Rare Giant Pacific Octopus Encounter Yaquina Head

Rare interaction with a Giant Pacific Octopus at Yaquina Head! 🐙
📸 Jesse McDermott-Hughes, BLM
These typically shy creatures are usually only spotted a couple times a year at Cobble Beach. Rarely has one showed off like this to so many onlookers!
Our rangers best guess is that is that octopus became trapped when the tide bottomed out. At the start of this video, our friend emerges from underneath the rock where it had been hiding for at least an hour. It appears to be searching for the route back to the ocean.
As it moves through the pools, you can see sea anemones recoil in fear. The octopus’ arms are feeling and grabbing. Each of these arms have a mind of their own and effectively each have their own brain!
The octopus jets water from its siphon to swim and steer. As it passes across the varied tidepool surfaces (the rock, algae and rockweed) the color and texture of its skin changes, possibly in order to camouflage.
The skin of many cephalopods, including the Giant Pacific Octopus, contains pigment-producing cells called chromatophores. Considering that cephalopods are believed to be colorblind (their vision is otherwise very sharp), it is not fully understood how they manage to change the color and texture of their skin to match their environment.
Eventually, you can see the octopus move to another pool surrounded by a mussel bed. What it does next can be interpreted in a couple of different ways. It moves purposefully toward the small crowd of humans (three rangers and ten or so visitors) and emerges from the water, staring directly at the crowd.
Is it simply surveying the mussel bed to find some route towards the ocean? Or is it curious, approaching the humans to get a better look of them or even say hi?
Cephalopods, including octopus, are widely considered to be the most intelligent invertebrates. They can solve mazes and use tools. They are known to be inquisitive and willfully interact with humans in the wild (provided they do not feel threatened). After reaching a dead end, the octopus jets off.
Shortly after the video ends, our friend returned to the rock under which it had been tucked away minutes before, to wait for the turn of the tide and its route back to the ocean.
⚓ Visit Yaquina Head: ow.ly/BJwF50KNhaL

[@johnkrebs3198]

Graceful creature.

[@pagejustin5572]

The giant Pacific octopus truly is 150,000,000 years of awesomeness

[@elijahglasser1421]

Graceful octopus

[@pagejustin5572]

This video really should have like a million views, he's coming right up on land😮 edit this into a UA-cam short of TikTok