After every storm in Tampa Bay, Florida, Brianna Varner makes her way to Pass-a-Grille Beach. She knows rough weather can leave marine animals stranded, and she often helps return them to the water.
One day, while scanning the shoreline, she spotted something unusual — a large, open pen shell. Curious, she flipped it over and found it filled with tiny, bubble-like spheres.
“At first, I thought they were snail eggs,” Varner said. “But when I touched them, they were super soft and squishy — unlike anything I’d seen before.”
Looking closer, she noticed something astonishing. Inside the translucent bubbles, little shapes were moving.
“I could see eyeballs,” she recalled. “And then, as I kept staring, I realized I could even make out tentacles.”
Varner quickly realized she wasn’t holding snail eggs at all — she was looking at octopus eggs. She gently returned the shell to the water so the delicate embryos wouldn’t dry out.
Later that same day, she came across a beached pygmy octopus near the same spot. Wanting to save her, Varner carefully scooped the little creature up and placed her back in the sea — not without protest.
“She bit me,” Varner laughed. “But then I realized why. I’d just met a mom who had been separated from her eggs. Of course she was going to defend them.”
Octopus mothers are famously protective, often guarding their eggs until they hatch. For Varner, the bite was a small price to pay for helping the determined mom reunite with her brood.
“To see how fiercely even a tiny creature will defend her babies — it was just incredible,” she said.
In the weeks that followed, Varner returned to the beach daily to check on the eggs. Each visit revealed a new stage of life unfolding inside the fragile bubbles.
“The eggs are so thin you can see everything,” she said. “Watching a whole little octopus form inside — and then finally seeing some of them hatch — was unbelievable.”
For Varner, the experience was a rare glimpse into the hidden world of ocean life, and a reminder of how even the smallest creatures fight for survival.
To keep up with Varner and see more of her wildlife photography, you can follow her on TikTok or Instagram.
