The Southern Ocean - Maori octopus, Eaglehawk Bay
Locations
The Southern Ocean
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Introduction
The Southern Ocean, which circles the globe without being blocked by land, is home to the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), the longest of the world's ocean currents. Also known as the "channel", it connects the Indian, Atlantic and Pacific Ocean basins and exerts a powerful influence over the Earth's climate. The ACC carries 150 times more water around Antarctica than the flow of all the world's rivers combined.
Maori octopus, Eaglehawk Bay
Overview
With an arm-span of up to 3m, the The Maori octopus is the largest octopus in the Southern Hemisphere. Like most octopuses it is a solitary animal that is thought to be extremely intelligent. Due to the topography of Eaglehawk Bay, however, dozens of octopuses are found together throughout the year.
It seems that the octopuses are trying to follow the moon on their migration route to the open sea to spawn on hard rocky surfaces. However, the end of Eaglehawk Bay is landlocked by a stretch of land that is just 100m thick. But, having reached the end of their life cycle, the octopuses are not able to cross it and get out of the bay. Inevitably all of them die before they can spawn.
| Importance: | Understanding why these intelligent animals congregate in Eaglehawk Bay to die is a mystery worthy of investigation. |
| Dive category: | The octopus are following the moon so this is a night dive which takes place in very low visibilty water. |
| Access: | Due to the low visibility of this water especially at night time these octopuses are extremely hard to find. This bay is also extremely tidal so the dive needs to be carried out during high tide and a full or new Moon. |
Interesting for
- Australia's largest octopus
- Maori octopus factfile.
- Octopus maorum
- More about cephalopods
- Several links to interesting articles on cephalopods compiled by Dr James B Wood.
- Cephalopod articles
BBC related content
- Oceans ultimate dives: Lucy Blue's night dive
- Oceans presenter biography: Philippe Cousteau
- Oceans presenter biography: Lucy Blue
- Oceans image gallery: The Southern Ocean
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