Giant Pacific Octopus
Enteroctopus dofleini · Mollusc
The largest octopus on earth, usually about 15 kg with arms spanning up to 4.3 m, living all around the North Pacific from Baja California and Alaska to Japan and Korea, from the tide line down to 2,000 m in cold water. It spends most of its time hidden in a den in rock, among kelp or even in sunken trash, betrayed by the litter of shells outside, and is most active from midnight to early morning. It eats crabs, clams, abalone, fish and other octopuses; one was photographed drowning a gull, and its largest suckers each hold 16 kg. Humans have caught octopuses for thousands of years with lures, spears, pots, nets and bare hands.
- Danger
- Dangerous if cornered
- How it is met
- Alone, by night
- Size
- Medium
- In winter
- Active in winter
Where it lives
Rocky Shore, Coastal Shelf, Kelp Forest
Gives
Sources
Open it in Biomes — MGS Toolbox