Octo Hatch on the monomyth

Fish & Invertebrate sightings and descriptions, hosted by resident NWDC ID expert Janna Nichols (nwscubamom).
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ljjames
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Octo Hatch on the monomyth

Post by ljjames »

I'm paying forward Madison's awesome tip to me a few years back. This year the hat tip goes to Dave and his brother who were going slow and noticed the tiny swimmy grains of rice with itty bitty tentacles AKA there is an octo hatch occurring at the known nest under the Monomyth. Awesome dive buddy that he is, he pinged me and even more awesome, he actually repacked his gear and came back out at like midnight with me so that I could scout the scene and figure out what lens to bring out with the DSLR. I owe him mega. Seriously above and beyond the call of dive buddy duty :) Now lets hope they keep hatching long enough to get the fancy camera out.

For those who have not been there, its a bit challenging to find with all the random lines and line breaks, and its in like 98' of water (if you are wandering around in 100+, you are too deep. Octo babies are very distracting so please be careful and watch your gas if you decide to go take a look. (no, i can't help it, i'll always be a mother hen)

There should be a few other nest hatching as well, so if you have been watching some of them in cove 2, it might be time to get out there and double check.
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Jan K
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Re: Octo Hatch on the monomyth

Post by Jan K »

Thank you Laura for the info. Do you have date when "your" GPO laid her eggs?
I am watching one here on the island, but I have no idea when to start the count. I am on day 112
from first sighting. Since this is my first ever GPO egg find, I would like to see the babies :luv:
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ljjames
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Re: Octo Hatch on the monomyth

Post by ljjames »

Hi Jan,

I don't know the layed on date, but hatch date is very consistent for Elliot bay...
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Re: Octo Hatch on the monomyth

Post by kdupreez »

Jan, the Cove1 Octo has been there for at least 3-4 months. We've seen her quite a few times on scooter dives from Cove2.

I've heard a few reports from divers in the group thats been out there prior to the weekend and over the past few days that said the eggs are constantly producing a hundred offspring or so per night.

Not sure if this one will be a massive bazillion spawn like the one we had 3 years ago. But there's hope :)
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Jan K
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Re: Octo Hatch on the monomyth

Post by Jan K »

kdupreez wrote: I've heard a few reports from divers in the group thats been out there prior to the weekend and over the past few days that said the eggs are constantly producing a hundred offspring or so per night.
Thank you,
I was afraid that it all happens in one night, which would be pretty hard to time.
As you said, there is hope ...
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fmerkel
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Re: Octo Hatch on the monomyth

Post by fmerkel »

The hatch duration seems to be variable from my limited experience. The Olive Hatch at Cove 2 some 10 years back lasted almost 3 weeks. It was most abundant the first week and tapered off.
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Re: Octo Hatch on the monomyth

Post by ljjames »

Yes, the ones I've seen (a handful now?) all lasted about a week with onesie/twosies at the start and then a few days of swarming and then some stragglers at the end that confirm what Fritz saw.

It would be awesome if folks see a new egg mass or start hearing of a hatch or seeing a hatch if we could post about it and share the news so that we could start gathering information (like how long is the duration) etc... It is a wonderful event, and not posting it "to keep the nest secret" (to protect the mom and eggs from paparazzi) is kind of ironic.

I believe for the most part that folks here are adults and if we say "hey, theres a next at X or Y, but Please please please don't move the rocks or shine your light on it brightly" that they'll learn more from us with regards to how to treat these creatures as opposed to just stumbling on a nest and prying it open to get a closer look. Of course thats because beneath my cynical shell, i am an eternal optimist. Also a bit of the 'if people know other people know and are keeping an eye on the nest and will report if there has been disturbances, even if they are tempted they might choose the better path'.

