• Looking to buy a cephalopod? Check out Tomh's Cephs Forum, and this post in particular shares important info about our policies as it relates to responsible ceph-keeping.

Wild Caught Octopus

So the lady that I contacted said that she is unable to help me because she doesn't know anything about octopus. I asked her if there was anyone that could help but I'm still waiting on a response.
 
I think your best bet would be to contact the collection diver(s) directly. If a researcher says "I need an octopus" it is the diver's job to figure out how to catch one and catch it. They are probably the only ones there who might be able to help you. One of the links I posted was for a staff directory for MSI staff. One of those people had the job title "small boat captain". He's probably the diver, so you might want to approach him directly.

If the MSI there is anything like the MSI at UCSB, the people who work there get lots of phone calls asking for random ocean related information, like surf reports, "do you have any dolphins I can visit?", etc. They don't want to be jerks (because they are publicly funded) but they aren't very motivated to do extra leg work researching such questions, so if you don't directly contact someone who knows your answer, you're likely to strike out. Maybe you could specifically ask the woman you contacted to give you the email addresses for the staff divers who do the collecting.

Oh, and it's likely that the collection diver's biggest worries about helping you are:
1) You might be a fisherman who wants to collect as many as you can, for bait, or even for sale, and since he needs to be able to easily find an octopus the next time he's asked, he doesn't want his source to be depleted, so he might not want to tell you exactly where to look.
2) Anything he tells you is a risk to him. For example, you could break some law and say to the game warden, or the judge: "Bob Jones at MSI told me I could do this here".

If you can get him to trust you, he'll help you. It's better to ask him to describe, in detail, what kind of habitat and conditions to look in (depth, temp, rocks or sand, time of day/year, high tide/low tide, etc.) There's no risk in telling you that stuff, and it's easier to trust a guy who just wants to learn, and is willing to do a lot of work on their own. Be humble, grateful, and have a reason for collecting an octopus that they can support. BTW, some people disapprove of traps, so unless he suggests it, you might not want to bring that up (some people don't check traps often enough, or they allow the floats to be a navigation hazard). It helps to ask questions like "is there anything I should be sure to avoid doing? I don't want to damage any habitat or inadvertently kill anything" or "I only want to take an octopus from a species with a large wild population. Are there any species of local octopus that I should be careful not to take?" Anything that makes it clear that you are not a Bozo or a loose canon will increase your chances of getting their help.

Again, if you can get someone associated with marine research or education to do the asking for you, you're much more likely to get their cooperation.

Good luck
 
I contacted one of the Diving Program Coordinators, Tracy Villareal because I really wasn't sure which staff member would be best to ask. This is what I sent in the first email;

"Dear Tracy Villareal;

I am a professional diver at a public institute, and I'm trying to compile a complete list the of octopus species found along the Texas
coast, as well as where each species can be found(i.e. habitat, depth, season, location, et cetra). I am not collecting for any buy,
seller, or institute. I'm not sure if you do research on octopus or not, but I was wondering if your facility could offer any information on
this. Thank you for your time."

Her response was;

"sorry, I don't know much about octopi around here.

Regards, Tracy"
 
I'm not surprised by her response. She's probably an administrator, not someone who puts on a wet suit and goes underwater to catch octopus, so she probably doesn't know the answers you need. I also think that your question was way to general. I thought that you wanted to know how and where to catch an octopus in that area, but you asked her if she could:
"offer any information on [compiling a] complete list the of octopus species found along the Texas coast."

I think I may have been badly unclear when I gave you advice about how to approach these people. I should have added that above all, be truthful, and sincere, and don't try to con them. I meant to suggest that you win their trust by displaying authentic trustworthiness. I'm not saying that you wrote anything that wasn't true, but I do think that the email you wrote might look insincere, and would have seemed fishy to me if I had received it. For example, I would have read "I am a professional diver at a public institute" and found it odd that you didn't name the institute. I would also wonder why you were contacting me instead of just looking up the local species on the internet.

Maybe I should just shut up now, but here's my new advice:
Next time you're down there on a week day, drop by the MSI and try to have a face to face with the guy who actually does the collecting. Tell him what you want to do and ask if he can tell you when, where, and how to catch an octopus. Be totally sincere, and real, and see what happens. If face to face isn't possible, a phone call might work.
 

Shop Amazon

Shop Amazon
Shop Amazon; support TONMO!
Shop Amazon
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Back
Top