The octopus population explosion has wreaked havoc on shellfish species. Crabs, lobsters, whelks, clams and mussels are all natural prey for the tentacled predators.The conference had been proposed by the fishing industry itself, with Defra responding by assembling a broad coalition of expertise to examine both the dangers and the potential rewards of this rapidly evolving situation.Delegates at Thursday’s conference warned that shellfish stocks had been “decimated by octopus consumption,” with the creatures proving particularly skilled at infiltrating crab breeding pots laid by fishermen.Mike Cohen, chief executive of the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisation, said: “The sudden arrival of this fast-growing, short lived and highly predatory species into British waters upends a lot of our established knowledge and expectations about our coastal ecosystems.”