Giant Pacific Octopus Attacks Submarine
Posted by: John Kirk on January 29th, 2006
It was an event that truly that seemed to have leapt from the pages of an enthralling Jules Verne novel. Astonished members of a SubOceanic Sciences Canada team could hardly believe their eyes when a Seaeye Falcon remotely operated vehicle was attacked by a Pacific Giant Octopus (Octopus dofleini) off Vanocuver Island. The entire incident was caught on video and can be see here.
The Giant Pacific Octopus is not quite as large as a Jules Verne fantasy beast, but it can be lethal to divers as a result of its ability to smother divers. Fortunately the possibly hungry or senile beast attacked a submarine this time and not a human being.
I wouldn’t characterize that as an attack so much as that the ROV operators maxed-out the forward thrusters on the ROV (pelting the octopus with considerable gravel and sediment) in an effort to NOT have the octopus disturb the ROV.
It doesn’t appear the the octopus even made physical contact with the ROV.
I agree with colobus, I don’t think it was “attacking” anything, more like just checking it out, when they, for some odd reason, flipped on the thruster and blasted it with gravel.
Absolutely, the only reason there was any panic at all was apparently because you can’t get insurance for an ROV (weird), and the operator was worried the curious cephalopod would bite and damage his precious toy with it’s beak.
The media, true to form, pumped up the headline for max paper selling effect. We should monitor the internet now for stories about that ‘poor crew in that mini sub that was savaged by a giant octopus off Canada’.
Any marine biologist will tell you how intelligent octopi are. It was just investigating the ROV, not attacking it. the humans did the attacking.