Octo in my engine

CaptFish

Colossal Squid
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Was doing some engine maintenance and I found this guy hitchhiking in the water intake for the engines. I'm gonna try and catch him, but to do so I have to purposefully start to sink the boat. as soon as I open that hole a few inches, water and hopefully an octopus and going to come rushing in.

photo2.jpg
 
well I gave up for now I just cant get him. Its a briareus prob about three months old. has good color but is still tiny. The sad news is that boat is getting used tomorrow. I tried everything to get him but short of getting in the water and going under the boat I'm outta luck, and so is he. As soon as I move the boat he is going to be sucked into the engine cooling system and chopped up, he does't stand a chance against 2000hp and 12 cylinders. So jump in and get him right, WRONG! I cant get in the water due to the shark situation in the marine, They are a dozen or so 6'-12' bull sharks that are very aggressive that live in the marina. They were attracted there by the stupid Tourism Boats, they feed the sharks for there guests.
 
Man thats terrible, is there any way you could syphon or lure him out?? Maybe with some food? Hey are you going to university of miami? That one of the colleges I'm looking at, how do you like it?

And congrats on being a staff member!!:biggrin2: how late am I?
 
Of all people to discover this! That is both really weird and sad. Any chance to trying food as lure? They are so shy at this point it probably would help any. Just darn.

The only thing I can think of is to try shining a very bright light on him and see if he will leave (probably to become shark food :sad:). Neal suggested trying a hose for the same effect.
 
Hey are you going to university of miami? That one of the colleges I'm looking at, how do you like it?
Not Yet. Right now I'm at Miami Dade college. I'm going to get my AA in biology there, then transfer to UM. UM has a marine bio school that is SWEET! I have some friends that go to UM and they all love it.

And congrats on being a staff member!! how late am I?
Thanks! It's been a few months already, in January it was made official
 
Ah that sounds so fun! Yeah Rosenstiel School for Marine and Atmospheric Science? looks incredible! I'd love to go there, I'd probably spend all my free time diving and finding octos to take home! My tank has been empty forever.

It's been a few months already, in January it was made official

man I never go on anymore it's terrible.. I'm going to go on more, I'll make this my homepage!:lol:
 
Any chance to trying food as lure?

Not really. The picture above is being taken through a 1" thick piece of Lexan, when I un-bolt that Lexan to get to the octo, the pressure forces all the water into the boat, so two things happen one, The water turns into white water since it is flowing so fast and I lose sight of the octo, plus then the boat starts taking on water at really high rate, 1000s of gallons a minute, its a 5" diameter pipe with pressurized water shooting out of it, if I open it all the way a solid 5" stream hit the ceiling of the engine room six feet above. if the octopus would crawl about three inches deeper into the boat I could close the valve, and open the port and just grab him, but I cant get him to move. I tried water pressure and I tried starting the engine for a second. I almost had him but he spooked at the last second and moved back down. if I could get under the boat I could just poke him with a stick until he crawls up a few inches, but by that time i'd be eaten by Brutus the 12' bull shark.
:troll:

another interesting observation...this Octo is sitting in a pipe made of copper and brass.
 
That's so aggravating... maybe a bendy wire you could use to bump the general location under the boat to scare it up?
 
What about pumping cold/hot water from the bottom to lure him up? Like have him move away from the water temp difference? I'm not sure if this would work, I don't know anything about boats YET (hopefully this will change:smile:)
 
Local divers won't dive in the Marina, plus they are not allowed, otherwise i would have done it myself.

The boat had a charter and has been on two cruises since. The fate of the little guy is unknown but my best guess would be that he was sucked through the engine. The only other outcome s that he somehow manged to crawl out of the tube but once the engines are running that would prove impossible. it would b ke crawling up a fire-hose at full force.
 
This is probably mute by now, but it might be useful to note, for future similar situations, that you can squirt some irritating solution at the octopus, to get it to vacate it's hiding place. I've read that a field researcher would collect octopus by dissolving a lot of extra salt in plastic squeeze bottle full of sea water, and use that to encourage octopus to move out of their hiding places. It irritates them enough to get them to move, but quickly dissipates and is totally non-toxic and won't pollute the ocean.
 
This is probably mute by now, but it might be useful to note, for future similar situations, that you can squirt some irritating solution at the octopus, to get it to vacate it's hiding place. I've read that a field researcher would collect octopus by dissolving a lot of extra salt in plastic squeeze bottle full of sea water, and use that to encourage octopus to move out of their hiding places. It irritates them enough to get them to move, but quickly dissipates and is totally non-toxic and won't pollute the ocean.

Good idea but again without getting IN the water it would be impossible. the flow of water comes in the boat not out of the boat.
 

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