Hodgepodge 255/365 - Octopus & Kin

This afternoon I went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium to check out their special exhibit called "Tentacles": all about cephalopods. I was supposed to meet my friend Kate there, but as I arrived she texted to say she'd gotten stalled at Lovers Point by a pod of bottlenose dolphins right along the shore: in six feet of water! Bottlenose dolphins are rare enough along our stretch of coast (I've learned), but so close in? And she said she wondered if one of them wasn't about to give birth. I sure didn't blame her for standing me up.

Meanwhile, though, I enjoyed the exhibit, which features a host of really amazing octopuses, squids, and cuttlefish. The instigator of our almost get-together was wonderpus, found in shallow waters from Bali and Sulawesi north to the Philippines and east to Vanuatu. Yes, that's even its scientific name: Wunderpus photogenicus. I kid you not. It mimics, with its long tentacles, poisonous sea snakes, or pulls itself into a compact form to resemble the venomous lionfish. Here's a video of wonderpus:

And then there were various amazing cuttlefish, such as the pharaoh cuttlefish (Sepia pharaonis), a commonly fished species in the Philippines (it grows to 18 inches, including its tentacles):

and the flamboyant cuttlefish (Metasepia pfefferi), also from tropical Indo-Pacific waters (this here is a video; check it out: they are psychedelic):

Or what about the striped pyjama squid (Sepioloidea lineolata), from the southern shores of Australia?

There were also some chambered nautilus (Nautilus pompilius), which are being hunted to death for their beautiful shells. Part of the exhibit, of course, dealt with conservation issues: market squid and various species of octopus, of course, are hunted for their flesh, and cuttlefish are hunted for their meat and their "bone," the common beak sharpener in a canary cage; and then there are problems stemming from development along shores that are habitat for these amazing creatures.

Double-checking now, I find that there are about 300 known octopus species in our seas (fun fact: octopuses have three hearts: two pump blood through each of the two gills, while the third pumps blood through the body); a little over 300 known squid species (fun fact: the female giant squid is about ten feet longer than the male, an average of 43 feet; their eyes are as big as basketballs); and about 120 known species of cuttlefish. All these creatures live only one to three years.
To close, here's a nice little video about squid skin. Yeah, really! It's fascinating.

I'll be going back to see this exhibit again, once summer is over and I can have the gallery more to myself. I love just gazing into the tanks and watching.

(Oh and, I got over to see the bottlenose dolphins as well: found Kate's boyfriend, Don, with his big camera and hung out with him. And finally caught up with Kate for a quick hello-goodbye. It was a nice couple of hours, connecting with the sea.)