The day after the “battleship” octopus I went out at Fly Point again. It was quiet in most places. The coral garden seems beaten up and quiet. I came in towards the end looking for octopuses in the shallows.
I found two dens close to each other, a bit over a foot apart. In one den was an octopus sitting upright with a lot of stuff strewn in front. The other den also had stuff strewn around, and was empty. As I was watching, another octopus came over the top of the empty den and settled in. He’d been there the whole time, camouflaged, or had come back.
This one seemed quite lively, so I reached out may hand and she (I think she, from the suckers) was interested. She came out, darkened a little, grabbed my fingers, and pulled. And as sometimes happens, she pulled very hard and I was not braced well enough, and I pulled back involuntarily so as not to be completely off balance, and hence pulled back more than I should. She went dark, let go, and went back into the den, as if to say: that was not impressive. I reached out my hand again but I had clearly lost any immediate possibility of contact with this octopus, who hauled herself deeper into the den, looked at me sullenly, and blew water jets. Not interested.
I was a bit sad, as I felt I’d squandered a chance for some contact with this octopus. As I was almost out of air and this was in 2-3 meters of water, I hovered at the surface and watched. Finally, the lively octopus very slowly edged out and left the den.
I waited until she was a few feet away and then went down with my scraps of air, also on snorkel once or twice. She was foraging, pretty clearly.
When I went down intially, she was hidden in some seaweed, camouflaged, with her little head above the weed looking intently at me, with an: “I.. am.. watching.. you” look about her. She was not trying to get away and not acting aggressively, but intently watching. All three photos are from that time.
She resumed foraging. And after a while she became relaxed with having me around, popping occasionally up and down, quite close by. Finally, as she was trying to burrow under another rock, with dark gray dust going everywhere and my air near zero, I said goodbye and came in.
Like the previous post, three similar photos. In appreciation of another fine octopus.
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