The Fishbowl

Please send us any stories, photo's and poems that you may have about Our Ocean to info@octopus.org.nz

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The following images have been supplied by Tom Law, who attends most of our Open Days and other events, documenting those experiencing Our Oceans Classroom! See for yourself, join us on an Open Day! Who knows, you might see yourself here!

Our Oceans Classroom is right on the foreshore, with natural rockpools to explore after a visit to the facility. The entire family will be amazed!

the Bait House enthralls all ages..as Our Oceans Classroom, it's an exciting place to visit!

a baby seal on the rock by the Bait House and our new giant red rock lobster!

some of our "touch gently tank" residents - a sea cucumber and an 11 arm star!

from sociable octopus to amazed children, schooling fish to rock hopping humans......

Visit Our Oceans Classroom next Open Day! Thanks Tom!!

by Chris Caudwell – Getting close to an Octopus…
Many years ago (probably the late seventies) I was scuba diving with friends near a large rock about a mile south of Makara Beach. Water depth was 7 to 10 metres and it was a beautiful calm summers day with great visibility under water.

At that time I had a clip on a short length of cord attached to my regulator mouthpiece.  The idea was that I could attach the clip to my bouyancy compensator so that I could always find the mouthpiece in a hurry. The clip was not a very good idea and I usually did not bother to attach it.  The cord was just left hanging free.

I had recently seen a Jacques Cousteau tv program in which his divers were stroking an octopus they had found living in an ancient greek amphora (a big wine jar) in the Mediterranean. I came upon an octopus sitting calmly on the bottom and decided to try stroking it. I approached it very slowly and stroked it on the back with my gloved hand.  It accepted the stroke and closed its eyes the same way a cat does.  I took off my glove and stroked it again with my bare hand.

While this was happening I felt a slight tug on my lips from my mouthpiece.  I tried to look down to see what what was happening but of course the bottom of my face mask prevented me seeing the regulator. What I could see was seven octopus legs spread out around the octopus body and one leg stretching vertically up my stomach towards my mouth. The octopus was tugging gently on the cord attached to my
mouthpiece. I like to think it was enjoying our meeting together and was curious about this short tentacle I seemed to attached to my head.

I realised that with an octopus hanging on to a rock with seven legs and my mouthpiece with the other I was literally fixed to the spot.  I very slowly backed away, put my glove back on and continued on with my dive. It was one of hundreds of happy memories in a lifetime of diving.

Another was a time I was scuba diving for crayfish in about 20 metres of water near the entrance to Pelorus sound.  A seal pup joined us.  It wanted to understand what we doing staring into holes in the rocks.  It looked into all the same holes at the same time that we were.  Now and again it would head for the surface straight up and fast like a Polaris missile and come straight back down again. Sometimes when it came down it would dive bomb past us blowing bubbles.  Sometimes it was right way up and other times upside down.

I was the biggest diver and ran down my air supply faster than the others.  I eventually signalled to say I was returning to the boat, the other two divers indicated they still had plenty of air and would stay down a bit longer.  I reached the surface accompanied by the pup who was in a dilemma.  Obviously it wanted to wanted to know what I was doing but it did not want to miss out on the action down below.  It swam with me towards the launch for about a minute then charged back to the point vertically above the other divers and dived down to them.  A minute or two later it rocketed back up to surface and came back to me. It kept doing this until I reached the boat and climbed out of the water. By Chris Caudwell

A family perspective on an exciting open day at the Island Bay Marine Education Centre!

24th June, A well attended Open Day ....

July 8th, another hugely popular Open Day!

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