I got to see both of the sea turtles. The big one (about 3' across) had lots of barnacles on his back. He was very friendly, and wanted to get a good look at all of us. They are so graceful underwater. They "fly" rather than swim, and are faster than you can believe. The younger turtle was a little bit shy, but because he was young, his shell only had one barnacle, and was truly beautiful.
We saw at least 5 different octopuses. During the day dive, they stayed in their dens, but they came out on the night dives. One smaller fellow (the one in the photo) played redlight/greenlight with me. He would chase me until I stopped, then he would stop. When I swam away, he crawled after me. This lasted a few minutes, and he went off to find some food or such. In the daytime he was so shy. He lives in a tire, and he has collected 4-5 large empty shells that he puts up as shields whenever anyone would comes close.
Barry captured a medium-sized crab for me, and I tried to feed it to the largest octopus in the area. I held the live crab just outside his den, hoping that he would send an arm or two out to collect his present. No such luck. I had to put the crab right at the opening, and then I felt the crab squirming frantically. It was over in less than a blink. That octopus snatched that crab clear out of my hand like a giant taking candy from a baby, and I never felt a single tentacle alight on my hand. Amazing.
<*(((>< carries a green laser for pointing to objects underwater. Fish will often go after the laser, perhaps thinking it's some type of food. <*(((>< shot the laser near one of the octopus dens, and the octopus inside would unfurl one of his arms and try to grab it. The octopus tried this maybe four times. After that, he wouldn't even budge for the laser. It only took him 4 attempts to learn that it was a trick, and he wasn't going to waste his time and energy going after a fake. It's amazing how smart these little guys are. You can sense their intelligence, similar to what you sense with some dogs, cats, and even marine mammals. Still haven't had time to edit my vids. will post as soon as I can.
-H
