As promised, today’s blog post is about, you guessed it, giant, submarine-attacking octopuses! Actually, just one submarine-attacking octopus, off the coast of British Columbia, Canada… here’s the scoop: A very expensive remote controlled submarine was checking research equipment at a depth of 55 m off the coast of British Columbia when a 45 kg giant Pacific octopus stumbled upon it. Thinking it might be an easy meal, or maybe even an attractive mate, the octopus attacked the submarine! Whoo boy! The driver of the sub was pretty nervous. Giant Pacific octopuses are very strong. They have a beak that is a lot like the beak of a parrot. It can bite down with a force of 1000 pounds! They have eight arms, each of which can grow up to 4 meters long! It is a very unusual creature, as it can change the color of its skin to hide from other animals. It can also create bright lights to attract a mate. And they are smart. They have been know to find their way through mazes and take the lids off of jars! Pretty cool. They mainly hunt in the nighttime, but this octopus was oddly active in the daytime. As a result, scientists think this particular octopus may have been a little off its rocker! Sounds like they might be right if it thought the submarine would make a nice girlfriend!

Luckily, the driver of the submarine was able to blast its thrusters and send a shower of sand and shells at the octopus to get rid of it. Amazingly, the entire attack was captured on camera. You can see it (and some other cool octopus videos, such as an octopus changing colors, eating a shark, and a large octopus escaping through a tiny hole in a cage!) at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7521783500074811640

Check it out. Life science just doesn’t get much cooler than this!