port-hardy-diver
Registered
Howdy- I'd say it would be difficult to do a dive on a rock/boulder shoreline in BC without swimming past an octopus...the hard part is finding them. The largest GP octopus ever found on the planet was found at 2nd Narrows Bridge (Ironworkers Memorial) in the early 60's- 262 kg and approx 24' legs - 52' across... they're EVERYWHERE! and they're big, small, red, brown, white, mottled, stippled, sneaky, shy, bold, arrogant, and agressive...and I repeat, they are everywhere there is habitat and food... actually good spots to look are under edges of large rocks- look for "burrows" or slight crevices that are larger than 2 cm...in an area with a gravel/sand bottom nearby and perhaps a creek...fresh water enhances crab populations- GPO's favorite food! Go after dark, shine your light in the crevice, look around the open areas, and POOF - there is an octopus! Diver0001 made some excellent points---look for the discarded shells of previous meals (particularly crab) and look sort of sideways and blurry- watch for a single sucker that is exposed- they're really good at hiding their suckers...but they can't hide their siphons and eyeballs! Look forward, look back, if you look long enough, you'll find them... as ryanmcneill8448 said, 8 out of 10 dives at Porteau, they are seen...
We do a dive up Port Hardy way called Dillon Rock- aka Octopus Gardens- the AVERAGE night dive octopus count PER DIVER (over the last 24 years, over probably 800 dives and a total of 6000 divers) is 3 octopus seen by each diver on each dive.... and wolf eels by day!!!
We do a dive up Port Hardy way called Dillon Rock- aka Octopus Gardens- the AVERAGE night dive octopus count PER DIVER (over the last 24 years, over probably 800 dives and a total of 6000 divers) is 3 octopus seen by each diver on each dive.... and wolf eels by day!!!
