- Messages
- 101,840
- Reaction score
- 105,775
- Location
- On the Fun Side of Trump's Wall
- # of dives
- 2500 - 4999
I hooked up with my friends Kam and Valerie for a couple morning dives yesterday. Our early dive was back over to the eelgrass beds where Ive been finding the lumpsuckers
but nobody was home. We saw some other neat stuff
mostly nudibranchs and comb jellies
but no lumpies. I'm beginning to think they go sleep somewhere during the day and come out at dusk.
Second dive another friend (Chris) joined us so we did two teams Kam and Chris, me and Valerie to head down deeper and see what was in all the little structures strewn about the cove. All the usual suspects were out and about but as we approached this one little boat I noticed a plume of silt come blowing out the side near the stern. Good sign a new octopus is moving in and enlarging her den. We approached carefully, and looking down almost completely underneath the boat was a sizeable GPO judging from the size of the suckers Id guesstimate maybe a 7 or 8 footer ... perhaps a 50-lb animal. Noticing a tentacle sticking out from where she was going about her home improvement project, I carefully reached down to let her touch my hand and thats when the fun began!
I reached down my right hand and touched an exposed sucker, and without a moment's hesitation a good foot of octopus tentacle was suddenly wrapped around my glove and pulling hard. I was so startled that my hand (and the camera that was attached to it!) were almost underneath the boat before I could even react! I pulled back ... which I think startled the octo, because I got almost no resistance at first and yanked my hand back from beneath the boat before she decided to react. Then she pulled back hard wrenching my hand back into the den. Octos can be quite strong when they decide to be and without any leverage, she was going to win. So I grabbed ahold of the stern of the boat with my left hand and pulled back again, winning my right hand back from the den. Then the part of the boat I was holding onto collapsed, and under went my hand once again. I grabbed another piece of the boat and pulled my right arm back once more. She yanked back again, almost causing me to lose my grip on the boat. This went on for a while ... I honestly thought she was gonna end up pulling my dryglove off ... and finally she let go and disappeared way back into the farthest recesses of her den.
Valerie was quite amused. All the while this tug-of-war was happening I could just envision what that octo was thinking (with her several brains) ... "I am SO TIRED of you HUMANS and your F#&KING LIGHTS!"
I love octopus theyre so expressive and unpredictable almost like us.
Later in the evening I went back for another try in the eelgrass beds. But my dive buddy (Kathryn) flooded her camera (luckily its insured). So we aborted the dive before I had a chance to test my theory
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
Second dive another friend (Chris) joined us so we did two teams Kam and Chris, me and Valerie to head down deeper and see what was in all the little structures strewn about the cove. All the usual suspects were out and about but as we approached this one little boat I noticed a plume of silt come blowing out the side near the stern. Good sign a new octopus is moving in and enlarging her den. We approached carefully, and looking down almost completely underneath the boat was a sizeable GPO judging from the size of the suckers Id guesstimate maybe a 7 or 8 footer ... perhaps a 50-lb animal. Noticing a tentacle sticking out from where she was going about her home improvement project, I carefully reached down to let her touch my hand and thats when the fun began!
I reached down my right hand and touched an exposed sucker, and without a moment's hesitation a good foot of octopus tentacle was suddenly wrapped around my glove and pulling hard. I was so startled that my hand (and the camera that was attached to it!) were almost underneath the boat before I could even react! I pulled back ... which I think startled the octo, because I got almost no resistance at first and yanked my hand back from beneath the boat before she decided to react. Then she pulled back hard wrenching my hand back into the den. Octos can be quite strong when they decide to be and without any leverage, she was going to win. So I grabbed ahold of the stern of the boat with my left hand and pulled back again, winning my right hand back from the den. Then the part of the boat I was holding onto collapsed, and under went my hand once again. I grabbed another piece of the boat and pulled my right arm back once more. She yanked back again, almost causing me to lose my grip on the boat. This went on for a while ... I honestly thought she was gonna end up pulling my dryglove off ... and finally she let go and disappeared way back into the farthest recesses of her den.
Valerie was quite amused. All the while this tug-of-war was happening I could just envision what that octo was thinking (with her several brains) ... "I am SO TIRED of you HUMANS and your F#&KING LIGHTS!"
I love octopus theyre so expressive and unpredictable almost like us.
Later in the evening I went back for another try in the eelgrass beds. But my dive buddy (Kathryn) flooded her camera (luckily its insured). So we aborted the dive before I had a chance to test my theory
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
