Aquarium of the Bay has added a new creature to its near-shore tunnel exhibit: a Giant Pacific Octopus, and like so many captive animals in the Bay Area - it's a rescue. The crustacean-loving octopuses that hunt in the same waters as our dungeness fleet have a history of abuse at the hands of the crab fisherman. So to combat the problem, the aquarium offers a reward for unintentionally caught cephalopods. Per Bay City News and the aquarium's press release:
Giant Pacific Octopuses crave crabs and den-like enclosures, and often mistake crabbers' nets as hunting and hiding ground, where they are unintentionally caught, aquarium officials said. If the octopus kills and eats the crabber's catch, many fishermen retaliate by killing the octopus.
Terrible! Let's help out our octopus population and our crab fishermen by saving all the octopuses. We'll turn Fisherman's Wharf in to Octopus Ranch. It'll bring in so many tourist dollars. In the meantime, the Aquarium of the Bay now has three of the creatures, which aren't really all that giant at around 80 pounds apiece.
[BCN/SFExaminer]
[AOTB]