I remeber when that happened. Whew, where to start with this one....
I have some very strong feelings about several aspects of this, but I will try to contain myself and keep this brief.
1) Duh! I can't believe they thought that was a good idea.
2) Duh! Duh! Duh! Duh! sorry I just had to get that out.
3) If I were in charge there somebody would have lost their job.
4) It took them weeks and many dead sharks to figure out what was going on. Duh again and more firings of related personel.
5) In the video, the comment is made that it was a suprise that a shark was taken out by a "mere" invertebrate. I have alot of problems with this statement. The biggest one is that it perpetuates the common misconception that there are "higher and lower" lifeforms. This is complete bunk, but it is also beyond the scope of a forum type post to explain why.
ZookeeperA< Let's put the grizzly bear in with the lions.
ZookeeperB< Will that work?
ZookeeperA< Sure, bears don't eat lions.
ZookeeperB< Ok, let's try it.
ZookeeperA< Every since we put the bear in with the lions we keep finding dead lions.
ZookeeperB< Duh, I wonder why?
ZookeeperA< I don't know, it is truly a mystery, maybe we could set up a camera and figure this out.
ZookeeperB< Wow, who would have thought that bears and lions wouldn't co-exist in a cage?
ZookeeperA< Duh, it really makes you think don't it?
ZookeeperB< Duh, thinking, what is that?
Peelosophy, I don't know about someone loosing their job in a public aquarium over this. Yes, they should have known better, but in a large bureaucratic organization like that, no one does anything with out everyone else signing off on it. So with all those people "on the hook" (pun intended) no one looses a job if things go sour.
They all say, "Why didn't any of these other people say something? They are supposed to be experts also."
Ok, I have one more comment, I could understand the surprise, if it was a 3 ft long octopus attacking 8 ft long sharks; but it was an 8 ft octopus attacking 3 ft sharks. Not exactly an awe inspiring attack for me. I also wanted to add this link to another cool octopus video: http://www.ebaumsworld.com/octopus.html
you obviously get out more than me . i thought it was kool just because i have that steriotipical thought that a octopuse could never take a shark out. ask anyone who doesnt no of these things and i bet they would put there cash on the shark!(and from the video they looked @ equally sized ? heck i dont no?) i still give it the wowzer
Ok, I can understand that. It can be dificult to judge an octopus' true size, especially in a video. That little clip of the video does not state the actual size of the octopus but I remember that it was at least 8 FT long (probably longer) it says clearly in the video that the sharks were 3-4 ft long. Note how it is able to envelop the shark, that is one indication of its true size. Here is a pic that will help you to see how truly massive this octopus is:
even if they were evenly sized, my money would go on the octopus:
Sharks only weapon is the mouth plus they have highly developed senses, and while I don't think that sharks are as dumb as most people think they are, they aren't geniuses either.
Octopi have eight powerful arms covered in suckers, a mouth that is every bit as dangerous as a sharks, plus they are very intelligent.
Oh, BTW, don't get me wrong, it is a cool video, it is just not surprising to me.
with that said id definately put my money on the octopuse too!
nic pic of the extremely large octopuse,wish i had a chance to see for my own eyes i bet its even bigger