Whats your take on this story?

Hmm...
Maybe it's time for an NCKA road trip to WA

The divers on that site seem like a bunch of self-righteous pricks.

The guy broke no law. Period.

Running his license plate and death threats and harassing his mom are way out of line.

 

Sincerely,

Jim

http://www.grindtv.com/outdoor/blog/40201/divers+capture+of+a+beloved+giant+pacific+octopus+sparks+outrage/

I think he killed it.

If you are interested and have some time to kill, read this forum thread.  It involves the divers that confronted the kid, and shows how they have basically destroyed his life.  Yes, over the LEGAL take of an octopus.
They've broken this law multiple times already, from the moment they approached him on the beach, continuing through the stalking behavior.

It's really quite sad.  At the same time, those damn over zealous dive nazis are also trying to run fisherman off some prime areas, including one of the few ocean access areas that is kayak friendly.  The battle is never ending.

-Allen

Damn Allen I just read all 17 pages. Whew! Heavy emphasis on the 'having some time to kill.' 
My advice is to skip to page 17 where that retired journalist dude breaks it all down for ole Mr.Gratefuldiver.

If you guys just read that thread today ,to let you know it has been kind of tamed diwn since before they locked the thread,many threats and comments were deleted as soon as the discussion turn ro the young guy retaining a lawyer.


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Pretty scary reaction to a legal harvest of FOOD.
Why don't they get all butt hurt when we pull a carrot or turnip outa the ground.
It's all just food.


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A 19 year old kid sees something huge and has the opportunity to legally take it.
An EPIC adventure in his life thus far.
Good for him.
I haven't read all the posts from the divers, just a few.
What a bunch of d**k divers.
I think people like to complain in general and if they have a band wagon to hop on all the better for them to fulfill their desires.
If that was my son and people were treating him like that, threats and all, I'd probably be the headline in the news.

I understand both sides of the story, but the people harassing the kid need to find another octopus to observe.  They only live 3-5 years and females lay up to 100,000 eggs then guard them.  The female doesn't eat while guarding and raising the eggs thus she dies shortly after caring for the eggs.  I see no harm unless it was a female raising babies.

According to the thread at http://www.nwdiveclub.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=19454:

I tried explaining to the guy that female octos use this cove to lay their eggs. He told me this one was on eggs ... now it's not.I tried explaining to the guy that female octos use this cove to lay their eggs. He told me this one was on eggs ... now it's not.

It may be legal, but it was still a dick move to take a female guarding her eggs.

It wasn't nesting.  If you read the thread, the first guy that claims it was nesting says he has no proof and based his claim on what the kid told him.  He even went on to say that it probably wasnt given its great physical condition.  All the other people in the thread just jumped on board.

The kid made a response elsewhere and it was posted to the thread....he said original guy was aggressive and confrontational  when he approached him. Guy asked if it was nesting and the kid sarcastically responded, well if it was its not now. Guy propagated the statement.

Kid also wrote that the warden who came to his residence to inspect the octopus told him it was a male.

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It wasn't nesting.  If you read the thread, the first guy that claims it was nesting says he has no proof and based his claim on what the kid told him.  He even went on to say that it probably wasnt given its great physical condition.  All the other people in the thread just jumped on board.

The kid made a response elsewhere and it was posted to the thread....he said original guy was aggressive and confrontational  when he approached him. Guy asked if it was nesting and the kid sarcastically responded, well if it was its not now. Guy propagated the statement.

Kid also wrote that the warden who came to his residence to inspect the octopus told him it was a male.

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Yup, what Arturo said.






Here's a quote from the kid:

I would like to state that the octopus was not on eggs and nor I did say it was. when he asked me "what if it was protecting its eggs"� I said "well its not now"� sarcastically. I never said there were eggs and I am outraged this story was fabricated... let alone the game warden said she thinks it was male shortly after she told me I broke no laws taking this animal. she even looked over the body at my house Thursday to be sure I did not stab it (and yes I did still have the body after butcher).

PETA and the tree-huggers band together at any opportunity to demonize the take of game and push their agendas.
This whole ordeal is a perfect example of why consumptives (fishermen, hunters, divers, etc) have such an uphill battle...
As consumptives, we can't be so quick to throw others under the bus without doing due diligence.
It does a disservice to the community when one makes disparaging remarks... based on nothing more than the opposition's point of view!

slight tangent here. Id like to warn any free divers out there who may come across a large octopus and may want to take it.

Back in South Africa we had a little trick when diving for rock lobster (similar to the ones we have down south). we would look for an octopus, grab it, dispatch it and stick it onto a a 3ft piece of bamboo. when we found bugs in cracks that were too deep to reach we would stick the octopus into the crack and the bugs would flee from their cover into our awaiting loving arms.

One day I came across a huge octopus, similar in size to the one in the article, at the bottom of a gully, 10ft wide and sheer walls about 15ft tall. The bottom of the gully was a bed of round rocks in the 1 to 5lb range. I thought "yummy, octopus and bugs for dinner". I dove down and grabbed it. Immediately I knew I was in trouble. I had pried big ones off of rock faces before, but didn't realize what would happen if it latched onto dozens of smaller rocks. no leverage to pry it off. all of a sudden i was wrapped in octopus and 200 lb of loose rocks. i couldn't surface and had to walk along the bottom of the gully for about 10 yards till i found crack in the gully wall that i could shimmy up. bottom line: beware of taking large octopus while free diving around smaller round rocks. each sucker can hold a coupla pounds of rock individually that are hard to shake off.
end threadjack.
Octopi are yummy. IMO The guy took it fair and square and the econazis are having a hissy fit.

Thanks for the heads up Sharky.

 

 

Sincerely,

Jim

I read pg 1 and pg 17 of the thread.  The original accuser seems a bit humbled now that he is in legal hot water.  lol

That is a spooky story Sharky, good to know. I've only ever caught smaller versions in the 2-3' range, in tidepools while rockpicking, and even at that smaller size they can cling to rocks like glue.


in the infamous words of South Park "I think we all learned something here today".

On another forum same players are distributing a petition to make that Cove a no take area. I have dove many areas of Puget Sound and have seen more octopus than crabs. The bad thing is here in NorCal there's a dive club that has some like minded people of the Peta Nazi persuasion where a do not touch anything rule rules.
Sorry, one more thing.
I would like to expand on author Tom Clancys idea. Round them all up, strip them of their clothes, hand them a knife and drop them in the Amazon rain forest, 1000 miles from civilization and say survive.
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