Top warm water diving locations for Octopus?

[wgw04024]

Searched around but did not find this topic. Are there areas with larger populations of Octopus?

If I wanted to see octopus's all day (or nite), where would/should I go?

tia,
ss4f

 

[KathyV]

We saw a lot of octopus out during the day time in Hawaii around Kona on the Big Island.

 

[scubajelly]

I saw lots of them in Lembeh. Coconut, long arm, starry night, hairy, and blue ring.

 

[agilis]

I've never been to a Caribbean location with calm water and a lot of coral structure and rocks close to shore that was not loaded with Octopods. They like to hide in the rockwork. They are most numerous in shallow water, where molluscs are in good supply. They are most often out and about at night. Peering into cracks and holes in a hard coral rock bottom will very often result in seeing octopus eyes staring back. Slowly extending a finger will frequently result in finger to tentacle contact. Octopods like to play. A hole in a coral seafloor with lots of pretty shells around it means there is an octopus living there.

 

[Landau]

Not warm but we see them almost every dive in BC. One particular site the fewest I have seen in one dive is 11.

 

[wgw04024]

So far my experiences have been one big white one in the shallows in Bonaire at night. One in Ft. Lauderdale in a wreck, it disappeared in a crack as soon as I saw it. Lastly, Cozumel on a night dive, we saw maybe 5.

 

[BoundForElsewhere]

I saw a few in Oaxaca, Puerto Esco Dido. Not much else but there were a bunch of the little suckers.

 

[Jayfarmlaw]

On a night dive on Cedral in Cozumel, we hit Octo-polooza. Maybe 12, perfect dive conditions, a huge nurse shark just hanging around with us through the entire 107 minute dive. More lobsters than you could count. An octopus had a dead fish and went into a tiny hole...then One tentacle came out and grabbed the fish and pulled it in. A Swedish couple did their first night dive with us and we came up and told them night diving will be ruined forever for them after that dive...it will be a while before you get a better night dive than that one. Even the DM didn't want it to end.

My wife is an octopus junkie and was damn near babbling incoherently when she came up. Most didn't even scurry off to hide but stayed on the reef and just changed colors and textures until they felt you couldn't see them. It was like you could see them thinking "this isn't quiet right....there.....perfect."

We usually only see a couple on a night dive. I'm grinning from ear to ear just remembering it.

That being said, there is a PHD doc in Florida that does octopus research at Blue Heron Bridge. She goes by Octo-girl on Facebook. If octopi ... octopuses...octopus...whatever...are your thing she's a good source to follow, maybe even reach out to her for something special.

Good luck, safe travels. Give a little feller a high 5, or high 40, for me.

Jay

On edit- Damn you OCD....from Mariam Webster

The three main plurals for "octopus" come from the different ways the English language adopts plurals. Octopi is the oldest plural of "octopus," coming from the belief that Latin origins should have Latin endings. Octopuses is the next plural, which gives the word an English ending as its been adopted as an English word. Lastly, octopodes stems from the belief that because "octopus" is originally Greek, it should have a Greek ending.

Now maybe I can sleep.... night all.

 

[diversteve]

Hawaii

I can even tell you specifically where.

Maui
Off Old Airport Beach there's a bunch of old ship junk where they used to load the cane ships. Shallow and slightly south of the beach.

Old masts, bottles, metal boxes etc. I'll bet we saw about a dozen once we stopped moving around and just watched.

Mala Pier in Lahaina - Shorediving Hawaii: Maui’s Mala Wharf is one of Maui’s Best Scuba Dives

Lanai
at Sharkfin off Lanai, most people dive around the outside of the rock, good and deep. Inside the bay where the boat docks there's vertical wall - part of the island that continues down some depth. Lot's of octo's in the smaller openings.

The bay just off the Four Seasons Lanai:

Hulopoe Bay Beach and Marine Preserve

Big Island
At one of the "downtown" Kona restaurants they light up and throw food on the rocks, octo's climb out of the water for it

Kauai
Although I don't remember seeing any, I would think Sheraton Caverns off Kauai is an optimal location - partially sunken lava tubes, lots of small crevices.

I would think Tunnels Beach on the north shore also, there's about 4-5 caves there.

I've been in similar lava tubes on several islands, we always shine lights on the ceiling and usually something moves.

We pretty frequently saw them near dive docks on Curacao - usually you'd see the pile of crushed shells near a hole.

Night Dives off the Turks/Caicos Explorer, if you lit one up, it would free-swim away. We followed a few conch trails thru the sand to their owner - I've never seen those anywhere else.

hth

 

[snowdog61]

I have seen 8 at the Blue Heron Bridge on a single dive. Not the only reason to do that dive though.