Octopus VS Bird: Not as Cool As It Sounds

I was really expecting the bird to be dinner. Oh well.

Categories: Entertainment, Octopus, Saltwater Species

Tags: bird, Versus, Videos, Wild-life

Thursday November 27th, 2008 @ 6:34 PM | Clive Mathias | Comments

Invisible Octopus

As if octopi weren’t cool enough, certain species can completely blend in with their surroundings rendering themselves invisible.

Wanna see more?

Categories: Entertainment, Non-Fishing, Octopus, United States

Tags: Incredible, Interesting, Oddities, Videos

Thursday November 20th, 2008 @ 7:47 PM | Clive Mathias | 2 Comments

Otto The Octopus Is Tired Of This Shit

Otto is a local resident of the Sea Star Aquarium in Coburg, Germany, and he’s starting a rebellion. At first it he tried redecorating his tank a few times, but when that diidn’t satisfy his boredom he started throwing stones at the glass, and juggling the neighborhood Hermit Crabs.

These days Otto has moved on to new and more dangerous tricks. Staff were forced to camp out near Otto’s tank to witness his newest tantrum. They discovered that Otto became annoyed by the bright light shining into his tank and discovered that he could extinguish it by climbing onto the rim of his tank and squirting a jet of water in the lights direction. This short-circuited the light and the whole electricity supply for the aquarium and threatened the lives of the other animals when the water pumps stopped.

via The Telegraph

Categories: Germany, News, Non-Fishing, Octopus

Tags: Aquariums, Funny, Interesting, Oddities

Sunday November 9th, 2008 @ 8:32 AM | Jonathon Marshall | 4 Comments

From The Table of Adam Guy - “Madako”, Japanese Octopus

I’ve been very busy these past few weeks traveling and working, but I’ve got some great content coming from my brief stay in Maui, and as soon as I can find the time I’ll get it all posted here. Meanwhile Adam Guy and I were chatting, he’s a great source for all things Japanese, and he told me that he had another food article ready to go. So back again, another installment in the growing “From The Table of Adam Guy” series, another mouth-watering meal.

And be sure to check out some of the other great contributions from Adam like, Japanese Cuttlefish, Japanese Flounder, and Fugu.

Adam writes:

Summer for Tokyo fishermen means octopus fishing by day, and night-fishing for Japanese conger eel. The octopus known in Japanese as “madako” (Octopus vulgaris, Common octopus) is cherished as a delicacy, eaten commonly as sashimi or served boiled as a celebratory dish for New Year’s.

To catch such octopus, one employs a special tackle comprising a hooked, weighted wooden board about eight inches in length, to which a crab is tied, upside-down. Octopi apparently have a great weakness for crab, particularly those with their vulnerable underbelly exposed to attack. The baited device is lowered into the water using a thick nylon/polyester line, and then jigged up-and-down by hand on the seafloor. Octopus usually feel the bait with their tentacles before launching themselves onto it, and this can be felt in one’s hands as a sort of ’sticking’ feeling. On feeling the ’stickiness’ on the line becoming much heavier, signalling the octopus actually attaching itself to the bait and starting to feed, a violent and large yank upwards on the line with both one’s hands sets the hooks into the creature and then it is a slow process of hauling in the line by hand to the surface.

Read more…

Categories: Features, Fishing, Food, Japan, Octopus, Saltwater Species

Tags: Articles, Cooking, Saltwater

Monday July 30th, 2007 @ 4:51 PM | Jonathon Marshall | 1 Comment