Video: Late-night octopus-watching off West Seattle’s shore

Thank you, as always, to “Diver Laura” James for sharing another view of what you won’t see unless you’re a diver too. From her dive last night off Seacrest, an unedited stretch of octopus-watching:

Un-cut octopus footage from 9/28 from Laura James on Vimeo.

Along with the link, Laura wrote: “We spent almost 10 minutes with this amazing beautiful creature before we had to leave because of depth, time and air constraints (though I would have happily spent all night). It turns out my buddy swam right over the well-camouflaged octopus and was checking out the den of another octopus looking to see if there were any eggs (none to be found so far). You can see me signal him by bobbing my lights. The octopus gets curious and decides it wants to come check me out (I’m actually swimming backwards in some of the video) until my dive buddy comes over and then it decides to do something even more entertaining. Upon noticing my dive buddy, it ceases advancing on me and for lack of a better descriptive, turns around and starts sneaking up on my buddy. You can actually see it hunkering down and hiding behind the log, then it squeezes under the log and boo! Octopus! It does not appear upset in any of the interactions, more curious and checking things out. It does get upset later on when it tries to invade the den of a second octopus and gets into a bit of a wrestling match.” P.S. Interesting Giant Pacific Octopus info and trivia here.

P.S. On a much-smaller scale – remember Laura’s iPhone-microscope plankton-watching? She has agreed to join us in the WSB booth at the West Seattle Junction Harvest Festival four weeks from today, so you can bring your kid(s) by to have a look at the tiny creatures that fill our seas. The Harvest Festival is set for 10 am-2 pm Sunday, October 26th.

ADDED 3:42 PM: Laura just sent an edited video with a “potpourri of critters” from the dive, so we’re adding it:

Potpourri of Critters from Laura James on Vimeo.

18 Replies to "Video: Late-night octopus-watching off West Seattle's shore"

  • Amy M September 28, 2014 (5:08 pm)

    So cool!

  • DaleR September 28, 2014 (5:32 pm)

    Great video.

    Thanks to Laura for providing folks that don’t dive views of the beauty below the surface.

    And reminds us again about the sadness depicted in the video several years ago of the moron diver at the same location removing an octopus from its home and beating it to death on shore.

    Keep doing what you’re doing, Laura. Important work.

  • pupsarebest September 28, 2014 (5:40 pm)

    Thank you, Laura and “buddy”, for this amazing footage, both in terms of content and quality.
    Great choice of music for the “soundtrack”, too.
    :)

  • payrollgirl September 28, 2014 (5:49 pm)

    That was a great video and I agree with pupsarebest on the choice of the song attached with it!

    Only thing I hated though was seeing those beer bottles down there…very sad that those amazing sea creatures must live in that garbage.

  • Graham Morgan September 28, 2014 (6:04 pm)

    Great video; thanks for sharing.

  • Interrobang September 28, 2014 (9:30 pm)

    @DaleR What the ACTUAL F***!? That’s horrific!

  • WS taxpayer September 28, 2014 (9:44 pm)

    Amazing creatures

  • Mary September 28, 2014 (10:04 pm)

    This is *amazing!* Thanks for sharing. How far from shore and how deep was the octopus?

  • HC September 28, 2014 (10:53 pm)

    Thank you for sharing this amazing video. Fantastic quality and song choice.

  • DiverLaura September 28, 2014 (11:02 pm)

    Thank you all for the kind words! I am glad to be able to share them with you all!!! Mary, This was shot at depth between 60-80′ out past the buoys…

  • Kathy September 28, 2014 (11:07 pm)

    Has to be one of the most fascinating creatures on the planet. And poetry in motion to watch, too. Thank you, Laura.

  • shellyn September 28, 2014 (11:48 pm)

    Oh wow! Such an incredible vid. Thanks, Laura. Please keep posting more!!

  • Jonel September 29, 2014 (9:32 am)

    Fantastic video – so wonderful to see. Thanks for shooting and sharing and all that you do Laura.

  • Cynaur September 29, 2014 (12:34 pm)

    So fantastic of you to share this with us! And the musical accompaniment was spot on. THANK-YOU!!!

  • gia September 29, 2014 (2:05 pm)

    Thank you Laura. The video was excellent quality and the song choice was the cherry on the sundae!!!!

    Thanks for showing me (us) what goes on underwater.

  • Frivera(Wolff) September 29, 2014 (4:28 pm)

    Laura, thanks you so very much. My parents owned the dive shop that was across from where you were most likely diving. It brings back fantastic wonderful memories. I can no longer dive so this made my Year!!

  • DiverLaura September 29, 2014 (7:33 pm)

    That is indeed the same spot!

    I taught at that dive shop when I had just completed my instructor training! Your dad was always so awesome to me :) I learned a lot about the area listening to him :)

  • ellenater September 30, 2014 (9:17 pm)

    Thanks for this. Made my night. :)

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