Eagle vs Octopus: Vancouver fishermen make unusual find

Like a clash of the titans, a bald eagle has been filmed battling for its life with giant Pacific octopus.

It was one of the most unusual finds made by salmon farmers in Quatsino, at the northern tip of Vancouver Island.

The fishermen for Mowi Canada West discovered the grappling creatures locked in combat early on Wednesday, when they went to check their salmon nets.

With the huge feathered eagle grappling with a tentacled adversary, the unnatural looking combination of the bird and the octopus only added to the weirdness. It's extremely rare occurrence.

It was just by luck there were people neaby to witness it and untangle the two creatures.

This eagle probably regrets its choice of meal. Photo / Supplied

The fishermen speculated that the bald eagle which lives off of fish had "bitten off more than it could chew" when it had tried to scoop up the octopus.

Quickly the predator had become the prey. When the fishermen found it, the octopus clearly had the upper hand as it tried to drown the giant bird.

Freeing the eagle with a barge pole, the fishermen recorded the incident saying: "That was amazing! Look at the size of this!"

"These are the biggest octopus in the world," acknowledged another.

Giant Pacific octopus can grow up to 50kg in size. Even an eagle the size of this would have difficulty picking on one of these.

The salmon farmers posted the footage of their find to the social media channels of the Mowi Canada West, saying: although they live in a wild and diverse part of the world they knew this was a "once in a lifetime experience."

The octopus returned back to the deep apparently unharmed, and the bird reportedly was also fine.

Needing time to dry its feathers - and supposedly process the sheer weirdness of what had just happened - "the eagle recovered on a branch for around 10 minutes before it flew away."