"Honey, can you come over here, please. You want to see this. Quick! I have found a deadly animal." In some rockpools near Brisbane, we were trying to spot some nudibranchs and other molluscs. It was a lovely day nearing its end. The tide was out exposing vast rocky oyster banks, leaving behind some shallow and warm salt water pools filled with sand and sea weed. A barefoot fisherman had just ravaged the marine national park, and locals were free roaming their poo congested dogs on the beach like every other fun filled day in that tourist location. Initially, I had mistaken the Blue Ringed Octopus as a crab but now it's identity was evident in all its glory next to me.
 |
| Blue-striped Octopus |
Deadly venomous Blue ringed octopus
It was not a joke. I had spotted a Blue Ringed Octopus. It is as deadly to humans as it gets. The neurotoxins of the Blue ringed octopus is said to paralyse you completely within only 5 minutes. If envenomed - and with no antidote known or available - your breathing will soon stop, while you might be fully conscious, unable to move anything. The Blue Ringed Octopus is a silent killer. Its venom belongs to the most potent killers in the world. It is scary to read that one animal can kill two dozen people but even scarier to read hearsay facts without a source easily available that could confirm many of such venomous stories, comparisons and superlatives. Walking in shallow water gets a totally new perspective, if you are aware of such dangers lurking.
Australians love danger, don't they. They love adrenaline and good stories. But they are also quite protective of their health and the health of their children and tourists. Shush, we might build a pool fence around the ocean, charge a tourist levy for dipping feet into the ocean before we mine our national parks and recreation areas and kill that ...- what was that horrible animal called again? The Greenies might get one of those dog pee poles up with a sign that few people read, understand or follow in the first place: "Blue ring octopus sighted in this area".
The message is that Blue Ring Octopuses can be fatal. Most articles refer to the Blue Ring Octopus as a venomous animal. The deadly neurotoxin is normally applied via a bite injection. Strangely enough, I also found a confusing reference to this animal exerting its deadly properties via touch or ingestion. This notion might be introduced by comparing the power of their neurotoxin with the ones from dart frogs and puffer fish - both with poison highly effective via skin contact. Maybe someone can clarify.
Fall in love with blue iridescent rings
Let me tell you: there is not much to fear from this octopus - normally. Maybe we all need some reassurance and some slowly building exposure like I did with sea snakes or stone fish. You'll be right, mate, don't you worry! There was nothing alarming in my voice when I called my girl-friend over. It was more informing and alerting her to maybe approach with a bit of admirable anticipation and caution. Blue Ringed Octopuses won't attack. They will not kill for pleasure. It is normally a small animal, in our case hardly bigger than a walnut. How can that be a killing monster? There are almost none known fatalities - a witness of my believe that education is the key and answer to fear.
The poor animal was a bit stressed. That makes the blue rings show nicely. Most of us know that Octopuses can change their skin colour and texture. They are masters of mimicking. They can blend in perfectly to their background. They can even use their arms to form their bodies into shapes of other animals. This tiny individual not only looked like one of countless shells or crabs. It even moved in a similar fashion, walking on all arms, in the water and on the dry rocky surface. All heroism aside, I felt a bit nervous taking photos and movies, immersing my camera only a finger width from the deadly creature.
Please, find my video here:
http://www.goodpicturesonline.com/Branch-Buddies/Cephalapoda/Blue-striped-Octopus/i-RBk6Lr4
I'd like to be under the sea in an Octopus's garden in the shade (Beatles 1969)
All scuba divers, even PADI trained ones, (should) have heard or read about this animal. The information about their lurking danger are often accompanied with first aid tipps and marketing to - please - book the rescue diver package for a special price. There you will learn a lot - a lot actually that you should know before you call yourself an open water or advanced scuba diver. But after such courses, you might also forget quickly, that CPR might be your best friend when dealing with an octopus bite. Keep performing CPR even if the breathing does not seem to come back.
The octopus bite is as nasty as their characters are pleasant and peaceful, sometimes even playful (e.g. when they think it is funny to wrap themselves around your occy - the breathing piece colloquially named after them). I had seen hundreds of octopuses in the wild. I have seen them in all sizes and shapes. I have seen them fighting and in a deadly standoff with a huge crab. Some of my videos show them feeding on the bait fish attracted by my dive lights. In old times, when I was still diving with buddies, it became our impromptu task to retrieve a torch that the big octopus had stolen from my poking friend, strictly refusing to give it back and hurrying away in between rocks with it.
