‘Dancing through the water’: rare sighting of blanket octopus in Great Barrier Reef

Seeing one in real life is indescribable,' says marine biologist of the technicolour marine mollusc she spotted off Queensland

Only a handful of people have spotted the dazzling blanket octopus in the wild, making it one of the rarest sights in the marine world.

The technicolour marine mollusc was spotted last week by reef guide and marine biologist Jacinta Shackleton, off the coast of Lady Elliot Island in the Great Barrier Reef .