Northwest Dive Club

Don Coleman found this strange sight the other day and asked me to post his photo for him due to technical difficulties he's having with his computer. He says:

"I took a few hours off to do a fun dive today with my son-in-law. We found an octo and a ling, actually an octo in a ling. Thought it was worth sharing. The octo is still alive. The ling was a bit lethargic. I wonder if either will survive? "

Great shot, Don!! What a weird experience it must have been!

- Janna

Janna did a fun dive?!? Awesome! You need to do that more often!!

What an amazing picture of the Octo-in-a-Ling. Reminds me of pirates of the Caribbean...

Just when you think you've seen it all...

What a great find! Talk about biting off more than you can chew!

Defiantly looks like a no-win situation! Hard to feel sorry for an alfa predator but in this case I think it's appropriate

No Tom, Janna didn't do a "fun dive" it was Don. Janna just posted it for him. What a silly question - I can't believe you even asked. You KNOW Janna doesn't dive for "fun!"

I'm guessing the ling was lethargic due to difficulty getting oxygen - the octo's arms are plugging things up a bit. I bet the ling either died, or became so lethargic that the octo was able to escape.

What a weird thing to happen upon!!

Sounder wrote:No Tom, Janna didn't do a "fun dive" it was Don. Janna just posted it for him. What a silly question - I can't believe you even asked. You KNOW Janna doesn't dive for "fun!"

That's right!!! NO FUN!!

Sounder wrote:No Tom, Janna didn't do a "fun dive" it was Don. Janna just posted it for him. What a silly question - I can't believe you even asked. You KNOW Janna doesn't dive for "fun!"

Oooopppsss. My bad. What was I thinking?!

Wow- THAT is pretty wild.

So who was trying to eat who?

Thanks for posting the pic Janna! I found that guy yesterday on The Pinnacle SW side. We'll be keeping our eyes open for him this weekend. Great example of you never know what you'll find when you dive!
don

That is one of the strangest uw photos I've ever seen. What a great find, I really wonder what happened. Do ling cods usually eat octos (or the other way around)?

Calvin wrote:That is one of the strangest uw photos I've ever seen. What a great find, I really wonder what happened. Do ling cods usually eat octos (or the other way around)?

I think a big enough GPO could opportunistically grab a smaller Ling. And I would also guess that a Ling wouldn't hesitate to nab a smaller octo found in the open. So I vote yes for both!

Tom Nic wrote:

Calvin wrote:That is one of the strangest uw photos I've ever seen. What a great find, I really wonder what happened. Do ling cods usually eat octos (or the other way around)?

I think a big enough GPO could opportunistically grab a smaller Ling. And I would also guess that a Ling wouldn't hesitate to nab a smaller octo found in the open. So I vote yes for both!

This is a link to a video of a GPO grabbing and eating a shark. I dont think the ling would have to be all that small!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xECjNBk ... re=related

Very cool picture! Thanks for posting!

That is really, really creepy!!!!

Here is another Octo / Fish encounter that did not end well for one party:

A year or two ago some friends of mine in Canada described finding the exact same thing up there- a ling with octo tentacles coming out of its gills and down its body. But they didn't have a camera with them. At first glance they thought it was tangled in a net or something. As I recall, the outcome there was still in question.
Thanks to Don for sharing- glad he had his camera!