GPO taken at Redondo-where to put your outrage

[fmerkel]

Here are specific instruction from the Aquarium:

Divers should report all sightings in Puget Sound; south of
Keystone on Whidbey Island and from Deception Pass southward
Information requested is:
• Date • Time of day
• Exact dive site
• Exact depth
• Den information
• Indication of octopus size (tennis ball, cantaloupe, basketball, or BIG!)
• Indication of where the den is in relation to the entry point of the dive
• Number of divers

For example: 51 feet deep, 20 yards right of the entry at Octopus Hole,
Hood Canal, in a vertical crack in rock outcrop, basketball-sized body).

Information about sightings on these days should be reported to;
Dr. Roland Anderson at the Seattle Aquarium
Phone 206-386-4371 • Email roland.anderson@seattle.gov • Fax 206-386-4328

Did a dive at Day Island on Monday. My personal largest exchange there. Went very well. 2 GPO (south wall)
2 weeks ago we saw 7 on the N. ledges.

Fritz

[Grateful Diver]

I saw two tonight at Cove 2 ... are they still looking for data?

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[fmerkel]

Yes, they'll take data from this whole week.

Dove the Dome today. Pretty remarkable. Able to bring 2 wolf eels and 2 dogfish right up to the window so kids could watch them eat. Got my fingers about sucked off by the strugeon, then turn around and feed halibut and sad eyed Rockfish. Don't even talk about the ballistic salmon. One did an over enthusiastic face plant right on the Aga plate between my eyes. That snapped my head back.

Talked with Tim. The Redondo GPO did mate successfully. Plans are to release it soon. He said 1,300 people visited the SA over the weekend for GPO week. That's a lot of folks that got to see and appreciate what a marvelous creature the GPO is. In spite of the marketing "circus'' it does bring people in. Whether the whole thing is worth it is certainly subject to a point of view but I think it is. We are going to need a massively larger audience than just divers who appreciate and value the Sound (and all the oceans) if we are going to make some progress.

Fritz

[carpent]

Hi all -

Just to corret a typo in Fritz's post - we saw 13,000 + folks over the Saturday/Sunday Monday weekend, and 27,000 total for the whole of Octopus week.

Pretty cool.

Tim

[dsteding]

I'd be concerned about GPO sightings being reported in this thread--or elsewhere where the public can access. Reason being is I recall fisherman using scuba diving boards on Vancouver Island to find GPOs.