When Octopus Attack...

I've been trying to write these stories for six years, and now that I'm not diving I have a little bit of free time to catch up on things.  First things first...octopus don't attack.  We've seen octopus on hundreds of dives, and we have some great stories. This is a little bit about octopus, spotting them, and a story about one of our encounters with a sleepy Giant Pacific Octopus (GPO).  

We dive a lot of locations up and down the Puget Sound, but our favorite dive sites are Redondo Beach in

Red Octopus

DesMoines, WA, and Alki in Seattle, WA.  In these two dive sites, I can guarantee an octopus sighting on every single dive, and have shared these sightings with many PADI Open Water students.  What a great way to finish your training and start your life as a recreational scuba diver.  

The Red Octopus, the smaller of the two can be found out in the open during the day and at night, you just have to know what you are looking for.  They do a great job of hiding as you approach and then pass over them, so the easiest way to spot them is to move slowly, and then casually sweep your flashlight side to side over the ground you just passed over.  Once you spot your first red octopus, the rest will become easier to spot.  

The Red Octopus in the photo above was taken at Redondo Beach during the day, and was about the size of a football.  We spotted this one in around twenty feet of water.

Squid Eggs
Photo by Maynee Desandies

Here's another trick.  If you dive any site and come across squid eggs, you can be sure that the squid parents are somewhere close.  Continue to scuba beyond the eggs until you look back and can barely see the eggs.  Find something to do to stay warm while you wait for the squid to return.  Fifteen to thirty seconds later, the parents will reappear, and then you can slowly move back to get a better look at the family.

As long as you approach slowly, keeping you lights pointed in the direction of the eggs, you won't spook the parents, and they will regale you with some beautiful displays of color changes and water dances.  They are brave creatures, and seem to be mesmerized by a diver's lights.

Giant Pacific Octopus

Getting back to the octopus story...The second type of octopus you'll find in the Puget Sound is the Giant Pacific Octopus.  The photos on the right were taken at around 7:00 am on a dive at Redondo Beach.  This GPO can be found under a boat that rests in about 40 to 60 feet of water, depending on the tide.  Can you see the slightly open eye in the photo on the right?

We've seen this octopus hundreds of times, but always under the small boat where she has dug out a large den to rest when she's not out gathering her meals.  Steve and I really wanted to see this octopus out in the open.  According to National Geographic, GPO's unt primarily at night, so we started a several month adventure to try to find her out in the open.  

We started diving every Friday night at different hours of the night and eventually every hour of the morning on Saturday's.  There were several dives where we found her den empty, but we were never able to spot her out in the open, so I had to settle for under the boat photos.  

You can clearly see how long her tentacles are, and how large her suckers are.  She is a calm, gentle octopus, and seems to handle annoying divers and their flashlights well.  

Giant Pacific Octopus

On this particular dive, we were excited because it looked like she had just returned to her den.  She was hanging out near the opening, close enough for us to reach out and touch her if we decided to be dumb enough to do that.  Instead, I backed up a bit and started taking these photos.  She was extremely active, moving every tentacle non-stop.  

Suddenly, and lighting fast, she reached out and grabbed my camera, almost pulling it out of my hand.  I wasn't too worried about it, the camera housing was too large to be dragged under the boat, and my left hand was covering the housing latch.  However, a moment later I could see I was in for an unexpected treat.  Still holding my camera with one tentacle, she had flanked me on my right with another tentacle.  I felt something on my face and could see her tentacle checking me out.  I bit down hard on my regulator, and grabbed my mask with my right hand.

What seemed like five minutes was over seconds later.  After showing me she was the boss, she retreated into her den to settle in for the day.  I've taken dozens of photos of her, but the photos I took on this dive were by far the most memorable.

Diver's Paradise

In the past few weeks, I've been reminded of all the wonderful things I love about diving in the Pacific Northwest.

Let's start with Rescue. Well it wasn't exactly diving, but it was still supremely fun. Whether it's rescue in the pool, or demonstrating rescue techniques at the beach, Rescue classes are always a blast.

In a Rescue course, the instructors and assistants have just as much fun as the students, and the end result is a set of new Rescue divers with confidence and the ability to provide support in the event of an emergency. If you dive, and haven't taken the PADI Rescue course, it's definitely a must do!


Next I joined a TL Sea Diving PADI Deep Diver specialty course. We were diving Jorstad Creek; a beautiful location in Hoodsport, Washington.

Jorstad isn't the easiest location to dive due to the steep climb down from the road to the water, but once you reach the water, it's like spending a wonderful day at the beach. Every dive was amazing, starting and ending in 68^o water. Underwater, we found hundreds of oysters, clams, nudibranchs, several different variety of fish, a couple of giant pacific octopus, and more. Our final dive was a relaxing 44 minutes as we enjoyed the tropical like waters of the canal.

Yesterday, we took a couple of friends diving for their first two Advanced Open Water Diver dives. First thing we noticed was how well they dove for having only five total dives in their log book. This makes teaching so much easier and a lot of fun. Next, the day was absolutely perfect for diving. The sky was bright red and clear, and the water was wonderfully clear. Visibility was between 30 and 40 ft regardless of depth.