Additionally i've seen some nests hatch even though they were visited by DROVES of divers (there were a couple right along the main lines at cove 2) so although we have some effect i'm sure, if we can all learn to be gentle around the nests (sometimes divers just swim right over them kicking the den and stirring up silt, not even knowing they are there, so a bit of awareness might be all thats needed) perhaps we can reduce the stress on the momma octo, and help promote a better outcome.
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Re: Octo Hatch on the monomyth

Post by Dusty2 »

At that stage I don't think anything short of peeling the nest open or dragging mama out would do to much harm and dragging mama out would be a terrible waste since by then she is pretty much starved to death anyway. I think the simple look but don't touch rule is all that is required and that should be pretty much a no brainer. But then again,,,,, There are those that just don't have a clue.
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Re: Octo Hatch on the monomyth

Post by mz53480 »

[sarcasm]I heard Pez might go check it out...[/sarcasm]
...I like going to the chamber.. They have great food there, and awsome live music "H20doctor"
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Re: Octo Hatch on the monomyth

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Dusty2 wrote:At that stage I don't think anything short of peeling the nest open or dragging mama out would do to much harm and dragging mama out would be a terrible waste since by then she is pretty much starved to death anyway. I think the simple look but don't touch rule is all that is required and that should be pretty much a no brainer. But then again,,,,, There are those that just don't have a clue.
mostly what i was getting at in a round about way is "Don't BOGART the octo nests/hatches!" <grin>
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Re: Octo Hatch on the monomyth

Post by kdupreez »

fmerkel wrote:The hatch duration seems to be variable from my limited experience. The Olive Hatch at Cove 2 some 10 years back lasted almost 3 weeks. It was most abundant the first week and tapered off.
The interesting thing about the few that I've seen in Cove2 now has been that the hatches with sporadic continued hatchings are when the mother is still alive and syphoning oxygenated water over the eggs.

The massive spawn of thousands and thousands was when the momma octo died the same night the eggs were about ready to hatch..

And then there was the boundary line momma octo that died as did all the eggs with her since they were quite premature at the time of her demise.

It may be completely coincidental, but thats been my observation of about 3 or 4 dens with hatchings over past 3 years.
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Jan K
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Re: Octo Hatch on the monomyth

Post by Jan K »

Guys, can you judge from these if hatching time is near ?
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Re: Octo Hatch on the monomyth

Post by ljjames »

Jan,

at one point I thought i could 'tell' (the eggs seem to get rounder, the egg casing more clear/thin looking, and you can see the little guys wiggling around inside, and make out their chromatophores rather clearly) but then a set that Camryn Petersen was watching over in Hood Canal hatched, which from the pictures and duration seemed "not done yet", an obviously incorrect deduction on my part.

Best thing to do is just start visiting them a few times a week or set up a schedule with some other dives who are willing to team up, shoot a couple pictures and cycle visits. When we were watching a few nests over the course of a year we visited a weekly for 6 or so months and then logged 60 dives in the last 2 months specifically visiting the same nests, monitoring for the hatch and documenting the eggs/health of the mom. We did this for a few years running and the variability and dynamics we observed were amazing. One mom died really early, and her nest got ransacked by another octopus who proceeded to tear out all the first eggs and then lay her own batch. Another time we actually watched the octopus mate, and then the den got over-run by seastars. The mom didn't lay and didn't lay and didn't lay (she had distinctive scarring on her head so pretty sure it was the same female) and then when all the seastars cleared out (like a month and a half or two months later) voila! whole nest of eggs almost overnight.

I've heard that the water quality and conditions cause a lot of variability in the egg casing and that the time from laying to hatch can also vary (I'd originally been told 150 days to 12 months, and observation from nest being constructed/eggs laid to hatch seemed to put some of ours in the 9-10 month range but it was a cool summer that year) Roland Anderson's book and myriad of articles contain a wealth of information. I also have no idea how the female holding the eggs 'inside' (if her den isn't safe or conditions are bad) impact overall gestation time. Here is a pretty good summary, you can see in this article that Roland's work is cited again and again http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/a ... _dofleini/

So basically, in short, I don't know. :) (beautiful shot though should be an amazing hatch if you can catch it... If i come diving with you will you take me there?)
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Re: Octo Hatch on the monomyth

Post by lundysd »

Jan,

Give me a few days -- putting together something that may help :)

BTW -- monolith GPO hatch is now complete as of tonight (Thursday). As far as I know, the majority of the eggs were intact on Tuesday night, which means that the big hatch (>95%) was last night (Wednesday). The hatch as a whole lasted somewhere around 2 weeks, with a handful of babies each night up until last night, and a handful remaining tonight (<5% for sure)

Scott
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