Thanks For Counting Octos!

[scubaoctogirl]

I wanted to thank all of you who participated in the 8th Annual Puget Sound Giant Pacific Octopus Census! This event would not be possible without all of you dedicated divers. If anyone has questions about the event or wants to hear about the results (might not have the numbers for a few weeks) please feel free to contact me.

Please let me know if you have any suggestions, complaints...hey, even compliments...again, please keep the swearing to a minimum.

Thanks again, you guys rock! Happy and safe diving!

Cindy

[airsix]

Hi Cindy,
Despite our various day-jobs there are a lot of science geeks here. I'm sure I speak for the group when I say please feel free to post all about your work. Statistics is a big part of my life and I'd love to learn about your data and interpretations. How long have you been gathering data? Do you see trends or cycles? All that would be extremely interesting.

[Grateful Diver]

I'd just like to know what trends you found, if any, compared to previous counts. Seems to me there's fewer octos this year than I've seen previously ... pretty much wherever I dive in the Sound.

Oh ... did anyone give you any numbers on Zee's Reef? I did find a couple octos there this past week-end ... but again, the population doesn't seem anywhere near what I've seen on previous visits.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[scubaoctogirl]

Thanks for your interest!! There are some trends from the last 8 years. I personally noticed on dives that there are way less octos this year. The results we have so far show we had less diver participating with more octos seen. There were 124 divers and 81 octos seen throughout Puget Sound. In the last 3 years it looks like there were less octos. I had heard rumors of an octo poacher although I heard he was put out of commission 6 months ago...so maybe the populations are starting to recover. This is a general answer but I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have.

Cindy