At the start of the month lobster season began. Ever since it started i have pretty much spent every waking hour in search of the delicious beast. One of the more fun ways that we go lobstering is called 'Bully netting' We do this by taking a small flat bottom boat, rig it with an electric motor a small generator and about 2000 watts of regular flood lights, I use 4 250 watt lights above water and two 500 watt lights under water. We then take the boat to the areas of Biscayne Bay that have very shallow water with large grass flats, usually 1-4 feet deep. Then we basically drive slowly over the flats and scoop up the bugs when you see them.
In all the years i have been doing this, about 25 years, I had never seen an octopus, or so i thought. When your out there at night you see all sorts of creatures, shrimps, starfish, crabs of all sizes and shapes, starfish, urchins, seahorses, sharks (lots of sharks!) and other various fish some common some that are still a mystery, but I had never seen an octopus. There is so much life out there that you have to train your eyes to look only for the shape and color of the lobsters, otherwise you get distracted by all the other sea life. Anyway last night we were going along and i kept seeing these blueish colored things that for the last 25 years i though were some kind of branchy blue/green coral. Last night was a slow night for lobsters so in my boredom I scooped up one of these mystery corals....IT'S NOT CORAL!! they're OCTOPUS!!! all of them O.briareus to be specific.
You see when ever they see the boat and the lights coming they freeze and stick all their arms out like a Christmas tree. so to me for years they looked like coral or a plant. but know that i know what they are I can pick them ot easily they net has huge whole in it so just as i got him up to the surface he slithered out and calmy settled to the bottom. i tried to scoop up a few more but was only successful with one. I scooped him up and quickly grabbed him out of the net and plopped him in the boats Livewell which was empty. The octopus had a mantle of about 4" and he was very social. I held him in my hand under water, i pet him, he crawled up my arm and investigated. by far the most docile I had ever seen an octo. he never shot ink or water cannon. I played with him for about ten minutes then let him go. i then spent the rest of the night surveying the octos, on average there was one every 4 square yards i stopped counting after I reached two hundred. average size was a mantle of about 4-5" I saw quite a few in the 2-3" range and a few that were absolute monsters, way bigger than legs was. i would estimate a mantle of easily 8". I didn't keep one because my briareus tank currently has a hummelincki in it and I'm not going to move it, especially to a smaller tank. but I know were to get one when I want one!
I dont like taking cameras on the boat because they tend to get wet so i did not have camera with me. This is cell phone picture from a few nights ago that shows what the setup looks like.
In all the years i have been doing this, about 25 years, I had never seen an octopus, or so i thought. When your out there at night you see all sorts of creatures, shrimps, starfish, crabs of all sizes and shapes, starfish, urchins, seahorses, sharks (lots of sharks!) and other various fish some common some that are still a mystery, but I had never seen an octopus. There is so much life out there that you have to train your eyes to look only for the shape and color of the lobsters, otherwise you get distracted by all the other sea life. Anyway last night we were going along and i kept seeing these blueish colored things that for the last 25 years i though were some kind of branchy blue/green coral. Last night was a slow night for lobsters so in my boredom I scooped up one of these mystery corals....IT'S NOT CORAL!! they're OCTOPUS!!! all of them O.briareus to be specific.
You see when ever they see the boat and the lights coming they freeze and stick all their arms out like a Christmas tree. so to me for years they looked like coral or a plant. but know that i know what they are I can pick them ot easily they net has huge whole in it so just as i got him up to the surface he slithered out and calmy settled to the bottom. i tried to scoop up a few more but was only successful with one. I scooped him up and quickly grabbed him out of the net and plopped him in the boats Livewell which was empty. The octopus had a mantle of about 4" and he was very social. I held him in my hand under water, i pet him, he crawled up my arm and investigated. by far the most docile I had ever seen an octo. he never shot ink or water cannon. I played with him for about ten minutes then let him go. i then spent the rest of the night surveying the octos, on average there was one every 4 square yards i stopped counting after I reached two hundred. average size was a mantle of about 4-5" I saw quite a few in the 2-3" range and a few that were absolute monsters, way bigger than legs was. i would estimate a mantle of easily 8". I didn't keep one because my briareus tank currently has a hummelincki in it and I'm not going to move it, especially to a smaller tank. but I know were to get one when I want one!
I dont like taking cameras on the boat because they tend to get wet so i did not have camera with me. This is cell phone picture from a few nights ago that shows what the setup looks like.