Octopus Lovers

[Scuba_Jenny]

I had a once-in-a-lifetime encounter a few years ago at the bridge (blue heron bridge) with an octopus. The dive was spectacular in itself and after 2 hours of solo diving with air still left I decided to keep going.

I happened upon this octopus and took his picture. Immediately he came out toward me.

Lucky for me the camera was cooperative and was able to get a couple shots off

It seemed very curious and checked out my camera before settling down for some investigation of this underwater visitor. As you can see, it was not very big. That is a 2lb bullet weight.

Hanging out..

As the octopus started exploring, I realized maybe I should be using video not still shots.
Because the bottom is very live at the bridge, I was balancing on my fintips as I shot this video. There was a short period of time that because of where the octo and I were situated, I was shooting blind, hoping that it was in the frame. At one point it came under me, and my first thought was, "what am I? your personal body guard?" This octo is very comfortable around me and is incredibly interested in my camera (red?), then loses interest and travels on. My memory card filled up, and the video abruptly stops. ugh.



I am frantically deleting photos, and am on my knees at this time. Oh. my camera move faster.. geeesh.. this is an awesome opportunity.. geesh.. get a couple deleted.. whew.. when out yonder where the octopus is, it suddenly becomes frightened and shoots back towards me. And lands on the inside of my bended knee.

OMG This is too cool! Don't bite! How cool! Don't bite!!! Too cool!!!
A short minute or so later, he left. And all that remains are these few photos and a great memory of one of my best ever dives at the bridge. Total time with octopus about 40 minutes.

 

[rhincodon]

The Blue Heron Bridge is an awesome place to encounter octopi! I think I saw about eight of them on one dive before.

 

[rhincodon]

Here's a couple from Socorro

 

[Tjack]

Such curious critters. Octopus change color and shape so readily they are always a trip to observe.

Nice video there Jenny, looks like your Octopus pall found something to eat in the sand?

At Socorro Mexico we had one disappear into some rocks only to extend its eyes out of a tiny crack to watch us, so strange.

Having a pretty blue Octo crawl up my arm and across my face on one of my first night dives in Cozumel was an unforgettable encounter.

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

I have so many from the bridge. They can be so common that they barely register a notice on the dive and other times, you are lucky to see one.

I like this long arm trying to hide in the sand

Some are easier to entice to come out and play than others.

 

[Darnold9999]

A few of my favorites.

Oddly I have never gotten a good picture of one of the local GPO. I seem to be terrible at finding them.

 

[smellzlikefish]

I'll bite. These are fun!

Here is an undescribed species of octopus that showed up on a pelagic night dive (blackwater) offshore from Kona, Hawaii. For reference, it was maybe 4 inches long.


In probably my coolest encounter (again on blackwater) I looked to the surface to see a pelagic seahorse (Hippocampus fisheri) that was bucking and obviously annoyed. On closer inspection, I noticed this small octopus (Euprymna scolopes-Hawaiian bobtailed squid I believe) had taken shelter on its head. Freaky.


Cheers!

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

wow. awesome pics!!! Welcome!

 

[Tigerman]

Im a rock! REALLY! (Oh ****, you see im not a rock??)

 

[Lorenzoid]

I love octopus--they're delicious. But seriously, here's my "favorite" octo-story ...

In Lembeh, the divemaster found a Wonderpus buried in the sand and pointed it out to us--so far so good. But to our chagrin, he kept prodding it so that it wouldn't re-bury itself. In hindsight I wish we had protested, but we bit our tongues. After maybe a minute of this, a scorpionfish charged over and inhaled our Wonderpus. DIVEMASTERS: LEAVE THE WILDLIFE ALONE!