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He'e Pali, the Hawaiian Cliff Octopus

spinycheek

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Mar 20, 2009
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When I lived in Hawaii, I found out the natives commonly collect a particular species of octopus that hunts and/or lives on rocky, wave pounded cliffs. Apparently they are found in the small pools of water that form in depressions in the rock. All I know about them is they are small (blue-ringed size), and Hawaiians like to eat them (Hawaiians like to eat everything). There is reference to them in a book called Hawaii's Sea Creatures by Hoover, but info is limited and this species appears to be yet undescribed.

Does anyone know about this octopus? It is definitely an interesting U.S. species, but hardly anyone knows about it.
 
It's Octopus oliveri, the rock tako, originally described from the Kermadecs by Berry, and so far throughout its rage known only from waveswept lava cliffs. They're a bit bigger than blue rings- slightly bigger than a full-grown aculeatus. Chris Bird, a former grad student at UH, has seen a lot of them over the years doing his work on the community structure of those wave-swept shores. They're not easy to see and photograph, and pretty much impossible to do so on a dive, so Hoover doesn't have any great shots as far as I know. The locals definitely do catch them for sure. The octos come out of the water and crawl on the wet rocks. To catch them you have to be pretty brave and run along the slippery rocky shore. Those felt-bottomed booties are a must. Very sketchy. They're pretty octos.
 

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