The Bristol-based filmmaker said: “I couldn’t stop thinking ‘there’s a story here’.
“Dive after dive there were octopus out and about and what struck me was how curious they can be.
“They’re often shy, but sometimes they’ll interact, investigate and seem to watch you as much as you watch them.”
The MBA said only four major octopus blooms have been recorded in the past 125 years: in 1899 to1900, 1932 to 1933, 1950 to 1951 and the one which began in 2025 and is ongoing.
Palfrey contacted the MBA report’s lead author, University of Plymouth associate professor Dr Bryce Stewart to contribute to the film.
In the film Stewart connected what was being observed in the water to what data showed about oceans warming and wider ecosystem change.
He said: “The octopus bloom is an extraordinary event that tells us a lot about how marine life is responding to a warming ocean.”