Tug of war with Octopus at night.

[gearbow]

Here is a video from Cozumel 2012. I speared a little lionfish and the octopus would have none of that. His grip was so strong I thought I was going to rip him in half. If you look at it again it looks like the Octopus actually attacked the lion fish before I did. Skip to the 6 minute mark to see the tug of war. When Octopus Attack, Tug of war with spear fisherman. GoPro Hero 2 HD, 1080p, - YouTube

 

[Allison Finch]

Well, I'm going to go off on you here.

I did enjoy seeing the lionfish get taken by the octo......but was there any animal on that dive you didn't harrass? Waking sleeping turtles and flushing them from their sleeping ledge is a horrible no-no. Grabbing burrfish and blowing them up? REALLY???

I could not watch past the second time your group did that to a burrfish. I am beyond angst here. It's time for me to sit on my hands, again.

 

[TONY CHANEY]

Very nice video.

 

[yarik83]

I have mixed feelings on this video and partly because right now I feel rather queasy. I never get sea sick or motion sick but holly transition editing batman! Stuff running on the background is constantly moving which I guess is a greytone image of what is on the screen anyways. It looked cool for about 2 seconds and then all I kept thinking about was stuff outside the video in full color. Video in color transitioned from one thing to another to another faster than I could focus my tired 30 year old eyes. I would like to have seen each shot in at least 5 second segments please and with adjusted lighting because it was a little bit too bright.

Main thing I want to comment on is code of conduct at the reef. I thought that entire shore was a protected marine reserve so spearfishing may not be legal (unless there is lionfish clause). Harrassing a puffer or two... ehh... I saw people do that before and while I personally have scolded quite a number of divers it seems that "hands off" approach is something that just does not stick with people who do not respect marine life. That is particularly evident with divers crawling on the reef in the video. Going forward a little less touch and a lot more keep distance please.

 

[chillyinCanada]

Dude!! Interesting segment for tug of war but what's the deal with the animal harassment?? That is so uncool. Where did you get your training? And is that actually Martin you are diving with?

 

[TONY CHANEY]

Main thing I want to comment on is code of conduct at the reef. I thought that entire shore was a protected marine reserve so spearfishing may not be legal (unless there is lionfish clause). Harrassing a puffer or two... ehh... I saw people do that before and while I personally have scolded quite a number of divers it seems that "hands off" approach is something that just does not stick with people who do not respect marine life. That is particularly evident with divers crawling on the reef in the video. Going forward a little less touch and a lot more keep distance please.

I was not going to say anything because people get all huffy when I do but thanks for posting this. I feel the same.

 

[BluewaterSail]

I agree with everyone else. The tug-of-war was interesting, but touching the marine animals is very bad behavior. You do know that puffer fish do thier puffing up as a defence mechanism when they are scared and think someone is going to harm them? You come into his home and terrify him? Not a good example to set.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Very difficult to watch with the shaky background and the techno music that just doesn't go with underwater video, but the constant animal harassment made me skip through most of it. Marine life is fascinating enough without having to grab it.

 

[koozemani]

Well, I'm going to go off on you here.

I did enjoy seeing the lionfish get taken by the octo......but was there any animal on that dive you didn't harrass? Waking sleeping turtles and flushing them from their sleeping ledge is a horrible no-no. Grabbing burrfish and blowing them up? REALLY???

I could not watch past the second time your group did that to a burrfish. I am beyond angst here. It's time for me to sit on my hands, again.

Yes there was. He didn't harass the stingrays, crabs, and barracuda.

The harassing was not cool. What happened to only taking pictures and leaving only bubbles?

 

[Allison Finch]

He did harass them by chasing them. I love night dives and half the fun for me is to observe them without disturbing them. I get ticked at myself if I cause them to move out of the safety zone. Many of the sleepers on the reef at night don't see well in the dark. They will bounce around, after being disturbed, and be very vulnerable to night predators.

Plus, after spearing the lionfish (the only thing I don't have a problem with) he constantly ground the shaft of the spear into a living coral doing damage. Heck, the octo was used to seeing speared lions as being offered for food, evidently. Just take a knife and push the lion off the prongs.