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Giant Pacific Octopus
Common Name: Giant Pacific Octopus Scientific Name: Enteroctopus dofleini Average Life Span In The Wild: 3 to 5 years Size relative to a 6-ft man: IUCN Red List Status:? Not evaluatedLeast Concern Extinct
Current Population Trend: UnknownThe giant Pacific octopus grows bigger and lives longer than any other octopus species. The size record is held by a specimen that was 30 feet across and weighed more than 600 pounds. Averages are more like 16 feet and 110 lbs.
Life CycleThey live to be about four years old, with both males and females dying soon after breeding. Females live long enough to tend fastidiously to their eggs, but they do not eat during this months-long brooding period, and usually die soon afterwards.
CamouflageGiant Pacific octopuses have huge, bulbous heads and are generally reddish-brown in color. Like the other members of the octopus family, though, they use special pigment cells in their skin to change colors and textures, and can blend in with even the most intricately patterned corals, plants, and rocks.
Diet and RangeThey hunt at night, surviving primarily on shrimp, clams, lobsters, and fish, but have been known to attack and eat sharks as well as birds, using their sharp, beaklike mouths to puncture and tear flesh. They range throughout the temperate waters of the Pacific, from southern California to Alaska, west to the Aleutian Islands and Japan.
Intelligence and PopulationHighly intelligent creatures, giant Pacific octopuses have learned to open jars, mimic other octopuses, and solve mazes in lab tests. Their population numbers are unknown, and they do not currently appear on any lists of endangered or vulnerable animals. However, they are sensitive to environmental conditions and may be suffering from high pollution levels in their range.
In Otter News: Fitz The Nonapus (kinda)
Baihly Warfield WDIO
A giant Pacific octopus has been calling the Great Lakes Aquarium home since June of 2024.
Octopuses have eight tentacles. It's right in their name. But Fitz, the Giant Pacific Octopus at the Great Lakes Aquarium, kind of has nine.
"She has a split in the arm, probably from an early injury that healed over and was able to create a new arm from that. And she's able to move it independently from any of the other arms," Adam Lein said.
Fitz arrived in Duluth in June of 2024 after being found on the coast of British Columbia, and she chose her own name after a social media contest.
"We had peanut butter containers with food with the label of … the two names on it. So whichever one she chose and opened the container first was her name," Lein said.
One of Lein's favorite fun facts about octopuses is that while they can change color, they are color-blind.
"Right now, she does change to like a mottled grayish color. She does try to blend in with the rocks and the back den areas," he said.
Fitz can be seen in the Oceans Alive exhibit at the Great Lakes Aquarium.
Fact Check: This Is Not A Real 'Giant Octopus' Washed Up On Indonesian Coast
Claim:
An authentic photograph shows the body of a massive octopus washed up on the coast of Indonesia.
Rating:
Rating: Fake
Context:
The image was generated by artificial intelligence.
In January 2025, an image allegedly showing a giant octopus washed up on an Indonesian beach was shared across several social media platforms. One post claimed this was a "real size" for the animal.
(X user @honordetigre)
This image has been going viral for several months, with numerous posts on X claiming it was a photograph taken in Bali. It showed five tentacles and the body of the octopus, with several beachgoers standing near it and more bystanders in the distance.
(X user @CMDRVALTHOR)
The photograph is fake and generated by artificial intelligence (AI).
Using Google's reverse-image search tool, we found no authentic source for the above image. Nor did we find any news outlets reporting on it, or any photographer claiming to have taken this picture.
We did, however, find the image shared on Instagram by best_of_ai_, a self-described "Digital Creator" who experiments "with different ai engines, themes and styles." This was the earliest example of the image that we could find, four days before it went viral on X. The image was shared within a video that purported to show the so-called octopus from different angles on the beach.
https://www.Instagram.Com/p/C7rqkAAoqaT/
We contacted the Instagram user to determine if they were the original creator of this image, and will update this post if we learn more.
The image caption identified it as a "fictional" creation and titled it as "The Mourning of the Abyssal Titans":
In the quiet hours before dawn, the world's beaches trembled. The waves whispered secrets, and the sands shifted uneasily. The enormous octopus, its eyes like ancient moons, emerged from the depths—a titan awakened.Its tentacles, thick as ship masts, reached for the shore. Dead creatures clung to its suckers: bloated fish, forgotten sailors, and lost treasures. The sun rose, casting a sepulchral glow upon the beast.
Tourists fled, their sun hats abandoned. Lifeguards blew whistles, but their warnings were futile. The octopus pulled up more corpses—seagulls, crabs, and driftwood. The beaches became a graveyard.
Scientists arrived, cameras clicking. They measured the creature's span: nine meters, a record-breaking giant. The world watched in awe and horror as the octopus mourned its fallen kin.
Beachgoers wept, their toes touching the cold, lifeless bodies. Children built sandcastles atop whale bones. And the octopus, its eyes haunted, retreated back to the abyss.
The tides whispered its lament: "Weep not for the dead, but for the forgotten. For we all return to the sea, whether by storm or by choice." And so, the beaches bore witness to the sorrow of ancient depths. 🌊🐙
This is a fictional story
The Instagram account displays a range of AI-generated images that are clearly not real.
Had the image been of a genuine octopus of that size, it would certainly have been covered in environmental news stories and had a verifiable source.
Sources:Evon, Dan. "Snopes Tips: A Guide To Performing Reverse Image Searches." Snopes, 22 Mar. 2022, https://www.Snopes.Com//articles/400681/how-to-perform-reverse-image-searches/. Accessed 5 June 2024.
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