Octopus dinner on possession sound

[VooDooGasMan]

http://www.kplu.org/post/sea-lion-vs-octopus-photographer-catches-rare-glimpse-battle?nopop=1I have seen sea lions hanging around octo grounds and seen dead sea lions and dead seals lately, I think this is on whidbey Island ferry.

So it is not to say that a really big octopus killed them, the sea lion eats a few small ones and when it tangles with a big one it now has found out the real reason you don't mess with the big ones.

 

[TSandM]

I wonder if the sea lion attacked a live octopus, or found a newly dead one. I don't see any motion of the octopus on the video, but of course, that doesn't say anything about the condition it was in when the sea lion started with it. It certainly doesn't surprise me that sea lions will eat them -- there's a lot of good protein in all those muscular arms!

 

[Jax]

I wonder if the sea lion attacked a live octopus, or found a newly dead one. I don't see any motion of the octopus on the video, but of course, that doesn't say anything about the condition it was in when the sea lion started with it. It certainly doesn't surprise me that sea lions will eat them -- there's a lot of good protein in all those muscular arms!

Go down to the next video - critter cam shows a sea lion going after an octopus.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I do wish the media would stop using the word "attack" ... they aren't doing this for sport or socio-political reasons, after all. The sea lion is "feeding" ... and in the ocean, every creature eventually ends up being food for some other creature.

I've come across some very large octopus in my time that were missing a tentacle ... and wondered how such a large animal, particularly one as strong and elusive as a giant Pacific octopus, could have lost an appendage.

This octopus measures roughly 12 feet tip-to-tip ...

... and this one's closer to 20 feet ... the largest octopus I've ever seen ...

The second video provides a pretty good idea of how they might have become a septapus ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[oldsalt]

I just returned from a dive at Mukilteo where the video was taken. A very large octopus was sitting on a sunken boat with a few tentacles missing. It was not at all shy. It even reached out with a tentacle to examine me. I wonder if it is the same animal.
-Curt

 

[VooDooGasMan]

I missed this one, would be nice if sea lions would only eat a few arms and let them grow back.