Today I ran into my first caribbean reef octopus

Today I ran into my first caribbean reef octopus. Maybe once or twice I have seen an octopus at a distance of 15 feet or so.

But today when swimming about 1000 feet to shore with Max and Kyle I came across a concrete mooring block in about 8 feet of water. There was a small cloud of reef fish and I wanted to get a better look.

So I swam down and was reaching for the large ring on top when the full-sized 2.5 feet across Octopus freaking *uncloaked* and shimmered a startling white flash when my mask was less than 2 feet from his eyes.

Man. Such perfect control of the eight arms. Watching me with so much intelligence. I have a deep fear of octopi and while it was momentarily stressful it was a very cool happening. Watched him for a bit then paddled on and Kyle found a lionfish close to shore in 5 feet of water. When we swam back the octopus was gone...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caribbean_reef_octopus

Originally posted on Facebook on January 25, 2017.