Slashdot Mirror
Giant Octopus Attacks Sub
Apostata writes "As reported by the CBC, 'Salmon researchers working on the Brooks Peninsula [British Columbia] were shocked last November when an octopus attacked their expensive and sensitive equipment.' Apparently it was caught on video, but no word on when/where it will be available. Apparently this is the first documented attack." Obviously the start of something bigger.
A link to the original video can be found on this page (video is 2.9Mbyte .mpg file). Also, a mirror of the video can be found here. The link above to the video page has a detailed summary of what happened:
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.
The giant pacific octopus, octopus dofleini, is the largest species of octopods and although it grows to an average weight of 50 to 90 lbs with a span of 16 ft, a monster 600 lbs one has been recorded. They are intelligent creatures who can negotiate mazes and learn to unscrew jars to remove food. No problem disassembling an ROV then.
Obviously the start of something bigger.
Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together - mass hysteria.
It was just looking for seamen to swallow.
... and then they built the supercollider.
This thing is going to be huge in Japan.
When I hear "Giant Octopus Attacks Sub" for some reason I imagine something a lot larger than 80lbs. Then I read the story and find out it's not really a GIANT Octopus, and he wasn't attacking a 688 Attack Sub.
So it's not all it's cracked up to be. Huh. Why do I feel like I've done this before?
Phillipine Giant Octopus Attack in December 27 1989 read more http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~bz050/goattack.html. And some intresting information about giant octopuses can be found here http://www.gabourgeois.com/giantocto.html
Think like a hacker, act like a hacker, but never become a hacker !
"I go full reverse and blast him with all these seabed particles," said Wood, describing the attack shown in the video. "Finally, he lets go and disappears off into the gloom.
"It was desperation. It's a $200,000 machine, and it's not insured," said Wood, who runs SubOceanic Sciences Canada in Duncan, B.C.
Even when you get your sub insured they neglect to mention you have to pay extra for underinsured gaint squid and octopus coverage.
an octopus attacked their expensive and sensitive equipment
Ouch, that sounds painful. Anybody ever had an octopus stuck to their sensitive equipment?
I just watched the video and it looks like the Octopus was checking what the heck this thing was doing in his environment. Once he/she approached the ROV, the guy operating it revved the motors and sprayed debris at the unsuspecting Octopus. How do we really know this isn't so some sort of sick and twisted oceanographer that gets his kicks off luring unsuspecting cephalopods into the ROV engine's thrusts? Sure he says that his little submarine was getting attacked but my guess this isn't the first time he has fucked with invertebrate mammals. I think there is more here than meets the eye. Where is ASPCA?
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
This attack was terrible and completely unprovoked, I think we need to strike back at the octopuses with full force to show that we can't be pushed around! This giant octopus attacked a sub, so I say we build a giant sub to attack an octopus!!
Those Octopussies won't know what hit 'em!!
From here on out, all subs will be equipped with miniature Kirk Douglas's armed with spears to fend off these ferocious attacks!
It's always easier when it's not your expensive toy down there, but it seems the operator was in panic mode. I'd like to think that if it were my ROV, I'd have held off on that little counter-offensive stunt a little longer, until I saw at least some indication of hostility. In the video, the octopus has barely started reaching toward the ROV by the time its starts getting pelted by the gravel. My guess is that the encounter would have ended quite peacefully, without any aggression on either side, and we would have had even more footage of this interesting interaction.
Having done more than a bit of diving, I can tell you that many octopii are very curious creatures. They seem to come in two rather distinct varieties - the very shy ones that flee and the very curious that are quite willing to investigate your mask, tanks, etc. Many octopii are also very senstive to light and color. They seem to use color to communicate with each other. Depending on the type of octopii, many are quite sensitive to light, some being attracted to and some being repelled by it.
I'm also betting that these folks had all their little lights blazing, all their little tools humming, and lord only know what else. I'm sure that they attracted the thing. Most people don't realize that octopii have problem-solving intelligence. (It's the one thing that makes me feel guilty about eating them. I guess if they were smarter they'd find a way not to taste so good) Anyway, because they're smart, they also investigate odd things. As fragile as they look, they are suprisingly strong. I've had an octopus not much bigger than my hand nearly pull my regulator out of my mouth. I can only imagine what 100lb octopus is capable of. Frankly, I'm a bit surprised they have sub left. I would suggest investigating to see if they can find out what they did to initiate the incident and "don't do that anymore."
2 cents,
Queen B
HDGary secures my bank
Frankly, I'm surprised it's taken this long. In the last year we've seen the discovery of a super giant squid, the first videos of a giant squid in the wild, and now this!
Look.
Do you know how fucking big a sperm whale is? It's huge. HUGE. And giant squid eat them. Listen to your heart - no matter what the scientists tell you, 4th grade ecology has convinced us all that whales are intelligent loving animals. Did you see Star Trek 4. They're the freakin' saviours of humanity man.
And giant squid eat them
Eat them
Not beacause it's easy. Oh no, not because a sperm whale is an easy catch. Big, remember? No. It's because squid are evil incarnate
Do you know how long they've been down there? No one does. But my guess is the squid and it's precurser have been down there in the depths for a lot longer than man has been knucklewalking. That's old. And you know they think down there. Brood down there. Their tentacles floating like the limbs of children relaxing in the water, they brood and wonder how to conquer us from below.
Things that think and brood also dream. And things that dream begin to worship the stuff of dreams. Out of man's insecurity we have sublimated a great father figure into the sky, according to Freud. What about the tentacled things in the watery darkness, whose females are larger than their males?
I'll tell you what they worship
A great multilimbed mother of the dark watery brood. Deep down in the very molten cracks of the earth filling the sea with inky blackness. THAT's what they worship. We killed men in the crusades. Men who looked the same as other men. What will the dark octupi and squid do to US who are mere flabby bloodsacks to rip apart and drink out fluids with their beaky maws? What in the name of their Dark Mother goddess will they do to us when they rise into our airy realm?
Think about it dudes
Us computer geeks are basically fucked
You can find the video at Google Video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-700490962 2962894202&q=octopus+shark
The octopus in that video is deomstrating the same instinct as the octopus that attacked the sub.
Here's a mirror site hosting this one and a few other octopi videos.
Link (pops)