In recent years the North Sea populations have increased, probably due to overfishing of large predatory fish such as Atlantic cod.

[8] A survey using different methods found that Eledone cirrhosa was common and widespread throughout the Scottish inshore waters covered by fishing activity, from the shoreline down to 140m, on substrates ranging through rocky, stoney, sandy and muddy.

[5] Serological analysis of the crop of specimens sampled in the Moray Firth and Sound of Jura revealed the main prey to be Liocarcinus spp, Nephrops norvegicus, Cancer pagurus , Crangon crangon and Carcinus maenas, although a large proportion of the samples analysed did not react in the tests suggesting they had consumed alternative prey.

[5] The growth rate of the curled octopus is quite rapid and its life span is generally short at 1–5 years, although there may be some variation between warmer and colder areas.

The curled octopus matures at around 1 year (on reaching a total length of 12–40 cm or 4.7–15.7 in for females, slightly smaller for males) and with 1,000–5,000 eggs laid on average.

In 2017 Storm Brian was followed by reports of many curled octopus on beaches and rock pools around the island of Anglesey and the Llyn Peninsula in north Wales.

These were mostly juveniles which with their weaker suction than the adults were more affected by waves created by the storm, swept away from their hiding places among the rocks and stranded.

[15] Analysis carried out on the stomach contents of stranded Risso's dolphins demonstrates that the most important species fed on in Scottish waters is the curled octopus.