Local biologists have ruled out pollution or contamination because no other species were affected. And although some suggest that perhaps a boat, illegally fishing the multilegged creatures, threw them overboard in a panicked attempt to avoid detection, that possibility also seems unlikely due to rough ocean conditions.
Vila Nova de Gaia's municipal government has had firefighters collect the dead animals to be sent to Lisbon's veterinary lab for testing, a process expected to take up to two weeks.
Until then, evidence points to some sort of disease: a parasite, bacteria or a powerful virus.
"It affected octopus of all ages and sizes," says Mike Weber, director of the Aguda coastal station, an aquarium and biological research institute located in Gaia. "That suggests that it wiped out the entire local population."
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