The crew on the hunt for Greece's illegal octopus traps

By Renee Maltezou

THERMAIC GULF, Greece (Reuters) -“Octopus!” shouted the crew of the Sea Eagle vessel as a slippery cephalopod squirmed out of a plastic pot they had hauled from the seabed off northern Greece.

The octopus, which moments before was caught in an illegal trap, stretched its tentacles wide before its rescuers lowered it overboard to the freedom of the Aegean Sea.

This was one of the lucky ones. Since early July, the volunteers of campaign group Sea Shepherd, backed by regional authorities, have pulled up thousands of traps and saved more than 1,500 octopuses in a bid to overturn illegal overfishing that threatens the octopus population and may indirectly be increasing pollution of Greece’s seas.

But campaigners and authorities estimate that in total half a million octopus