Diver records incredibly rare octopus moment under Aussie pier: 'Really weird to see'
Rye Pier in Victoria's Mornington Peninsula is a favourite diving spot for Emily May, 35, and she continues to go back time and time again. She actually hadn't planned to dive there on July 16, but told Yahoo News something, once again, drew her to the location on that day.
She decided to kick off her dive by checking on an octopus known to inhabit a discarded tyre at the end of the pier. When Emily found the octopus, she discovered she wasn't the only one looking for him. She watched as the male creature was approached by a female, and the pair began enthusiastically mating.
"It was really weird to see the female had specifically gone to the male's den... It's usually the other way around," Emily told Yahoo News. "The male started digging and wrapped his webbing around the female... he pushed her into his den.
"Then they started mating for like 45 minutes. They were mating for so long, I ran out of air."
Diver's mixed feelings about 'absolute chaos' in front of her
Emily described the scene as "absolute chaos" as 16 tentacles flailed around in the water metres away from her. What started as something beautiful quite quickly turned ambivalently sinister as she questioned whether the female octopus was moving out of the den for more room, or if she was trying to escape.
"She started stretching out the other side of the den, she got half of her body out, and then he just swung at her. It was absolute chaos," she said. "I wasn't sure if she was trying to get away or whether the den was just too small... Her den was about 300 metres away, so she must have specifically gone to him, which makes me think she did want to mate.
"It was difficult not to intervene... Nature is brutal. Octopuses, in general, are brutal."
The octopuses were Maori octopuses, which are the second-largest species in the world, and the largest found in Australia. While it was unusual to see the female octopus initiate mating rather than the male, having the two engage for roughly an hour is a typical mating duration for the species.
"There was literally nobody else under the pier. It was quite incredible," she said.
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Female octopuses usually eat males after mating
Emily explained it's usually female octopuses who are "aggressive" during mating, some males even succumb to sexual cannibalism afterwards.
"The females tend to be the aggressive ones. It's quite common for females to eat the males after they mate, because when they're guarding the eggs, they don't eat at all. They die after the babies are born — the female eats the male, almost like her last meal," she explained.
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