V8 octopus
Submitted by little johnny on Sat, 2019-11-23 14:35
First I’ve seen in local waters. Horrible big slimy things. Seen plenty between gero and Kalbarri. Water must be warmer
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ProFish
Posts: 68
Date Joined: 21/03/14
v8 octopus
We used to get the odd one in the cray pots back in the 70's out wide from mandurah.
ranmar850
Posts: 2702
Date Joined: 12/08/12
Shark Bay occie, Day occie...
Tropical species which hunts during the day, the common octopus tends to be more nocturnal. Tended to be north of kalbarri, once you got around 30 mile north of the river they were prevalant. Real PITA, strong, not afraid to fight you. Whereas the common octopus would try to make its escape by slithering across the deck at deck level, these things would actually rise up on their legs and kind of bounce across the deck
Big, too. You could hold a big dead one by the neck , arm out level, and legs would near touch the ground. Even the crays they didn't eat would be dead, perhaps die of stess or fright being in the same pot?
little johnny
Posts: 5359
Date Joined: 04/12/11
There impossible
To kill . Just never seen them in rocko. Seen hundreds (At night)once anchored up nth of gero when dan was on pro boat. Horrible occy.
meglodon
Posts: 5981
Date Joined: 17/06/10
Sound like a real nasty piece of work
Don't think I would like to come across one in the cray pot hope they haven't decided to migrate south.
Pescatore70
Posts: 183
Date Joined: 03/12/19
More Info please
Hi all, long time lurker first time poster.
Took me a while to subscribe but coming across this thread I just had to.
About 4 years ago myself and a couple of mates I had known since we were kids decided to grab our gidgees and dolphin torches and headed up to Mindarie (just at the entrance to the harbor to be exact) to see if we can bag some occies and cobbler walking around in the shallows. A favourite past time we'd do on a hot summers night since we were kids growing up just down the road at Ocean reef.
That night we indeed speared this "V8" occy as you call it and it has stuck in our memory since then as it was so, SO unusual we really didn't know what the hell it was. It had a medium sized head, with notably long tentacles and would have easily measured around 1.1 to 1.3mtrs. It was super aggressive and just god awful to look at but Christ we spent some time staring at it as it was a deep brown with vivid white spots all over it. No one was game to eat it and it was used for bait.
Since then we've enquired with a number of mates who fish but none of them knew what we were talking about let alone seen one.
just to add we grew up snorkeling and spearing the metro coast extensively. When we grew and got our diving licence we carried on doing it and have never stopped. Whether it has been in or out the water, inshore or off we've never come across this type of occy before or since.
Does anyone know the exact species name for this particular occy or can provide a link ?
ranmar850
Posts: 2702
Date Joined: 12/08/12
Just google Day Octopus
Lots of info. Scientific name is Octopus Cyanea . Wikipedia here en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octopus_cyanea They are a tropical species which will roam south with changes in water temp. As I said above, they were prevalent at Shark Bay, roaming down to north of Kalbarri. Obviously found further south, occasionally. Sometimes the spots are white, or they can be duck egg blue, rather like a a Rankins Cod colouration. No fond memories of them, as a professional fisherman.
Pescatore70
Posts: 183
Date Joined: 03/12/19
Interesting
Interestingly a mate of mine recently forwarded the pics above to an environmentalist friend of his and she replied back stating she believed it was more than likely the Southern White spotted Octopus (callistoctopus bunurong
) though interestingly the size and recorded distribution (S.E. Australia) is not compatible to what the posters on here claim (ie: the local one’s are far bigger).
It's also strange that a "Day Occy", as a tropical occy, find themselves this far down and as an occy that is supposedly day time feeders, very very few people have seen them locally. We've chased occy in local waters since we were young kids and none of us have come across them before or after that night. That's 40 odd years of spearfishing.
https://collections.museumvictoria.com.au/species/8698
little johnny
Posts: 5359
Date Joined: 04/12/11
There not a nice occy
There shit for bait . Crap eating. Vermin .and very hard to kill. Not a fan of them myself. Hence why it’s dead. Don’t need them in local waters
ranmar850
Posts: 2702
Date Joined: 12/08/12
Interesting on the bait angle
They attracted a lower price per KG than the regular occie--never tried to use them for that, myself.
SeperateKnob
Posts: 668
Date Joined: 28/11/16
After 20 years of diving for
After 20 years of diving for occy I speared my first V8 off warnbro beach about 8 months ago. It has very long thin legs more aggressive than your regular occo and near immortal. Cut its head off and a couple a minutes later it climbed out of my dive bag and onto my arm
little johnny
Posts: 5359
Date Joined: 04/12/11
Spot on
2 hours later with this one. Hard buggers .in approx 40 years snorkeling for occy never seen them this far south. Horrible occy .
meglodon
Posts: 5981
Date Joined: 17/06/10
Bugger bugger
If it is not the little blue ringed bastards trying to get you we now have to be careful of big white spotted aggressive buggers trying to have a piece of you, what on the hell is happening to our local waters.
Jsmolly
Posts: 186
Date Joined: 10/04/12
Shit, threw one back the
Shit, threw one back the other day. WIll get a knock on the head next time.
Also with 2 blue rings, south east of parker point, rotto.