- Joined
- Aug 17, 2005
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Last Wednesday, February 19th, the cephalopod community lost a long time champion for octopuses, the giant Pacific octopus especially. Roland was a biologist with the Seattle Aquarium for 33 years and during his time there working with cephalopods contributed a large portion of our current knowledge on cephalopods, and particularly on North Pacific cephalopods such giant Pacific octopus, pacific red octopus and stubby squid. While he was not especially active in the hobbyist community, much of the work he did at the aquarium on keeping octopuses, particularly in enrichment for octopuses, has become standard practice for hobbyists everywhere. He wrote countless peer-reviewed papers on their ecology and behavior and several books including "Aquarium husbandry of Pacific Northwest marine invertebrates" and co-authored "Octopus: The Ocean's Intelligent Invertebrate". He truly delighted in telling anyone who was willing to listen how amazing these creatures are.
On a personal note, Roland played a large role in shaping my own career. My first summer as an undergraduate at Rosario Beach Marine Lab, I decided to undertake a food-choice experiment with a giant Pacific octopus. Having no previous experience keeping or working with octopuses, I contacted Roland to for some advice. He invited me to visit him at the Seattle Aquarium (conveniently located only about and hour from RBML) and to meet with him in person and see their GPO work first hand. Ever concerned about the welfare of octopuses, the first thing he asked me about when I met him was to see if I was keeping the octopus in appropriate conditions. His second statement was to correct my used of the word "octopi". Since that time he had enthusiastically done whatever he could to to help my career as an octopus researcher, putting me in contact with other people in his vast network of ceph researchers, serving on my master's committee, and just dropping me a line every so often to just see how things were going.
At the time of his death Roland was organizing the 2014 Giant Pacific Octopus workshop at Seattle Aquarium that will be held March 29th. My understanding is that the workshop will go on in his honor. I would highly encourage anyone who is interested in octopuses and has the means to attend.
On a personal note, Roland played a large role in shaping my own career. My first summer as an undergraduate at Rosario Beach Marine Lab, I decided to undertake a food-choice experiment with a giant Pacific octopus. Having no previous experience keeping or working with octopuses, I contacted Roland to for some advice. He invited me to visit him at the Seattle Aquarium (conveniently located only about and hour from RBML) and to meet with him in person and see their GPO work first hand. Ever concerned about the welfare of octopuses, the first thing he asked me about when I met him was to see if I was keeping the octopus in appropriate conditions. His second statement was to correct my used of the word "octopi". Since that time he had enthusiastically done whatever he could to to help my career as an octopus researcher, putting me in contact with other people in his vast network of ceph researchers, serving on my master's committee, and just dropping me a line every so often to just see how things were going.
At the time of his death Roland was organizing the 2014 Giant Pacific Octopus workshop at Seattle Aquarium that will be held March 29th. My understanding is that the workshop will go on in his honor. I would highly encourage anyone who is interested in octopuses and has the means to attend.
