A few photographs of a great octopus, taken in difficult conditions yesterday at Fly Point (Australia) – in the shallows at the end of the dive, in dappled glare, and with sand, weed, and everything else flying round. I came across her in the open, and she roamed a bit and then headed back to a cavity in some rocks that might have been her den. I moved my hand towards her (no glove) and after some cautious arm-tip-roaming she took hold of it, felt, and then pulled. A lot of strength, as always. It was the first time I’d felt that velvet-muscle octopus-arm combination in a while – such a pleasure. The first since the Jervis dives nearly a year ago, perhaps. When I persisted a little, she left the den and hung around on top of it – the top photo – and then wandered into some surrounding weed. Then back home. I reached out a second time and again she tried to haul me into her den. I didn’t want to stress her – when they leave the den after one persists in interacting, I suspect that is not what they’d ideally like to be doing. There were no visible signs of stress, but when I reached a hand forward another time, her preferences were made clear with several jets of water. So I said goodbye.
When she was on top of the den she looked like an old battleship. (I wrote this on instagram and @blue_connections_ replied: “so spiky and rusty” – exactly).
I took a lot of time editing these three not-very-different photos. The water was so shallow that the range of colors is fuller than usual – if I can get them to properly emerge. (The photos were taken with natural light.) The great clouds of sand and scraps of weed made them look pretty poor initially, and those specks have been removed one by one. I had to wrestle with photo-ethical questions about other blemishes (some are softened rather than deleted, etc.). They are still very imperfect but it felt appropriate to put a lot of time into these, in recognition of a rather magnificent, and naval-history-evoking, octopus.
______________
If you write a comment on the post from this front page, the letters will look very small as you type. Write from here to avoid the problem.