A family vacationing in Greece caught an extremely rare six legged octopus while snorkeling off Papa Nero beach; not knowing how rare the creature was the family followed local tradition and smashed "hexapus" against the rocks and proceeded to eat it.

According to the article in Inquisitr, Labros Hydras, a mechanical engineer from Washington, D.C., was snorkeling at Papa Nero beach when he saw the six-legged creature — called a hexapus — and pulled it out of the water. Following local tradition, he smashed it against a rock and took it to a nearby tavern to be cooked. However, the chef refused to cook it and told Hydras that the creature was so rare that he should have let it live.

The 49-year-old father of two then fried the hexapus on his own, and ate it with a slice of lemon and tomato. After he finished his meal, Hydras did some research — calling a biologist friend since there was no Internet — and found out that the animal was extremely rare.

“It tasted just like a normal octopus but now I feel really bad,” Hydras told SWNS. “When we caught it, there was nothing to suggest it was any different or had been damaged. I thought it had just been born with six tentacles. We go to Greece every year and when we catch an octopus we do the same thing so we just did not think about it.”

The only other time a hexapus has ever been found was in Wales in 2008. Nicknamed Henry, the sea creature was taken to Blackpool Sea Life Centre before being released back into the sea.