Attack of the Giant Octopus

Posted on January 30, 2006 by glasscastle

A giant
pacific octopus attacked a Seaeye Falcon ROV working off Vancouver Island
as it was locating and recovering receivers tracking pacific offshore
salmon migration.

The incident was caught on the ROV’s video by Mike Wood of SubOceanic
Sciences Canada. He had just located a data recorder and taken a grip of
the cable with the ROV’s manipulator arm, when suddenly an 80 lb octopus
launched an attack.

With tentacles ‘as thick as man’s arm’ and a bite that he believed can
exert 1000 lbs pressure, Mike Wood feared the octopus would bite the camera
cable or umbilical and trip out the Falcon ROV.

Not wanting to lose the receiver that he had just located he decided to
take on the creature and after tightening his grip of the cable with the
manipulator arm, revved the ROV’s thrusters in reverse in an attempt to
blast seabed particles at the creature. For a moment the octopus appeared
to intensify its attack with its mantle flared but eventually the swirling
fragments drove it away.

from Seaeye

see Video
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13 Responses to Attack of the Giant Octopus

  1. ~b says:
    February 1, 2006 at 10:52 pm

    Any idea what happened to the video? Have a local copy perhaps (there server drops an error)?

  2. Michael Feldman says:
    February 2, 2006 at 10:17 pm

    I can see it fine when I click on http://www.seaeye.com/videos/octopus_attack.mpg….it opens in an embedded QT viewer in an other
    wise blank page.

  3. Friaz says:
    June 20, 2008 at 10:02 pm

    I cant seem to get the video to work. I want to see it and the octopus.

  4. bla bla says:
    June 28, 2008 at 11:43 am

    wow that was so cool

  5. jada says:
    August 27, 2008 at 12:09 pm

    wow really cool hey any body want to go out

  6. Banksy says:
    October 30, 2008 at 9:17 pm

    “Sorry! Video has been removed due to unprecendented demand!”

  7. Monster Cables says:
    November 21, 2008 at 10:34 pm

    I cannot see this video too.

  8. Craft Directory says:
    November 29, 2008 at 1:00 am

    Me too – can’t see it but impressive photo.

  9. Eggrush says:
    January 30, 2009 at 8:22 am

    Bring the video back Geoff!!

  10. Cherry Blossom Forecast 2009 says:
    February 16, 2009 at 7:47 am

    Cool pic – wish the video was still available.

  11. whoa says:
    April 10, 2009 at 8:33 am

    the video’s wroking well whats wrong

  13. Anonymous says:
    December 2, 2009 at 3:11 pm

    yea geoff wat up wit dat homie g . ddddddddd-dawg

Comments are closed.