Giant Pacific Octopus

The first octopus that I handled lived in the ocean about 7 miles north of Horseshoe Bay BC.  My old green 67 firebird was only about 4 years old at that time and I left it up near the top of the hill.  With its overpowered engine and light rear end - it could never hope to reach the bottom of the hill and return.  So we had to carry our heavy diving equipment over the railway tracks and all the way down to the ocean’s edge.  I was working for the Aquarium then and I enjoyed my work of exploring and understanding the underwater world before us.  I put all my SCUBA gear on making sure that my air was open and turned on.  There was just my mask to spit in, smear and fit on my hooded head so that condensation on the inside of the lens would not impair my vision.  It was warm outside and the gear was heavy so I stepped into the Ocean and merged with it as it began to find the open seams of my ‘farmer john’ wet suit.  I stood chest deep in the ocean at the base of a steep talus slope that ran from the rail tracks 200 m down to the ocean where I stood.

I looked down through my mask and Watched part of the seabed move.  I was surprised to see an octopus at my feet and, being the first in the water, I needed to prove an octopus was there in such shallow water.  I plastered the eight legged cephalopod onto my black neoprene chest and stood above the water to say 'hey look at this!'- Who needs to dive to see things here!  That was the first giant pacific octopus I had ever played with.

Later I learned that slurp guns and large syringes filled with chlorine were useful to tools to disgruntle, dislodge and urge octopus to change color and begin to move away.  I also found out that octopus can really only be handled if they are caught on the move because their suctioned hold is just too powerful to dislodge.  Their homes are usually quite far below low tide and are often marked by a pile of Dungeness crab parts – one of their favorite menu items.  If you can stir an octopus to move it can be easily bagged for live transport to the aquarium for holding or display.  Back then we used plastic garbage buckets with air stones bubbling to move them.  Now that I look back on that time I am glad that we were not looking for octopus to collect that day.  I so enjoy sharing with living things where ever they are – and then just to let them be.