Underwater camera captures octopus clinging to rocks during bomb cyclone | Globalnews.ca
An underwater camera captured a unique view of one creature’s struggle to stay safe during the bomb cyclone.
Ocean Networks Canada’s camera set up in Folger Passage near Bamfield on Vancouver Island, captured a giant Pacific octopus trying to use all eight arms to cling to the rocks during the height of the storm.
Kate Moran, president and CEO of Ocean Networks Canada, said that normally at this location the flow of water is driven by the tides.
“So that means it changes, increases and slowly decreases over a 12 hour period up to a maximum of about 60 centimetres per second of speed,” she told Global News.
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“So any animal would just gradually adjust to the changing, tidally driven currents. In this video, it was changing from 200 cm a second to 15 cm per second in four seconds. So bang, bang.”
Moran said the octopus was getting hit with a lot of change in currents and there were waves 10 metres high at the time.
“Those waves normally in the area are one meter high,” she added. “And what that means is there’s a huge increase in pressure on that octopus. So not only was a current going back and forth, all of a sudden there was a whole lot of water above that octopus’ head.”
There have been no reported sightings of this octopus since the storm but anyone can look for it by logging on to the SeaTube site at oceannetwork.ca.
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