Well, octopuses are efficient, can move their arms perfectly coordinated, sometimes too fast for us to grasp what is happening. Under water they rather move by propulsion, emitting a jet of water behind themselves and slicing through the water like an arrow if need be, with what seems lightening speed. Through quite a big siphon they can also jet a distracting ink if they are in real distress and escape mode which I have hardly ever witnessed myself. But what could this tiny thing do to me? What it did was trying to hide. That's what octopuses do, blend in with the environment and hide in a crevice.
With its bigger cousins, it is easy to know where their lairs are. I often tried to leave the animals alone, pretended not to see them, making them proud of their camouflage skills! If I came too close they would visibly breathe through their big siphon, and by doing so, sometimes obscure my view of them and their hideout with the stirred up silt. I saw baby octopuses only a couple of centimeters long. But blue rings or stripes eluded me on them, until now. I started reasoning and find consolation in the thought that I might not have agitated the animals enough. My interactions with wild animals are normally quite passive and reactive.
The size of a walnut and with blue stripes - Hapalochaena fasciata
Finally, I managed to see and document a wild Blue Ringed Octopus. I assume it was my first one, as a matter of fact. What I actually found was probably a variety of it, namely the
Blue Striped Octopus or Hapalochaena fasciata. Its body length was 14mm and like a hermit crab, the animal tried to hide its tentacles under its body as if they were legs. I assume many of the Australian distribution information is inaccurate or incomplete. Queenslanders love to make their sea a secret only allowed to be explored and exploited by the chosen ones. At least, I can confirm that Blue Striped Octopuses can be found in and around rockpools in Southeast Queensland.
Octopuses in my scuba area have a seasonal cycle. Their population goes from abundant to absent, from multi-generation to single individuals. They go, when their prey goes. They also vanish, when some keen hobby fishermen supplement their diet and commercial refrigerators with free food. Their venomous fangs - and most octopus species have them - might not help them against dolphins and other predators either, let alone habitat destruction. Hopefully, nobody will have the genius and dangerous idea to BBQ the Blue ring Octopuses and try to eat and prepare them like Fugu, the pufferfish containing the same neurotoxin.
Theoretically however, the blue ring octopus should be safe as long as people like me are not stirring politicians and a public keen on any form of sensationalism and prone to the eradication remedy too quickly. So, I can't wait to take some more video footage and photos. Maybe some people will appreciate to see those creatures and learn about them.
Precious rings
If anything, our marine environment should provide all the 'oh's and 'ah's' we hear from children. Our seas are not the dangerous hell, nor the nemo heaven. There are dangers that we need to manage as if we were driving our cars to work. Always drive with a buddy (oh no, that only applies to scuba divers who are scared of what they are doing), don't touch anything and if there is an accident remember DRS ABCD while singing "jingle bells" (and giving Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation) until help arrives.
By the way, Octopuses are molluscs, just like nudibranchs and they have a common ancestor. Even if these traits may have evolved separately at different times, little does it surprise that a few branchs are using that very same iridescent blue and even rings to signal to potential predators and harassers: please avoid me and don't think of tasting or touching me. Some taxonomists may be taking that as an excuse to block branch research in Queensland.
There are so many good stories around the Blue ringed Octopus that I suggest for everyone to google this animal. One story being told consistently matches the 'precious rings' theme. I am not a supporter of marriage, find it strange that society is so interested in protecting its sanctity and other more profane properties, such as taxablity, denial of natural rights and perpetuation of gender discrimination and hawking of strange sexual projections and outdated paradigms. The male Blue ringed Octopus doesn't seem to waste much time in caring about gender. Unlike nudibranchs and other molluscs (that are hermaphrodites, having both sexes) they still resort to having offspring in female-male sexual partnerships though.
Last but not least, when an octopus meets a mate, don't be wusses call them Octopuses!
Enjoy, share and like. Life happens in social media! But beyond that there is also an ocean and a real life to discover, share and like.
