Giant Pacific Discovery

Wednesday’s Skansie Farmer’s Market was a lucky day for Harbor Wild Watch’s Get Your Feet Wet program.  My fellow naturalist Stena and I were heading down to the dock to meet our volunteer SCUBA diver Anthony who was preparing to start his collection. Glancing onto the exposed beach to the right of Jerisich dock I saw a creature moving very oddly in the mud.  The animal moved with struggle, an inflating and deflating like movement.  Normally when I find animals on the beach they are lying flat, moving fast throughout the water, or hiding under a rock.

 This particular animal was red/brown in color, had two eyes, a head the size of a soft ball, and eight tentacles roughly 10 inches long.  That’s right, I spotted an Octopus! I had a moment where I had to rub my eyes in disbelief.  I had never seen an octopus on a local beach, let alone spotted it so easily.  Although I wanted to yell at the top of my lungs “octopus, we found an octopus,” I didn’t want to draw in crowds until my new friend was safely secured. Luckily Anthony had no problem scooping up the octopus and placing him gently in my bucket. 

Word quickly spread throughout the farmers’ market about our special guest. For the next few hours, Harbor WildWatch and our visitors got the chance to observe a juvenile Giant Pacific Octopus.  Like all of the animals that we collect with our Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife permit, we can only have the species in our touch tanks for a limited time, during which we keep them cool and oxygenated until we return them back to their homes.  While in our “no touch” tank, the octopus remained quite calm, and explored his surroundings with his 8 sticky tentacles.  It also changed color in the blink of an eye, from deep rusty red to a pale mauve and back to dark brown.  We got to see it breathing through its siphon, in and out, in and out.  Octopus* shed the skin of their tentacles frequently, and we could see the clear disk shaped sheds floating in his tank.  When it was time to release the octopus, another crowd gathered on the dock.  Rachel Easton, program coordinator for Harbor Wild Watch, gently handled the delicate animal.  Octopus are venomous, a little known fact, and we had to ensure the release went smoothly for both Rachel, and the octopus.  She lowered the tank into the water, gently touched his mantle to encourage him forward, and off he went, jettisoning into the safety of the pilings. 

Puget Sound is a remarkable place to see a variety of marine species, sometimes when you least expect it.  It’s important to be stewards of the environment so these wonderful animals will be around for generations.  Looking for ways you can help your local environment?  Visit, http://www.youtube.com/gigharborwildwatch.

 *the correct plural of the word octopus is octopuses or octopus.

Giant Pacific Octopus

The Giant Pacific Octopus is the largest species of octopus in the world.

To identify the Giant Pacific Octopus we noted that it did not have “eyelashes” or triangular skin tabs below the eye like the Red octopus.

The octopus has no blind spot because of its horizontal pupil and ability to rotate its eyes.  They also have polarized vision which allows them to see nearly invisible critters like jellyfish.

An octopus has three hearts helping it pump enough blood through all eight tentacles.

To confuse its predators, an octopus will release a dark cloud of ink while it makes its getaway. The ink is a mixture of concentrated melanin (this pigment gives us our skin color) and a compound called tyrosine which is an irritant to the predator’s eyes and sense of smell.

A master of disguise, an octopus can change the color as well as the texture of its skin to help it blend in with its surroundings.

The only hard part in an octopus is the short beak (similar to a parrot) which it uses to crush prey like clams and crabs.

An octopus has a venomous bite.  A bite from the blue ringed octopus is the only one that can kill an adult human but a bite from a giant pacific octopus would still hurt.

An octopus eats things like clams, crabs, small fish, snails, and even other octopuses!

Male and females octopuses die shortly after reproducing. The female will live just long enough to guard the eggs until they hatch.  During this time she will blow water over the eggs to keep them well oxygenated, clean, and protected from predators.

Stephanie McCaffery, Naturalist