Lately, Underwater, On Planet Earth: Blue Ring Octopus

Australia is a dangerous place. Just this week a crocodile ate a little girl in the Northern Territory. Right outside of my office is a wooden bench, the underside of which is sometimes populated by poisonous redback spiders. Imagine, the horror and ridicule experienced when dying from a bite in the ass. Also, in the water in Sydney it’s pretty dangerous. This week, a baby humpback whale died and the whole big whale body was eaten by sharks within 3 days, so fast that my friend and our cameras missed the spectacle when we showed up on that stretch of coast.

When diving in Botany Bay, we face two more dangers: Small-brained, large-muscle-car-ed male youth who make crossing the street towards the dive site dangerous, and the blue ring octopus in the water. That octopus, a small fellow less than 15 centimeters long, injects a neuroxin into its victims with a bite. If you are unlucky, this will kill you. If you are lucky, you can make it into a hospital and breathe with the help of a respirator until your body excretes the poison. These few days you are unable to move, and, for instance, scratch your balls if they itch. If that kind of situation is the better outcome, the octopus has to be taken seriously. I saw such a to-be-taken-seriously octopus on Friday and took some nice pix of it.

I love this place. I am not a dead whale, so the sharks leave me alone, Sydney is too far south for crocodiles and for now I have managed to avoid death by spiders, road hogs and the blue ring octopus. Dangerous wildlife, please come in front of my lens!