5. Octopus’s garden
I’m not a big fan of television since there’s so much junk there. In the Wasteland Speech of May 9, 1961, Federal Communications Commissioner chairman, Newton N. Minow, called commercial television a vast wasteland. I wonder how he feels today. At that time Newton put out a call for something better for the public. Someone listened, but not enough people. Thankfully, there are some great programs on public television (PBS) and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). I’m fortunate to have two Canadian stations from Toronto in my cable list as well as a pair of the former: the normal PBS offering and the World Channel. The Nature of Things with David Suzuki is on the CBC most Thursday nights and on the weekend. Nature and Nova are both on PBS.
An episode of The Nature of Things featured some experiments with octopi, so let’s call the creature in the first case, Willie. It began with placing him – or maybe it was a she – in a Plexiglas enclosure with a small hole to exit. The aperture was just large enough for Willie to get out, dependent on the size of his head. She moved one arm through the hole, followed slowly by another until all the arms were through the opening. Willie then made his mantle as small as possible and departed the box, which seemed easy. Next, a smaller opening was introduced, and Willie tried one arm but then stopped his efforts, knowing he was stuck in the box. A few other octopi went through the test with the same results.
Another test involved an enclosure with two holes – one too small for exiting – and a complicated system of plastic tubes and openings heading in many directions. Once the creature left the enclosure, he would get through but he did it slowly. To start he picked the larger opening and then cautiously used the same method with his arms that he did earlier. He found freedom from the maze. Using the same setup for a second try, he was home free in a flash.
The next trial involved two octopi, a teacher and a student. There were two Plexiglas boxes having three lids with a crab inside. One cover was easily removed while the other two required twisting. The teacher knew how to get his food from one box; with the other octopus watching, he demonstrated how to do it. The student had his food just by watching his elder. Then a barrier was put between the two octopi so the learner was on his own. It didn’t matter as the crab was soon captured.
An octopus is a Cephalopod, which also includes squids, nautili and cuttlefish. Despite their scary appearance, octopi are blessed with skin of brilliant color. They can change size, shape and their color to blend in with their environment, avoiding predators. They emit a dark liquid having the shape of an octopus, again enabling escape. Each has a beak that you should avoid unless you don’t mind razors, and they’re as tall as a human. That is some marine monster, whose scientific name is Octopus vulgaris. Cephalopods range in size from the blue-ringed octopus – it may be small, but it’s deadly – to the huge aggressive Humboldt squid. The latter puts on quite a light show, but I think it’s a cannibal.
An octopus can move along in a straight path while rotating its body. What other beings can do that? Also, its eight tentacles are part of a complicated nervous system. They seem to be independent of each other. Octopi slither and move about rotating their bodies while never having to ask for directions.
Willie has cousins in squids, which seem to fly. Doing so, they save energy. High-speed photography seemed to confirm this. Squid use the same mechanisms whether they move through the water or through the air. Marine biologist, Ronald O’Dor, from Dalhousie University in Halifax, would find dead shortfin squid in the morning around the pool, but not in it. Most likely they weren’t on their way for a snack, so it seems one of their flying missions went bad. The solution was a simple one: lower the water level. A few other marine biologists confirmed the above dealings with those squid movements, including Julia Stewart from Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University. Some researchers determined that this speed was five times as fast as that under water. There’s more about the octopus and squid in Encountering Sea Monsters, the Nature special, which first aired in December 2005.
Leatherback sea turtles were around in some form over one hundred million years ago. They’re amazing creatures as they travel a thousand miles to lay their eggs. Scientists monitored one who traveled twelve thousand miles in less than two years. One of those places you can see them is near Trinidad, an island north of the coast of South America. They find a place on the beaches and lay their eggs – a few times each year – around a hundred at a time. They clear a spot, emit the eggs and then hide them under a warm layer of sand. In a few weeks, tiny little creatures break out of their shells. They head out into the ocean but unfortunately only one or two out of a thousand make it into adulthood. The mother leaves but then returns to the same place every year, an amazing feat.
Also called the lute turtle, there are no bigger turtles and it’s the fourth heaviest reptile. It can be differentiated from other turtles because it doesn’t have a hard shell. Lute turtles are among marine animals that dive the deepest, having been recorded at a depth of 4,200 feet. Although their normal speed in miles per hour is in the single digits, the Guinness Book of Records listed them as reaching almost 22 mph. The life span of a leatherback is about 30 years, although it’s been speculated that they can live for 50 years.
Another not so great sea creature is the lionfish. Found primarily in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, the lionfish is a beautiful creature, but venomous despite its red, white and black coloration. Also known as pterois, it recently arrived in the Caribbean and has started to rapidly multiply. It survives in warm waters. Here it is a menace as it eats other species that are necessary for balance in the sea. It doesn’t do any good for the coral, either. The lionfish made its way into the Caribbean when some individual dumped a pet lionfish into a stream or lake and it made its way into the ocean. They can be found in the warm waters of the Atlantic from the United States all the way down the coast of South America.
