Handling sea critters in Hawaii

[gracefulc]

So having learned to dive in the Pacific NW, I had an instructor who always taught us to not touch/handle the creatures underwater, both the inverts and the ones that could swim away or bite us. So I did some dives in Hawaii and was absolutely floored when the guide pulled an octo out of his den and had him in his hands and arms while the octo was putting up a heck of an ink storm... this happened twice with this guide and based on conversations he wasn't the only one who did it. I'm honestly not trying to lay judgement, but I am simply curious, is this common practice?

 

[onfloat]

The Octo's here are hunted quite regularly for food. Most of the hunters here will "tickle" them out of the hole and handle them the way you saw and let them go if they are too small. It's also a good way to turn them into food for something else if your not careful.

The locals refer to it as "Tako hunting."

 

[gracefulc]

in this case the octo was being taken out for us to see and then put back in his den... I can see taking it out if you're hunting it, just as I would examine a crab if I was crabbing in the PNW. It was taking them out for the divers/tourists to see that surprised me...

 

[ScubaTim]

Where did you dive? What Island? And with who? The best way to stop this is to let people know who is doing it. Hopefully if everyone would stay honest this would help put pressure on guides/dive op's to do the right things... So many do a great job and so few ruin it for the rest of them!

 

[ch0ppersrule]

I see people doing it all the time. Not just dive operators and their employees. It is a sight you will see frequently in Hawaii (at least on Oahu).

 

[Cacia]

yea, "Octupi Molesters" I call them. If you say anything like "oh, they get so stressed!" people say well their life span is only blah, blah, blah. You can only do so much. I think it is kinda pointless. I think the dive guides just do this little pony show for tips. I would rather see them in the hole, peering out than yanked out and stressed like that. I feel no qualms about gently repositioning a nudi though. Everybody draws the line someplace different, don't they?

 

[Rick Inman]

You don't need to molest the things, or knock 'em out of a hole if you dive at night.

This little Hawaiian Octo pictured below let me snap a few shots of him (her?), and then attacked my camera, jumping straight onto the camera, arms wrapped tightly around the housing, held on for a minute, and then jetted off in a cloud of ink.

Don't these guys know better than to molest the humans? eyebrow

 

[fishb0y]

Sorry, here in Hawaii it is common practice to play with a tako... or as I like to say, play with your food. I see nothing wrong with it... call me what you will. Since I have 2 takos in the freezer currently, I haven't taken any in a couple of months.

I am sure the few takos that I and every other diver in Hawaii 'molest' or the period of YEARS, does FAR less damage (meaning negligible) than all of the other commercial fishing operations do in a month.

Think about this... when was the last time you went to a park and picked a wild flower? Remember when you were a kid and collected little animals? (My kids like to go hunting geckos, which they let go at a later point). How about those rocks on the nature trail that you turned over to see what was underneath? Its the same thing. Why is it OK to do these things, but if you do it under water you are considered 1 step lower than Bin Laden?

 

[Jai Bar]

I don't think that the sea is a playground for us, and I find disturbing sea creatures... disturbing.

Some people (and divers) are sometimes unaware of the various possibilities to damage or harm creatures by disturbing them. Most of them will accept a good explanation, and will stop.

But, from dive leaders such as instructors and dive masters I expect more- not only they make their living from the sea and should respect it- they are also an example and many divers figure out that "it is OK" seeing an instructor doing it.

Reefs are under stress from so many factors: climate, various types of polution, fishing, coastal and urban development etc. etc. that the very least we can do is reduce our own impact, the one caused by us divers: beeing careful not to break corals and leaving the creatures in peace is not such a big request.

I don't like the claim that commercial fishing does more harm. Although it may be true, commercial trawlers and fishing boats usually do not operate in the same areas where we dive. Molesting sea creatures in places where we dive is another thing.

 

[fishb0y]

Spoken like a true PADI Professional... Now use some abstract thought here and look at my last post. How is being underwater make any of that different?

As far as your explanations, give me one... but please leave out the "mucous membrane" myth and that it causes stress to the animal. The octopus will forget about it, but if you now want to give animals human emotions, think about an octopus' relief that it got away.