Hello from the U.K

[lauzeliz]

Hi everyone,

I'm here after reading 'The Soul of an Octopus' by Sy Montgomery. As here is mentioned in her book as 'a haunting Cephalopod forum' I just had to join.

I would love to meet like minded people, now I'm a little new to all of this, I'm 32 and recently actually stepped back and thought about what I wanted to do with my life, after working in admin for the past 10 years, I released there is more for me. I went away in our campervan in late June and more or less felt a complete shift in myself. I needed the ocean and I've since started a Marine Biology Diploma. I would actually love go back to university and study this properly and get a degree but since I haven't really followed since since school it appears it may be slightly difficult. Now my main love, is new and is Octopuses. I've become obsessed and besotted with them.
I'm dying to meet one, but I fear this will never happen. Can anyone help by advising me, on 1. how I could get onto the marine biology route without spending a fortune studying before I can even get into university... and 2. if anyone can help me meet a real live octopus please tell me! Any species!

If anyone wants to friend on FB or Instagram, feel free to drop me a message for my handles

Lovely to meet everyone.

Laura x

 

[Deleted member 14033]

Welcome to the forum.
First thing first. If you want to follow your dream of going into marine biology, go at it. Before you do though, do a "Cost/benefit analysis".
You might be able to do a lot more stuff that you absolutely want to without spending a lot of time and money going to university.
Keeping octopus is easy of you decide to want to do that. Even traveling to go see octopus is a good idea. Be it at aquariums or going to the ocean to snorkel or dive. You can find octopus in tidw pools.
All this depends on where you live though and if your willing to travel. Either way it will probably be cheaper than paying for schooling. Not to mention that getting a job in the field is not guaranteed.
I personally wanted to go into marine biology and Entomology. I am really glad I didn't. I am still able to work with the animals I want to and I don't have a college dept to pay with it. No one tells me what to do either. So really think about it.
Research local aqhariums to see if they have any octopus on display. That is going to be your best bet to see one

 

[tonmo]

Hi @lauzeliz - thanks for joining! We've got a bunch of UK ceph heads for sure, including @GavanMCooke (although I don't believe he's there currently) and others.... Regarding meeting an octopus, have you checked in with Sea Life Aquarium? Not sure how close you might be to one of those, but worth a look.