Octopus torture?

[Charlie59]

I had read a prior post but had not seen the actual pratice until diving today in Maui. The DM found an octopus and it came onto the coral on it's own. It saw the group I was diving with and bolted. One of the lady divers in our group pulls off her glove and pulls the octopus from its safety. The group swam after the octopus and tormented the poor animal keeping it out in the open. I was watching other animals in the area and noted a large eel. Divers in the area could not control themselves and I barely kept my mask. Before long the octopus was pushed into the area with the eel and the eel attacked and killed the octopus. The diver who pulled the octopus from the hiding spot expressed reasonable remorse for keeping the octopus in the open for so long.

I like to see an octopus as much as anyone but when they are out of hiding on their own. Everything in the ocean eats octopi so they are vulnerable when in the open. I do not like to see people torment these animals and watch them ink.

The mood on the dive boat was pretty sullen after viewing this carnage. Sure this could happened anyway, this was brought on by divers interacting with the octopus.

Am I wrong to want to see people look at and not touch sealife?

 

[amascuba]

You are a visitor in their territory. I'm a firm believer that you should not bother the wildlife in their natural environment, period! If they are curious and come to take a closer look then by all means, let them take a look, but don't grab, pull, or harass the wildlife. That's sickening.

One of my most memorable dives to date was last November when I had an octopus follow me around for around 20 minutes. Everybody else went off to do their own thing and didn't even seem to notice the octopus. I loved every second of it.

 

[emttim]

Not wrong at all...what you described to me is pretty ****ed up and a prime example of what we are /not/ supposed to do underwater. I see NO reason why those divers should have engaged in that behavior, remorseful afterwards or not. Not only did they cause harm to marine life, which is a no no, but what they did essentially amounts to animal abuse. And if I'm not mistaken, isn't harassing marine life a felony? I could have sworn I was told something like that by my instructor, that harassing marine life or otherwise antagonizing it is taken very seriously by the feds.

 

[TSandM]

A dive I really didn't enjoy much was one on Maui where our guide pried an octopus out of his hiding hole with a stick. I love to see them out in the open, but it's a gift, not something you take.

 

[drbill]

Not wrong at all. I find that behavior inappropriate. I have had interactions with octopusses, but the animals were not abused. I would extend my arm and if they crawled onto my hand I would let them use me as a jungle gym. You don't grab them or squeeze them, you give them the freedom to move at their own. If they ink, you done 'em, wrong.

In one of my videos a dive "buddy" grabbed an octopus and stretched it out with his arms, causing it to ink. I filmed it, but only to include as a "no no" in my video. I never dived with that guy again.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Seems to be a cultural thing in Maui. When I was there, one of the divemasters literally pushed over a coral head to expose and capture an octopus ... so that one of the young divers could "hold" it. Of course, he let go as soon as the thing inked, and it swam away. The DM probably destroyed a couple hundred years worth of coral growth just so some idiot diver could "pet" an octopus for maybe three or four seconds.

It was disgusting ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[shoredivr]

I've seen that kind of poke 'em with a stick and drag 'em out thing too. Yuck.

I agree that letting wildlife interact with you on their terms works best.

 

[archman]

The mood on the dive boat was pretty sullen after viewing this carnage. Sure this could happened anyway, this was brought on by divers interacting with the octopus.

That's crap. I would have blocked the other divers and shooed the octopus back into cover, once it was off that diver's hand. What the hell's wrong with people?

 

[DandyDon]

I think I would try to intervene if a DM tried something like y'all have described. He know if I am unhappy, no tip. If he does it anyway, I'll swim away. I played with one once, gently - now feel bad about that. And I guess we did over do it surrounding one on a night dive last month, several dive lights, cameras. When he did his "aren't I big" thing, I backed off.

 

[TheWetRookie]

Very sad and unaceptable. No respect for wildlife.