octopus attack?

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Uh, maybe the octopus didn't feel like being handled?
 
From what I can see (and I'm not an expert by any means), it seems that Doug penetrated the octopus' den and the octopus was defending his den. The first shot of the octopus showed it was already in a (seemingly) defensive position, allowing him to attack....

Just a guess.
 
midwayman:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60v8NuT4daU

So what exactly would make an octopus attack?

Being harassed.

And why wasnt the camerman helping them poor guy?

You have no idea how hard it is to get that kind of footage.... :)

My guess is that they were pestering it hoping to get something like that on film. The National Geographic Channel probably paid them well for that little stunt.

Incidentally, I've been told that ascending a few feet is enough to make the octopus let go..... If I know that, I'm sure he knows that too....

R..
 
google provides the answers!

"Giant pacific octopus and diving Alaska and British Columbia
OK, I have to set the record straight. There has been a certain video clip floating around for years of a Giant pacific octopus as it attacks a scuba diver in either British Columbia or Alaska (you can't tell from the clip). It's been on "The Worlds's Most Dangerous Animals", "When Animals Attack" and now "Spike TV". Come on guys, I was there and it wasn't like that..
http://www.filecabi.net/host/file/octopus-lover/wmv
The Nautilus VI was our first diveboat and went into service in 1992. At 50 feet in length and with 2 guest staterooms, we were able to squeeze 10 divers onboard. The Nautilus Explorer it wasn't! Anyways, during our second season I met Danny Mauro from Sport Diver Television. He is a great guy and shortly after meeting, we came up with this wild and crazy idea to shoot a TV show off the Nautilus VI concentrating on cold water diving.
So there we were in Tzoonie Narrows (I seemed to be able to spend a lot more time in the water in those days) on the Sechelt Peninsula hunting for giant octopus, or G.P.O.s as our friends in Northern California call them, with Doug Pemberton ex Vancouver Aquarium. There are two different kinds of octopus in British Columbia and Alaska including the famous giant Pacific octo's. These monsters only live for 3 or 4 years but have been documented as large as 27 feet in length and weighing more than 600 lbs. I should note that I have never seen an octo that size myself - a hundred pounder is normally considered a big animal. So the first thing we noticed was a large GPO "hiding" out in the open. Octopus are masters of disguising themselves and are able to change colour and texture and almost be invisible sometimes. Doug then discovered a second GPO hiding under a rock 10 feet away. I suspect that we might have interupted mating behaviour or something similar because the first octo made a beeline for Doug's private parts when he discovered the second animal hiding in the rocks. In the sequence that was originally aired, you could actually see my hands holding onto the first octo as it tries to crawl up the inside of Doug's leg. Anyways, the second octopus came zooming out of the rocks and latched onto Doug's mask and regulator. We (and that includes Doug) were all killing ourselves laughing. It was pretty funny. The soundtrack in that clip is not what I recall at all! Hmmm. Anyways, we treated it as a big joke and there was certainly never any danger. The truth isn't always as good as the hype huh!"

from
http://www.divebc.com/top.asp?page=228&Loc=Adven
 
midwayman:
We (and that includes Doug) were all killing ourselves laughing. It was pretty funny. The soundtrack in that clip is not what I recall at all! Hmmm. Anyways, we treated it as a big joke and there was certainly never any danger. The truth isn't always as good as the hype huh!"

from
http://www.divebc.com/top.asp?page=228&Loc=Adven
Real funny.
 
I am lucky enough to live in a place where we see these animals very, very often and I have never seen such a thing. The only conclusion I can come to is that he was provoking the animal. We did a dive the other night where we swam with an octo twice that size for at least 10 minutes and it never made any aggressive moves.
 
I met a guy about a month ago that is a very experienced diver. while talking about diving, he showed me a scar from where an octopus bit him. I asked what caused the octopus to do that? He grabbed onto it to get a good picture. sounds like a similar situation.


either that or the guy in the video was OOA and wanted someones octopus.. (Kick me for that lame pun)
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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