Octopus - biologist or marine expert help...

[jponline77]

Ever since I saw what I thought was an octopus swimming this weekend I've been trying to confirm it. I've been downloading numerous octopus swimming videos to try to find something similar and while most videos do look similar. My encounter had a number of distinguishing features.

What I saw was about 4 feet long when fully extended. It was very smooth and pinkish red in color. It would swim by extending it's legs out fully perpendicular to it's head and move towards having them straight behind. There was webbed skin that was between the legs of the animal. This all is in line with some of the videos that I saw, however, my encounter was distinguished by:

- The web extended all the way to the end of the legs. There was no protrusion of legs beyond the webbing. All videos I have seen of octopus have webbing that protrudes
- There wasn't a very well defined difference between the head and the webbed legs. In that sense it looked more like a squid.
- There were many less suction cups than in the octopus videos I've seen. I only recall one row of cups.
- It was very smooth. I've read Octopus can vary their smoothness but this was a smooth as babies skin. I've never seen that in any videos.

My wife described exactly the same thing. So, I'm confident that our memory is correct (except for the single row of cups... i'm not certain about that because it was about 15 feet away at that point).

So, I still think it was an Octopus. Was this a particular species? Was this an octopus at a certain age? Has anyone seen something similar?

Thanks for your help!

JP

 

[jponline77]

This is more like what I saw:

Seven-arm Octopus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There are two diagrams on that link that show the expanded view and the side view. This is pretty much identical to what I saw.

JP

 

[jponline77]

OK, I don't think anyone on this site will believe me but I'm convinced this is what I saw in 30 feet on a shore dive on the southern tip of vancouver island.

CephBase - Cephalopod (Octopus, Squid, Cuttlefish and Nautilus) Database

Anyone else seen this species off Vancouver Island?

 

[gcbryan]

It's either Octopus reubescens (Red Octopus) which has smoother skin but is much smaller or Octopus dofleini (Giant Pacific Octopus) which is larger and has more of a folded look to it's skin.

If it really was 4 feet stretched out it may have been a young Giant Pacific Octopus but it sounds more to me like it was a fully grown Red Octopus.

 

[jponline77]

Thanks, but why I don't think it's that is type of octopus is that it had no tenticals real tenticals. It just was webbed like this:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fd/Haliphron_atlanticus_oral_view.jpg

 

[gcbryan]

Because that's what's in our waters

We also have market squid and stubby squid neither of which meet your description.

I'm not saying that you didn't see something that no one else has ever seen around here but as a newer diver and one who apparently has never seen an octopus it's much more likely that you saw what we commonly have around here.

When it was swimming are you sure it was nothing like the picture that I have attached?

 

[RoyN]

Are you sure you didn't see this guy floating by?

 

[jponline77]

Fair enough. Alright, I realize what this looks like, new diver, never seen octopus (while diving, seen many in other situations), thinks he sees rare octopus... I'm starting to sound like the guy that claims he saw a sasquatch.

It was a little like the picture attached but it had a less defined head, there were no legs sticking out and it was much bigger (unless that's a massive clam in the background I'm using as a size reference).

A red octopus seems the most likely given the occurance of these animals in pacific marine life. Maybe they tenticals were removed for some reason, it is a possibility.

 

[jponline77]

OK, no, the red octopus is way to small. I mean it might have been 3 feet instead of 4 feet but it says they only grow to be 10 cm in mantel size (0.3feet). It was definatly 5x or more large than that (for mantel). We both confirm the size and it came very close to us.

So, more likely a giant octopus. At any rate, without pictures we'll never really know (darn, need a camera) because my memory will never be trusted.


JP

 

[gcbryan]

OK, no, the red octopus is way to small. I mean it might have been 3 feet instead of 4 feet but it says they only grow to be 10 cm in mantel size (0.3feet). It was definatly 5x or more large than that (for mantel). We both confirm the size and it came very close to us.

So, more likely a giant octopus. At any rate, without pictures we'll never really know (darn, need a camera) because my memory will never be trusted.


JP

It was probably a GPO. When they really open the mantel, such as when they attack prey, you would think that they are all mantel. Also, if they were trying to blend in then their head, or anything else, could appear less defined and ultimately would disappear.