just really cool.”
Over the course of the next few weeks, Varner returned to the beach every day to help and observe the octopuses and their eggs. As time passed, she got to see the octopuses in all stages of development — and even got to see some of them hatch.
“The eggs are pretty thin,” Varner said. “And so while you’re looking at the eggs, you can really see everything. It was so crazy to really be able to see this whole little octopus forming in there.”
To keep up with Varner and see more of her wildlife photography, you can follow her on TikTok or Instagram.