[Featured]: Enteroctopus that washed up on my local beach

[Carl J. Bobrow]

The remains of a Giant Pacific octopus (Enteroctopus dofleini) were found by me this past Tuesday at Chetco Point (CHETCO POINT PARK | Brookings-Harbor Oregon). It is apparent from the condition that it had been attacked whilst alive, most of the arms were torn away, most likely by seals, my speculation based on the large population of Pinnipeds in the area, from my reading cephalopods are a staple food source for them. Judging from the size of the remains plainly it was a large cephalopod when it was alive. Based on my understanding and confirmed later by some scientific studies, the size of the octopus can be determined from the beak, plus also it was just too interesting to pass up therefore I decided to remove the buccal mass to examine and to retrieve the beak and preserve it. https://www.kahaku.go.jp/research/db/zoology/Beak-E/intro.htm.

 

[tonmo]

Hi @Carl J. Bobrow, great to see you! This is great content; what a find and opportunity. Nice vid of the beak here also -- have you drawn any conclusions about its size? Definitely an impressive beak there for an octo!