The point I’m making is that when you befriend a WILD animal, respecting its wild nature means allowing it to be wild and to survive on its own terms. Giving it agency. It’s not a pet. The way I see it, if he’d stepped in and stopped the shark, he would have been disrupting the ecosystem and inserting his own emotions into the story of the life of a wild animal he was trying to document. Because he didn’t step in, the octopus was able to escape on its own terms and used its intelligence and creativity to escape and he was able to showcase just how brilliant octopuses are which hopefully would help humans realise they shouldn’t be eaten for food by us. He was also able to document unique behaviours that octopuses can do that scientists had never found out like being able to use rocks to cover itself to shield it.

It’s not like he callously watched either, he was very upset and emotional about how close the octopus came to being killed, debated stepping in and doubted whether he made the right choice, and he tried to help it when it was injured by bringing food.

You may have made a different decision but I don’t think he was a monster.