If you want to find a really big octopus,
you want to make sure you're looking for
the largest species in the world.
That's the Giant Pacific octopus.
They start out about the size of a sunflower seed.
You can see here 50 to 100 thousand eggs are being guarded by big momma.
An octopus can be kind of playful,
but we're not talking about any octopus here.
The Giant Pacific Octopus, I think there's a scientific name for that.
"Enteroctopus Dofleini"
Okay, whatever!
If you want to find one of those,
you're going to have to start looking where they live.
And one of those places is the Puget Sound.
The only place we're going to find it
is down on the bottom.
It looks like we ran into a Rat Fish here.
"hydrolagus colliei"
He looks a little bit intimidating.
But a Rat Fish is blind and he's not going to hurt you.
This is a saddleback Gunnel.
"pholis ornata"
It looks a little like an eel or a snake but it's just a fish.
"That's an Alabaster Nudibranch!"
"It's blowing back and forth above a Plumed Anemone."
You can see there's a lot of current.
It kind of looks like a blizzard.
All of the plumed anemone have retracted because of the current.
"Aren't you supposed to go find an octopus?"
Okay, let's go find our octopus.
Now, our first guy is a little baby octopus.
He is a Giant Pacific Octopus,
but he looks like he only weighs about a pound right now.
He's not sure what to think of me.
He's not trying to run away
but he does change color a little bit to blend in with the log.
But because I've got a powerful light, I can see him easily.
But when I remove the advantage of color from the equation,
he's a little bit harder to see.
Here's a slightly bigger one. And look what he's doing.
He's walking on two legs just like we do.
Watch what happens when he comes up to this little log covered in barnacles.
You're about to see one more reason
why these octopus are so hard to find.
As soon as he hops over it,
BAM! He's a chameleon.
He matches the barnacles.
Any diver or predator swimming over top of this
isn't going to see the difference.
Now look at this guy.
He's a Plumed Anemone standing next to a Plumed Anemone.
These guys blend in so well.
I was lucky to spot him.
But as I came in to take a closer look,
he started to act a little bit more like an octopus.
Now he's about to remind us of another reason
why these guys can be hard to find.
As I come in for a closer look,
he demonstrates how an octopus can swim 25 miles per hour.
I think I'm good for maybe 3 miles per hour in my dive gear.
Now this guy's a bigger young adult,
probably about a 15 pounder.
And he's walking on two legs as well.
Now he could probably only spread out to ten or twelve feet.
Now I found an even bigger one.
This is probably a 30 to 40 pound adult.
He's down at about 15 meters depth or about 50 feet.
He's out in the open
which makes me feel pretty fortunate to be able to get a good look at him.
And you can see he's definitely taking a look at me with that excellent eyesight.
He's not sure what to think of me.
So I'm going to give him a little distance and give him a chance to get used to me.
These octopus have been here for several hundred million years.
As soon as he hits this concrete block,
he shows us his climbing skills.
And when he gets on top, you can hear a new sound.
Now I'm not sure exactly what that sound is.
As soon as he comes off the plate though, watch how he spreads out.
Now I'm not sure if he's doing that just because it helps him blend in really well
Or if he's trying to show me how he could easily engulf me if he wanted to.
And he's watching me with that eye and he's not missing anything I'm doing.
Now by the way, I know this is a male
because I noticed that the tip of one of his eight arms
has a small extension on it that is specific to the male.
"hectocotylus".
The question is: "Is he showing that intentionally? Or was it just luck to see it?"
Either way, he is a big boy.
I'm trying to give you as good a look as I can of this guy.
It looks like he's decided to move on again.
Now he's looking back at me.
Now suddenly, he decides to come right at me.
Now the first time he does that,
I'm able to keep my distance and keep the camera on him pretty well.
But then he makes a charge.
"Red alert! Take evasive action!"
So, I decided to reposition a little bit.
It was not an attack or an aggressive move.
He was just going my direction and he continued moving on.
This was a very fortunate encounter.
To find even bigger adults, you may need to go even deeper.
Those last ones were at about 50 feet or 15 meters.
At 70 to 90 feet or closer to 30 meters,
you might find real big ones like this guy.
He's clearly way too big to fit under this concrete block he's trying to hide under.
This is probably a full-sized, eighty pound adult.
"Can you get us a better view?"
I'm going to crawl around the other side to try to give you a better look.
This is just one of his eight arms. Look at the size of those big round suckers.
A full-grown adult like this
could pick up a small Pit Bull
with just one of those suckers.
That's right, one single sucker can pick up 35 pounds.
I'm still sure I can find a bigger one. Kind of like this guy.
What's amazing
is, as big as these things are, they can fit through a hole the size of their teeth.
So even if they're over 100 pounds, they can fit through a real small opening.
But their teeth aren't like ours.
They're more like a bird.
And that's why they call it a beak.
In fact, it looks a lot like the beak on this Parrot.
And because the beak is the only solid part of their body,
even a full-grown adult can fit through a very small hole like these two.
So I decided
maybe I should have a closer look because I think there might be a monster in there.
Let's take a look inside.
Oh yeah,
this is a big one!
So, this might be a 90 or a 100 pound adult.
If this were out in the open,
it could probably spread out to 25 or 30 feet.
And you know
it would win a fight with anything with those huge suckers.
"Can you get us even closer?"
I'm going to try to give you a better look through that
other hole that's a little bit closer.
I don't want to spook him.
But I do want to put a little more light on him and give you a slightly better view.
This is a very large Giant Pacific Octopus.
They might come into a cave like this for a number of reasons.
Maybe to rest.
To have a meal.
They might come here to mate.
Or, a female may come here after mating
and lay her eggs and hang them off of the ceiling.
Well, I hope you enjoyed this.
Be careful out there if you're looking for one of these.
Be nice to them, and they'll be nice to you.
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Thanks for watching and dive safe.
"Thanks for watching!"