When Shawn Purser entered the South Island 2022 spearfishing competition in the Queen Charlotte Sound, he wasn't expecting to come across a blanket octopus that would blow his mind.
Purser, who has been a spearfisher for close to 15 years, entered the competition with his mate Don MacDonald with the intention of catching a range of species of fish within five hours.
But when Purser and MacDonald saw the "amazing creature", they had to put the competition on the backburner.
"As we were going along we came across this big blanket octopus," he said.
Purser had seen a story on the news just a week prior featuring the blanket octopus, so he had only recently realised how rare the species is when he came across it in real life.
After her sighting of a blanket octopus in Australian waters went viral last week, marine biologist Jacinta Shackleton said they are rarely encountered in the wild.
Purser told Newshub the octopus was between one and two metres in length, and later found out the one they swam with was a female.
"This is a female that we have seen because the male is the size of a walnut, which is quite strange really."
With the competition clock ticking, Purser and MacDonald continued to admire the octopus.
"We probably swam with it for 10-15 minutes - it would go into all these different shapes with its tail, and then blanket out right across. It was just an amazing creature," Purser said.
"We were both just sitting there mindstruck over this thing, it was incredible."
Once the competition was over, Purser shared the video with other competitors at the prizegiving.
"I've had a lot of reaction from a lot of divers and they are just mindblown to have seen something like this, especially in the South Island."
He says to come across a species like the blanket octopus was a "once in a lifetime" experience.
"Probably the highlight of this whole competition was seeing that thing."
