Local Articles
Giant Octopus
The Giant Pacific Octopus is the largest octopus in the world, and it lives right here in The Puget Sound. It is an active hunter that feeds on crustaceans, primarily crabs. Most individuals have an arm-span ranging from 7 to 20 feet in diameter, but there are reports of Alaskan octopus with a 30 foot arm-span.
The octopus is a mollusk, like clams, mussels, and snails. Octopuses are some of the most advanced of the mollusks, with highly developed eyes and brains.
They also have three hearts - two of them pump blood through the gills for oxygenation, while the third heart pumps the oxygen-rich blood through its body.
A signature characteristic of the octopus is its ability to change colors like a chameleon. Octopuses accomplish this by using chromatophores, pigment-filled sacs in the skin that the individual can control to alter its skin color and pattern. This allows the octopus to camouflage itself to its surroundings.
Red Octopuses are common in Puget Sound but are typically elusive and prefer to hunt at night. The adults grow to about 20 inches in length and live approximately 2 years. Like other types of octopus they can change their color patterns and skin texture to match their surroundings, have three hearts and use a variety of methods to avoid predators such as inking.
Their diet consists of lobsters, crabs, mussels, snails and fish. Using their strong tentacles, they pry apart crab shells to access the meat or use their radula to drill a hole into snail shells and inject a chemical that dissolve the flesh inside.
If you are lucky enough to find a red octopus be very careful. They have a sharp beak and are capable of spitting venom on the wound. It can sometimes take up to three weeks to heal from an octopus bite.
PLASTIC FREE FRIDAYS IN MEMORY OF X310
X310 was born on Pihemanu, Midway Atoll March 2008. She died in June 2008.
Like many albatrosses, X310 was fed plastics by her parents, because parent birds are increasingly unable to tell real food from the endless stream of bottle caps, markers, lighters, toothbrushes, and other plastics in the ocean.
An estimated 46,000 pieces of plastic float in every square mile of ocean, making it tougher for the birds to find flying fish eggs and squid, their natural diet.
You can help by choosing to be plastic free this and every Friday. Choose not to buy foods wrapped in plastic, toys made of plastic, computers, pens, and especially bottles with detachable plastic caps.
THANK YOU
FOR GOING PLASTIC FREE FRIDAYS
