Giant Pacific Octopus Surprises Washington Hikers by Suddenly Showing Up on Their Route
ABC7 Chicago News shared a video on Facebook on March 7th that was filmed by Micah Moeller. It shows Moeller and his friends experiencing both disbelief and excitement as the eight-armed cephalopod swam in just a few feet of water in the calm tidepool. But it didn't stick around long (no pun intended)!
ACB7 said in the video's caption, "The giant Pacific octopus can grow to nearly 20 feet across, and is found throughout the northern Pacific Ocean, its habitat extending from Korea to Mexico, according to the Monterey Bay Aquarium." I'm not sure how big this one was, but it looked pretty big!
Viewers were delighted by the video and left nearly 9 thousand comments about it. I couldn't agree more with @Canna Nana who said, "Thanks for leaving it alone! Just enjoy nature as you see it." @Haley Marie felt the same way, "Notice how they remain away from it, don't try to touch it or pick it up, and appreciate it from a distance. That's nice to see."
@Tyleki B Ayhmei got more than 2.5 thousand likes when he shared, "He is actually learning your voices as you speak, if you're lucky enough to see him again he will remember you, he was scanning you guys if watch his eyes!" and I laughed at @Ashley Grady who joked, "How does it feel to be God's favorite? I would pass away right there! I love them!"
Some commenters mentioned how scared they be if they were in the same situation. But according to American Oceans this cool color changing animal is not a dangerous one, 'The Giant Pacific Octopus is not generally regarded as a dangerous octopus, unlike its counterpart the Blue-Ringed Octopus.'
The giant Pacific octopus is the biggest in the world, with an average length of 16 feet. They weigh in at 110 pounds and could easily attack a human if they chose to. Fortunately for the most part, they are known to be shy and usually friendly towards us.
With the exception of the blue-ringed octopus, all octopuses (yep, that's the correct plural form!) bite with their large beaks and inject venom, but the venom is not fatal. Only the blue-ringed octopus could kill a human with one of its venomous bites. Octopuses' have suckers ('suction cups') on the arms that can become dangerous if they lock onto a human and would be very difficult to try to remove if they didn't want you to.
I scuba dived for many years, and I was always on the lookout to find an octopus. I never did, but it would have been an incredible experience to swim with one in the wild!
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