This morning was calm and sunny in Wellington, New Zealand. I knew I was going to have to act fast if I was going to get a good snorkeling session in out in Island Bay. I headed out with my roommate, we got coffee and arrived at the Island Bay Snorkel Trail located in the Taputeranga Marine Reserve.
After donning my wetsuit and heading down to the water, a lady called me over to see if I could help her. She was pouring water on something by her feet. It was an octopus! I had only seen one in an aquarium before, so I was pretty excited. At the same time, saddened because it was in a tide pool and was not fully submerged. There was a smaller octopus in another part of the same pool, but it had already died.
Octopus in a shallow tide pool
We had to save this octopus!
My roommate went to go get a bucket from the van and I scrounged seaweed to use to shovel the octopus into the bucket. There were people nearby doing a coastal cleanup and one of the guys came over and help shovel him into the bucket. I still was weary of touching the octopus because I’m sure it was stressed out enough as it is. It inked as soon as it was touched. Once it was in the bucket we moved it to the entrance to the snorkel trail.
I attempted to coax the octopus out of the bucket in the shallow water, but it had decided it liked this little shell and was going to stay. After shaking the octopus around to try and get it to move, I let the bucket drift a little bit as we tried to figure out what to do. The guy who had helped get him into the bucket now came back and attempted to pry it out of the bucket. No such luck.
Octopus in a bucket
We decided I should swim with the octopus out into the deeper water and try and offer it an area it hide in well away from the shore. I took the octopus out and repeated the same efforts that I had tried in the shallow water. Finally I took to using the walking stick that I had attached my gopro to as a way to pry him out of the bucket.
After what seemed like an eternity, I finally got underneath it and got it moving. I finally pried the last suckers off and it moved slowly away. I followed it for a bit, to make sure it was ok. It hung out for a bit, moved between the plants and then slowly sank to the bottom to hide and rest.
Octopus back in it’s natural habitat
Having not used my GoPro on the end of a stick in the water with my new GoPro Dive Housing before, the footage and photos could definitely been better. I was quite happy to help rescue the octopus, but I was disappointed in the amount of quality footage I got. Fortunately I was shooting at 120fps in shallow water with direct sunlight, so what I did get, looks amazing. I’ll post the video soon.
Zach says goodbye to the Octopus