Cold Water Marine Gallery
The next department I worked in was the cold water marine department, which houses marine life from Eastport ME, the West Coast, and of course the octopuses. My morning started by helping clean sand for tanks for incoming fish and invertebrates from a recent collecting trip to Eastport. When I wasn’t washing sand I would spend my time playing with the two octopuses. Their names are Freya and The Professor, both have very different personalities. The Professor is a little younger and smaller, while Freya is larger and is right up with the public, The Professor sits behind Freya in another tank. Playing with the both of them it’s hard to not think that they are intelligent creatures. They investigated me by pulling my arms into the tank, I made sure they wouldn’t pull my arms too far, the people watching would be pretty freaked out to see an octopus pulling a human arm into its tank. It was amazing to feel each of the suckers working independently pulling and tasting at different strengths while the octopus changes color and texture. At one point Freya began to pull my hand towards her beak and that would really hurt so I pulled my hand back feeling the full muscular power of octopus. Working with Freya and The Professor was a mesmerizing experience that really made me see them on a different otherworldly level, it was truly amazing.
