My dive buddy, Barb just returned from Alaska, where she went on a cool, two week tour of cold water dive sites on a really nice liveaboard called the Nautilus Express, see: http://www.nautilusexplorer.com/main/?home for more info on the ship, as part of assisting in the filming of an underwater documentary.
Water was c-c-cold: 42 F., but fun was had by all.
The story I’m about to relate did not happen to her, let me make that clear: it happened to someone else on the boat though during their trip, but it’s pretty wild nonetheless.
So the US Pacific Northwest and Canada are home to the Giant Pacific Octopus, which is known for its large size 6-10 ft. long and amazing intelligence.
There are stories of the GPO coming up to divers and actually attempting to remove their regulators from their mouths [!].
Apparently, it’s sort of a touchy-feeling thing, where the Octo is sort of ‘feeling the diver out’ so to speak: first he explores your camera with his tentacles, then he explores your dive light, then, for some unknown reason, they gravitate to the diver’s regulator, perhaps because it emits bubbles and incites their curiosity.
Unbelievably, the boat captains and Dive Masters on these trips actually recommend that divers who find themselves in this situation allow the octopus to take the regulator from their mouth and play with it, and go to their backup regulator, until the Giant Octo grows bored with it and returns it to them!
I’m not so sure I’d be willing to do that…. would you?
What if he decides he wants both your regulators? What then?
Apparently, one person on the trip did get some footage of a GPO exploring his wife’s regulator with his tentacles, but she never allowed him to remove it from her mouth, much to her credit.
If I ever come across footage like this I will certainly post it, unfortunately, videographers who obtain such footage usually guard it jealously and save it for showing at underwater film festivals and rarely make it available on You Tube.