This invasive species has few predators while being a vicious predator itself. As scientist Carl Safina discovered, there aren’t many ways to capture them. One way is with two small nets, one on top of the other, thus trapping them. It’s a long process though. Another is with a spear type devise. This method is tedious as well. The good news is that lionfish have become a culinary delicacy. In the Bahamas, people may have found a solution to this overabundance of the creature: fishing derbies. Though lionfish in the Caribbean number in the millions, these contests seem to be lowering the population. People are fighting back, alleviating a huge problem and then settling down to a lionfish dinner. It tastes just like chicken.
As the summer of 2014 was winding down, I turned over the calendar for September. The creature featured for that month is a pufferfish. If you’ve tasted it, consider yourself fortunate. If not prepared correctly by the chef, it might be your last meal. The only vertebrate more poisonous is the golden poison frog. People still order that fish from the menu, since it’s a delicacy. Then again, some individuals climb Mt. Everest, skydive, go bungee jumping, climb walls of ice, or just plain vertical rocks. It’s all done as a sense of adventure. Could I have a piece of broiled salmon?
I wonder if poached piranha is another delicacy delight or a dangerous dinner entrée. You might think that fish is a cannibal, but actually it’s nothing more than a predator, like so many other animals – two legged ones with rifles, too. Besides the pufferfish, there are things you should stay away from since you may get sick or worse if you eat them. I’m not talking only about badly prepared seafood. The list of poisonous plants is really long, including apple seeds, cassava, poinsettia, rhubarb leaves, nutmeg, mountain laurel, daffodils and both holly and ivy. In many cases, cooking may render them harmless and some will affect only humans or only some animals. Some birds will indulge in these plants and be fine while some plants are loaded with poison to keep certain animals away. You may not want to search the Internet for this list since you’ll wind up with a very limited diet.
In 1961, Harry Goodridge of Rockport, Maine, saw a seal pup struggling in the ocean, so he came to its aid. His job was to feed and nurture it. Two years before he had taken in a pup but it died shortly after being rescued. This time Harry figured the young seal, who was only a few days old, needed really rich milk to survive. He concocted a blend with eggs and cream for Andre. Somehow that still wasn’t good enough so he simulated a feeding method similar to a mother seal. That was a success and Andre grew as he looked on Goodridge as his parent.
The master taught the seal some tricks and soon Andre entertained tourists. Harry always felt that Andre should be free to leave whenever he felt like doing so, even if the boss never saw him again. Andre’s home was a floating enclosure, which was always open for him so could move out into the ocean. There was always the danger of sharks but the seal handled himself well in avoiding them. Andre left, but always returned. Harry and Andre had formed a bond.
A serious problem arose with the coming of winter. Goodridge figured that the seal would have difficulty when the water froze. The solution was to take him to the New England Aquarium for those months. The trip there wasn’t something Andre cared for so Harry let him swim home. With the journey distance of over 150 miles, Rockport residents were concerned, especially the Goodridge family. Harry pretended he wasn’t worried, but deep inside he was. When Andre sauntered into Penobscot Bay, the town felt great relief. To make the long trip indicated how smart he was. He repeated this feat for over 20 years, making him the honorary harbormaster.
In the 1980s, Andre couldn’t continue to do some of the tricks he had done for audiences. Harry realized he was becoming blind. The seal still found his way home on his yearly trips. One day in July 1986, he didn’t return. He was found dead and was buried in a plot and a few years later his trainer would join him when he died. In 1978, a statue was dedicated to Andre in the harbor that Harry himself unveiled. The Seal Who Came Home, which premiered on Wednesday, July 2, 2014, was part of the My Wild Affair series on PBS.
Wildlife centers exist all over the world. Their goal is rescue, rehabilitation and reintroduction into the wild. One center is the Monterey Bay Aquarium on the coast of California. Recently they had a visitor to whom they assigned the name Otter 501. This may have been done for a reason. There was great need to keep the caretaker from getting too close to the otter, and vice versa. More likely it was the 501st effort to help an otter. The workers wore black clothes and headgear similar to what the police wore at the 1968 Democratic Convention, but they were much more considerate. The first step was to provide nutrients for the baby otter, which was done. He grew, and after a while, a matriarch was found. Toola cared for the young ones and was needed to teach Otter 501 the things so she could be released.
It took a few days before Toola and Otter 501 got along. After five days it appeared that the baby otter had found a mother. From the latter, Otter 501 would get the knowledge so that she would be ready to be released into the wild, including being a master diver. That’s how otters find food, and they need vast amounts of it to survive. It appeared that Otter 501 was finally ready to make it on her own. However, on checking on the otter, staff noticed she still wasn’t able to make it, so they brought her back for a few more days. With the next release, Otter 501 did manage to fit into her wild environment. Soon, caretakers found her with one of her own young.
“Octopus’s Garden” is from the Beatles’ 1969 album, Abbey Road. Written and sung by Richard Starkey – we known him by the name of Ringo Starr – it was the final song released by the group that had him doing the lead vocal.