Octopus Lovers

[lionfish-eater]

My first video with my GoPro was a bipedal run by a marginatus. Too much fun!! Sorry for the poor camera skills. I am still learning video.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OfZIL8Lb9Y

nice job. The best part of video is capturing behaviors like feeding and hiding in the sand. No need to apologize we all shoot "fish butt" when chasing after a moving subject.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

I saw a California Two-Spot octopus that was so large, I thought it was a juvenile Giant Pacific octopus. It was the size of a soccer ball.

 

[djtimmy77]

I was out macro hunting yesterday and a couple (little) octos let me get close with the diopter:

 

[Tjack]

Way Cool macro shots there DJtimmy.


Where are the 'two spots' on the Two-spotted octo Max? I have often wondered about the name.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I'd call Guinness, since the largest one ever accurately reported was about 14'.

... actually the Guiness world record was listed with an arm span of roughly 32 feet ... and was found just a few miles from where I'm sitting typing right now (Tacoma, WA). I've personally seen one that was more than 20 feet ... for perspective, that sea star hanging over his head is roughly 3 feet in diameter ...

Last winter I built a rock reef at about 50 fsw just south of a local dive site near my home. I constructed it as three separate rock piles ... each about 6-8 feet in diameter and maybe 3-4 feet high ... with 8-10 feet of space between each rock pile. As I was building it I intentionally created "dens" that an octopus could easily occupy ... and in each I left a hole just large enough for me to take pictures through into the den should an octopus move in. I completed the work just a little over a year ago. Today each of those three mounds is occupied by a Giant Pacific Octopus. In each case, as soon as they moved in they rearranged the "dens" to their liking ... which included moving the rocks around to close the "window" I'd created for my camera. But GPO's are solitary animals ... coming together only for mating purposes ... so having three in such proximity of each other is very rare.

A week and a half ago I was down there watching one of them when it reached a tentacle out to me. If you've ever wondered what a Giant Pacific Octopus' suckers look like up close ... well ... like this ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Lizard Leg]

A couple we saw while in the Keys this March:

[video=youtube;Yl64hJVrlBA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yl64hJVrlBA&feature=share&list=UUvQXzWkke8 CefCFuyLpODBg&index=2[/video]

 

[Drin]

Ummm, Bob? I'm not sure why you're addressing me with your "Tacoma, WA" and octopus records, since we know one another and have spent more than a few hours talking at Joshua's store. I lived in Port Orchard for many years and am very familiar with the sight and behavior of GPO, so no need to lecture.

Please understand, I'm not faulting your belief in the "32' record", I'm doubting the record itself. I've seen the number and the phrase "Guinness world record" thrown around for years, but when you dig in you find there IS no such record. I suspect we've been passing around this apocryphal story for so long that it's taken on a life of its own.

For the record (ha!), Guinness doesn't list "octopus, largest" in their records, online or elsewhere. If anyone has documented evidence of 32' I'd love to see it, as would Roger Hanlon, the cephalopod expert I worked closely with at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, since the largest he's familiar with was 14'. James Cosgrove lists the largest GPO at 32' in "Super Suckers" but the evidence supporting that is tenuous and considered suspect by most experts. He too is quoting the hoary old number that's been thrown around forever.

-Adrian

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I'm not intending to lecture ... rather question the 14' cite. I've seen several in that range or larger, including the one pictured ... taken in Neah Bay a few years back. I'm quite certain that one was well over 14', given that it was on walkabout, and I stayed with it till my strobe batteries died. We had one at Cove 2 about 10 years ago we named "Popeye" ... which was easily larger than 14'. Quite a number of people saw that one ... since he stuck around for the better part of a year, and many divers saw him out and about on night dives.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[djtimmy77]

All I know, 14', 20', 32' doesn't matter any octos that big would freak me out! :nervous:

 

[Tigerman]

All I know, 14', 20', 32' doesn't matter any octos that big would freak me out! :nervous:

If they tried to grab my camera they definetly would freak me out.. Cause they'd be big enough to win that fight