The woman, aged in her 30s, was bitten twice on the stomach after the highly-venomous octopus fell out of the shell at Chinamans Beach in Mosman about 2.45pm today.
“A blue-ringed octopus bite is a rare call for us but they are extremely venomous.”
The blue-ringed octopus is prevalent in rocky parts of Sydney beaches and along the east coast.
They range from the size of a finger to the size of a fist, with species in northern Western Australia tending to be bigger.
Normally they do not bite unless they are threatened or taken out of their environment.
The blue colour only becomes easily visible when they are threatened, most of the time they look like regular brown octopuses.
Despite being very deadly and very common, deaths from blue-rings are very rare.
In Australia there have been three recorded deaths in the past century.
The woman was taken to the Royal North Shore Hospital where she remains in a stable condition.