We saw at least three giant pacific octopus, one eating a beautiful crab, nudibranchs, several variety of crabs, starfish, large schools of needlenose fish, moonsnails, perch, sole, rock, sturgeon poacher, and blenny fish. With great visibility, wonderful weather, and fun friends, we all had a great time.

There are many places people can go to dive, but if you haven't tried diving the amazing waters of the Pacific Northwest, you are definitely missing out on something wonderful.

A Great Day Out With My Family

We decided to take the whole family scuba diving yesterday. That's five divers; Steve (my husband), Adam (my son 17), Taylor (Steve's son 15), and Danielle (my daughter 15). We own almost enough gear for all five of us to dive; five tanks, four dry suits, three undergarments, four regulators, mask, snorkel, & fins for all of us, almost enough lights so that we all have a primary and a back-up light, almost enough weight for all of us to dive in our wonderful cold Puget Sound water, gloves, hoods, clips, computers, whistles, knives, and a few scissors. We packed the truck early Saturday morning, and jumped in the car to catch the matinee Iron Man 2 in Olympia. On the way home we stopped at Cabella's to pick up four fishing licenses (it's almost Ling spearfishing time), then over to Taco Del Mar for a quick bite to eat, back to the house to pick up the truck.

Still short on gear, we headed up to TL Sea Diving to grab two undergarments, one dry suit, one regulator, and top off a couple of tanks. The day was sunny and warm when we arrived at our favorite local dive site; Redondo Beach, WA. We unloaded all of the gear and started setting up. First problem, Taylor’s outgrown his BCD and there’s no way to make it fit him. I’m smaller than him so we trade BCD’s. Second problem, “mom, my tank only has 1800 psi.” Third problem, “where are my boots?” Already in my thermal protection, I jumped into the car and buzzed up to the dive center and returned in record time; all problems fixed.

PADI Underwater Scooter Specialty Course

Danielle and I were diving the first dive of the PADI DPV Diver specialty. She’s been waiting for a long time to take this class and she’s very excited. She and I entered the water first and entry was smooth. We made our way on the surface to the drop point and descended down the line to approximately 20 feet…pitch black and murky. The plankton bloom is in full swing and we can see each other as long as we are no further apart than six inches.

The dive was fantastic as far as skills and communication go. Using only my compass and site familiarity, we worked our way over to the PVC diamonds, some 400 yards from our entry point, and with some serious luck we found them. Danielle was stuck to me like Velcro on neoprene, and we scootered through the diamonds both demonstrating and performing the DPV skills. I held onto my DPV while we did the tandem skills in fear of losing it because of the bad viz. Finding the final diamond, we took a compass heading for the Geo-dome. Inside the dome we fine tuned some of the DPV skills. The visibility cleared a bit in the dome, but it was pitch black and our lights seemed almost useless.

Nothing to see and all skills completed, we took a compass heading for our exit point and zoomed back into the murky no-viz water, stopping only once to complete our three minute safety stop. Not a great dive, not even a good dive, just one of those dives where the best comment was “we made it out, never got lost, and stayed together.” Danielle and I climbed the stairs and started disassembling our gear.

Less than five minutes later the boys popped up and we rushed out to meet them to help them carry their gear in. Their dive was similar to ours….

The purpose of their dive was to give Adam and Taylor some experience setting up, diving with, firing, reloading, and maintaining their spearguns in preparation for their UW Hunter Specialty. They got into the water just minutes after we did, swam over to the descent line, and dropped into the murky water below. Steve found the large rope marking the path to the carousel, and moving at a snails pace, worked his way deeper hoping for better viz. Having moved only a few feet, Steve turned back to check on the boys…he found one, where’s the other? He moved his light within an inch of Adam’s face and scanned. Just as he figured out it’s Adam, Taylor’s light came into view. They continue this slow pace until they were 70 ft deep…and the viz was still awful. They stopped and settled into position to fire their guns.

During the descent, Adam determined that his dry suit and semi-dry glove configuration wasn’t working. He was slowly adding cold water to his suit through his right hand glove. He really wanted to try out the speargun, so he ignored the cold water entering his suit and pressed on.

Taylor, not having a lanyard to attach his speargun to this BCD, was extremely nervous that he was going to drop the gun and lose it in the murky landscape. Instead of moving into a diving position, he dove in a vertical position during the entire descent. He laughed to himself that if someone saw him they would think they were seeing Neptune himself with his speargun in one hand and his light in his other hand.

Not wanting to actually hit any fish, Steve searched an area with his light to be sure it was void of all life, and then he gave Adam the OK to fire his gun. After firing, retrieving his spear, and reloading his gun, Steve gave Taylor the OK to fire his gun. Taylor fired, retrieved, and reloaded his gun, and they all made their way back to their exit point.

With all the gear loaded into the truck and car, we discussed options for dinner and returned home to clean our gear and settle in for the night. The best part of the day started once everyone had finished devouring their dinner. One at a time we each took turns recounting the dive from our own point of view, everyone laughing so hard we had tears in our eyes. Turns out even a not-so-good dive can turn into a great dive when shared with family.