My scientific name is Vampyroteuthis infernalis, which translates to “vampire squid from hell.” Too bad I’m not actually a squid or even an octopus, even though I have characteristics of both. I’m not a vampire either as I don’t suck blood! I do have a vampire-like cloak that I can wrap myself in (see MBARI video, it’s really cool!). As for being from hell, I dare you to live in pitch black darkness at 2000 feet deep (610m) 24/7 and not consider it hell! Just kidding, I am perfectly adapted to life in the deep sea, as my species has been around for millions of years. I am still a cephalopod, a group that includes octopuses, (true) squid, cuttlefish, and nautiluses.
I have been in the news lately because a study found that I eat feces and corpses. They are some of the components of marine snow, the organic bits and pieces that drift down from the surface to the bottom of the ocean. Maybe humans would not eat those things, but food is scarce in the deep sea. I’m constantly on the move, and I trap food in long, sticky, and retractable lines that I cast out from my body. My one inch (2.5cm) wide azure eyes are perfectly adapted for seeing in low, or no, light. I also have dark blue bioluminescent photophores (lights) all over my body. Bioluminescence (i.e. glow-in-the-dark light) is the only source of light in the deep sea.
So like octopuses I have 8 arms, but I don’t have ink sacs. Instead my “ink” is a mucus ball comprised of bioluminescent lights. It works for me when I feel threatened, and besides, black ink in the black deep sea wouldn’t do me much good.
I hope you can appreciate me now that you know I am more than just a feces eating scavenger, as I am one cool and wholly unique species!
Hi, my name is Ollie and I’m an octopus. I am excited to hear that October 8 is Octopus Day during International Cephalopod Awareness Days (October 8-10). I’m glad we’re getting the recognition we deserve, as we’re usually portrayed as villains (or villainesses) or as cute baby toys with our mouths underneath our eyes. Our mouth is actually underneath our head, and in the center of our circle of 8 arms.
I wish I could have compassion (like humans!) for the other life forms in the sea, but in order to survive I only think about myself. I need avoid being eaten, find enough food to eat every day, and defend my den. Since I don’t know my birthday and a calendar doesn’t fit inside my modest sized lair, I think Octopus Day is a good time for me to reflect on my life, or rather the state of the oceans.
It’s looking pretty bleak out there because due to global warming there is a rise in seawater temperature, rising sea levels, ocean acidification (see previous post from me and Terry the Pteropod), and coral bleaching. There is pollution from land runoff, overfishing (see post Great White Shark’s Adventure), oil spills, and growing garbage patches in all the world’s oceans.
The most well known is called the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch,” which is a fancy name for a whole lot of crap thrown into the ocean by humans. Most of this garbage is plastic, which will never biodegrade. In fact, all the plastic ever manufactured is still around today, unless it was incinerated. I do know an octopus who lives in a glass beer bottle, but plastic isn’t useful to any denizen of the ocean I know of. In fact, most sea life ingest tiny bits of plastic, as well as plastic chemical by-products, which bioaccumulate on up the food chain until you (or the 10% of sharks, large predatory fish or marine mammals left in the oceans) eat us. Yuck! Sea turtles mistake plastic bags for jellies, and albatrosses and other sea birds become entangled in plastic when they try to dive for fish.
So my wish this Octopus Day is that you reduce the amount of plastic you buy, recycle what you do buy, and use a reusable water bottle. Unless you’re one of the one billion persons on this planet who do not have access to clean drinking water (my guess you wouldn’t be reading this if you are), tap water or filtered tap water is fine!! I wish I could filter the water I live in…
Meet Ollie the Octopus and learn the ocean acidification definition
Hello, my name is Ollie, and I’m an Octopus. I will give the ocean acidification definition shortly! Welcome to my blog entry, told from the point-of-view of an octopus. I am ecstatic to have found myself a human translator (or is she an octopus translator??) named Cherilyn. I chose a blog to get my thoughts and feelings across as I will only live to be 2-3 years old at most and it is very urgent that I share the many changes happening to my watery world now!
Ocean Acidification is due to Global Warming
My human translator recently told me about a documentary she watched, “A Sea Change,” which is about ocean acidification due to global warming. All I could think was eek, my beak (mouth) and radula (teeth) will start to dissolve soon and they don’t make dentures for octopuses! Also within a few octopus generations (and definitely within your human lifetime), my coral reef may be dead. Yes, the corals that pre-date humans by thousands of years will be gone in a blink of geologic time. Sure the earth and her oceans over millions of years can deal with the rise of temperatures in both the atmosphere and ocean, but ocean acidification may be the straw that broke the camel shrimp’s back.
Ocean Acidification Definition
The ocean acidification definition is that all the little animals and plants that build up the massive coral reefs (which are visible from outer space!) will be gone if the saltwater they live in becomes more acidic and dissolves their calcium carbonate skeletons. My favorite foods, crabs and shrimps, will be gone if they can no longer make their exoskeletons. No longer will my worst nightmares consist of the “baby octopus bowls” served at Japanese restaurants. No, it will be that I have no food to eat, and to boot, no place to live!
Stop destroying my ocean!
One in four ocean creatures lives on a coral reef and I believe there isn’t a more beautiful and productive place on earth. In fact my human translator called coral reefs “heaven in the ocean” after a SCUBA dive in the South Pacific. From what I’ve heard, due to industrialization, humans have caused massive destruction to the beautiful land all across the earth by exploiting her once plentiful resources. I’m not looking forward to what humans can do to the oceans, nor can I ignore what they already have done.
No part of the once thought of massive, untouchable and exotic oceans are left unscathed by the reaches of man. There is no pristine anything anymore—from pollution caused by runoff from the land, to carbon dioxide and other chemicals spewed into the air that eventually make their way into the oceans (oceans cover more than 70% of the so called “earth”), to the overfishing of large predatory fish. But increasingly (and supposedly) efficient methods of fishing are wiping out entire schools of both small and large fish in a blink of an eye and leaving nothing but millions of fish scales to sink to the bottom of the ocean forever. Don’t get me started about the coral bleaching due to global warming, as seeing dead patches of coral really makes me want to really ink someone!
In conclusion:
I’m glad I only live a few years at most. If I successfully reproduce, I hope my offspring will have a healthy coral reef to live on, and food to eat. I hope for your human offspring’s sake they don’t ask someday, “why are there no more coral reefs in the ocean? Or more importantly, “why didn’t you do anything to stop the destruction of the coral reefs?”
You Can Help!!
Fortunately there is still time, and there is still hope. Although only 1% of all the money donated to conservation causes is ocean related, you can make a difference one cent and one dollar at a time. It costs nothing to sign on-line petitions, e-mail your local Senators or Representatives or to just to stay informed (follow my human interpreter on twitter @protectoceans or visit protecttheoceans.org. Tell just one person what you’ve learned today and hopefully someday your grandchildren, after peeking underwater at a coral reef for the first time, or seeing a whale surface and spout in the ocean, will thank you for helping to protect the oceans and its inhabitants from destruction by mankind.
