In all, I would support those two things. But if you go around town dirtying my name for something that is legal, you better watch the heck out for what is going to come your way.
I would hope that as you were walking around feeling so offended, someone would point out the obvious: when you...
1. Harvest a GPO from a popular dive site claiming in was a female sitting on eggs
2. Post your exploits, along with multiple images of non hunting related violence against other animals and along with racial slurs on FB with public settings
...that you are
dirtying your own name. What Bob did was no more than what many investigative journalists do: make others aware of what the young man projected publicly himself.
As for the sexing issue:
The young man himself at the time claimed "It was sitting on eggs, now it's not" (or words to that effect). True? False? Trying to get Bob's goat? No one really knows - however he said it, so if there is confusion the fault lies with him, not Bob. Could Bob be making that conversation up? Perhaps. But when I think of what I know of Bob, both IRL and on the net, and what the young man portrayed of himself online, I tend to believe Bob.
However, not withstanding that:
You cannot tell a male from a female GPO when observing it in a den.
The young man himself again (in later interviews) states he pulled the octo out and then felt around inside to ensure there were no eggs - Which means at the time of harvesting he did not know whether it was a male or a female.
You also cannot just pull a GPO (of that size) out of a den. There are chemical and mechanical means, and a physical act one can perform - but all of those are harmful to the GPO in the process. Which means the young man extracted an unsexed GPO from a den and, post extraction, checked to see if there were eggs present. The question of course being - If there were eggs present, would the GPO have been in any condition after release to again care for those eggs.
Lastly for Zen Diver: If you knew anything about GPO's... They do not give birth
and you cannot necessarily tell if a GPO has been tending eggs by observing it dead on a beach or in the back of a P/U truck. GPO's do change color and show signs of wasting but that is because they spend roughly six months caring for their eggs, without leaving the den site or eating. If you observe a mother at the end of the cycle it will appear grey and wasted - if you observe one at the beginning of the cycle it will not. Using gross visual characteristics to determine whether a GPO is a brooding female would be prone to error.
I suggest this book by one of the leading GPO researchers:
http://www.amazon.ca/Super-Suckers-Pacific-Octopus-Cephalopods/dp/1550174665 Jim also gives a good lecture about them.