Will greater argonaut strandings in southeast Australia increase with climate change?

Argonauts (informally known as "paper nautiluses") are a family of pelagic octopuses. Females produce fragile calcium carbonate "shells" as brood chambers and for buoyancy . In Victoria, Australia, two species of argonauts are known to strand on beaches throughout the year: the southern hemisphere's knobbed argonaut (Argonauta nodosus) and the cosmopolitan greater argonaut [Argonouto orgo). On Victorian beaches, strandings of A argo have - until relatively recently - been rare. Examination of more than 1700 argonaut specimens and shells within museums across the world revealed only two A argo shells from Victorian waters These data informed the creation of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization's cephalopod distribution map, published in 2016 and demonstrating Victoria as the southernmost limit of A argo's range. However, in recent years, images of individual A orgo shells on Victorian beaches have emerged. Here, we report a stranding on 4 March 2022 of 18 A argo shells and one argonaut specimen with an associated shell across a 10-km stretch of beach near Gabo Island, Victoria.