Octopus Encounter

Last week, at the end of the Alaskan Stranding Response Meeting I attended in Seward, I was able to visit with three Giant Pacific Octopuses "behind the scenes" at the Sea Life Center. One was a female tending to hundreds of thousands of eggs. It was really cool- all day long she sits in one spot, running the end of her tentacles through the eggs to aerate them. Folks from the center said that they removed some and tried to care for them but they got all dirty-- there was no way they could match the mama octopus care! ANyhow, she was on display and wont eat while she tends the eggs and, as a result, usually dies when they finally hatch (though often the captive ones live because they get handed food...she didn't want the crab we gave her). There were two males off-exhibit. Their names were "Saam" and "Killer". I wasn't exactly psyched to handle "Killer" but they were both so cool--- Killer is named it because he was brought in off a fishing boat and had been gaffed and was all beat up-- out of water on the deck of the boat for hours...they totally thought he was going to die, but the next day he was alive and attacking all the food in sight!

Anyhow, here are some pictures. Enjoy :)