Sound just offshore from the busy downtown area in 2002 (see plate 6). Olive was first seen guarding eggs in Cove 2 near Armeni Park. Divers guessed she weighed approximately 60 lb. (27 kg), based on the size of her largest suckers. A nearby large male octopus had been named Popeye, after the cartoon character, so she was named Olive, after Popeyeâs girlfriend Olive Oyl. A group of divers dove at the site every Tuesday night and reported their findings to us at the Seattle Aquarium.
Olive made her den under a cluster of sunken wooden pilings called a dolphin. The dive site is an area of ongoing boating activity, and the dolphin may have been tipped over and sunk by a storm or rammed by a boat. The four pilings are bundled together by steel cables and lie on the bottom in 100 ft. (30 m) of water, parallel to shore. She made her den under this dolphin, midway along it, with two openings, one shoreward and one facing toward deep water. Before laying her eggs, she looked out of the deeper opening through the cool 50°F (10°C) water.
There was little evidence of food remains in front of either den opening at the start of her brooding. We have found that the normally hard shells of red rock crabs, a common prey, become thin and fragile within a few days, and those near her den were hard, so she had either just stopped eating or she was reusing a den recently occupied by another octopus. The cluster of sunken pilings had several dens under it along its length. Unlike most other shallow-water octopuses, she did not wall up the entrance to her den with rocks. Instead, she created a fence of 8-in. (20-cm) rocks in asemicircle in front of the deeper opening, and she didnât put anything in front of the shoreward one. During her entire brooding period, she was highly visible to hundreds of divers.
Divers first saw her eggs on February 25, 2002. She laid the characteristic strings of eggs on the ceiling of her den, attached to the underside of the wooden pilings. That day, she was observed in an upside-down posture with her suckers facing upward, so it is likely she was still in the process of laying eggs. No one counted the eggs, but giant Pacific octopuses characteristically lay about 70,000 eggs. Larger females lay more eggs and smaller ones lay fewer. Olive was a bit larger than normal, so she may have laid about 100,000 eggs.
On later dives in following weeks, divers saw her right side up, blowing water through the eggs and caressing them with her arm tips. At this time, she was normally a dull gray color, but she turned red-brown in response to diversâ bright underwater lights or a gentle touch. During the month after the eggs were seen, she would take a piece of herring offered as food by divers, but later she wouldnât eat, and blew offered food assertively out of the den.
She guarded her eggs through the summer, seemingly unfazed by the hundreds of divers viewing her. She pushed sunflower sea stars away from her brood chamber and fended off other egg predators that hovered nearby. She ignored octopuses that made short-term dens nearby under the dolphin, even when they mated as close as 50 ft. (15 m) away. She probably didnât notice their absence as they moved away, the female to make another maternal den of her own somewhere else and the male going off to die.
During that summer, Olive behaved normally for a giant Pacific octopus guarding eggs: she refused food, she was never seen out of her den, she constantly kept the eggs clean, she repelled predators and egg eaters, and she grew unresponsive to divers, maintaining a gray color that gradually turned to a translucent white. Her eggs were white when first laid, but gradually changed to a yellow color as the embryos grew within, and then turned brown with chromatophores just before hatching. Divers saw eyespots inside the eggs in mid June, about 110 days after the eggs were laid, so they knew the eggs were fertile.
Divers witnessed the first of
Olive made her den under a cluster of sunken wooden pilings called a dolphin. The dive site is an area of ongoing boating activity, and the dolphin may have been tipped over and sunk by a storm or rammed by a boat. The four pilings are bundled together by steel cables and lie on the bottom in 100 ft. (30 m) of water, parallel to shore. She made her den under this dolphin, midway along it, with two openings, one shoreward and one facing toward deep water. Before laying her eggs, she looked out of the deeper opening through the cool 50°F (10°C) water.
There was little evidence of food remains in front of either den opening at the start of her brooding. We have found that the normally hard shells of red rock crabs, a common prey, become thin and fragile within a few days, and those near her den were hard, so she had either just stopped eating or she was reusing a den recently occupied by another octopus. The cluster of sunken pilings had several dens under it along its length. Unlike most other shallow-water octopuses, she did not wall up the entrance to her den with rocks. Instead, she created a fence of 8-in. (20-cm) rocks in asemicircle in front of the deeper opening, and she didnât put anything in front of the shoreward one. During her entire brooding period, she was highly visible to hundreds of divers.
Divers first saw her eggs on February 25, 2002. She laid the characteristic strings of eggs on the ceiling of her den, attached to the underside of the wooden pilings. That day, she was observed in an upside-down posture with her suckers facing upward, so it is likely she was still in the process of laying eggs. No one counted the eggs, but giant Pacific octopuses characteristically lay about 70,000 eggs. Larger females lay more eggs and smaller ones lay fewer. Olive was a bit larger than normal, so she may have laid about 100,000 eggs.
On later dives in following weeks, divers saw her right side up, blowing water through the eggs and caressing them with her arm tips. At this time, she was normally a dull gray color, but she turned red-brown in response to diversâ bright underwater lights or a gentle touch. During the month after the eggs were seen, she would take a piece of herring offered as food by divers, but later she wouldnât eat, and blew offered food assertively out of the den.
She guarded her eggs through the summer, seemingly unfazed by the hundreds of divers viewing her. She pushed sunflower sea stars away from her brood chamber and fended off other egg predators that hovered nearby. She ignored octopuses that made short-term dens nearby under the dolphin, even when they mated as close as 50 ft. (15 m) away. She probably didnât notice their absence as they moved away, the female to make another maternal den of her own somewhere else and the male going off to die.
During that summer, Olive behaved normally for a giant Pacific octopus guarding eggs: she refused food, she was never seen out of her den, she constantly kept the eggs clean, she repelled predators and egg eaters, and she grew unresponsive to divers, maintaining a gray color that gradually turned to a translucent white. Her eggs were white when first laid, but gradually changed to a yellow color as the embryos grew within, and then turned brown with chromatophores just before hatching. Divers saw eyespots inside the eggs in mid June, about 110 days after the eggs were laid, so they knew the eggs were fertile.
Divers witnessed the first of
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