Scott Gutterson has dived with sharks, explored the depths of the famous Kiama Blowhole and even found a message in a bottle in the ocean, but he had never befriended an animal with eight arms.
That was until he discovered a female octopus living in a hole in his local rock pool at Kiama on the New South Wales south coast.
“It was March 10 when I first saw her in the rock pool and I’ve been observing her ever since,” he told ABC Illawarra Breakfast presenter Melinda James.
“I gave her the name Roxy because she lives in the rock pool.”
The relationship started with an inquisitive handshake, of sorts.
Mr Gutterson said a tap with a finger on a nearby rock could grab an octopus’s attention.
“It’s almost like they’re attracted to that and she’d put one tentacle out and twirl it round my finger and then pull it back into her den,” he said.
“As time went on, she’d get more curious and one time she completely grabbed my hand and had a tug-o-war with it.
“I’d grab her arm and I’d pull it through my hand and we’d do that again and again — she was just as curious about me as I was her.”
He said he knew he had gained the trust of the octopus completely when it would come out and play with his entire hand.
Motherhood journey
Mr Gutterson said he noticed Roxy was more reluctant to come out on one visit before seeing she had laid eggs.
“They look like bits of string that started to appear — bright white, then over time they turned brown and as I zoomed in on my photos I could see they were the tiny pigments of baby octopus,” he said.
“It was amazing to observe that process.”
Sadly, laying and protecting her eggs is the final stage of life for a female octopus.
As the eggs draw closer to hatching, the adult octopus will starve itself and waste away, meaning Mr Gutterson’s relationship with Roxy is also drawing to a close.
“Generally they’ll live two to three weeks [more] after they’ve laid their eggs, but that’s just life, that’s just the process and I can’t wait to meet the next ‘occy’ I form a relationship with,” he said.
Strong bond
Mr Gutterson joked that his wife told him he had a serious relationship with Roxy the octopus.
He said while he had come across stingrays that seemed to recognise him each time he swam near them, Roxy’s colour pattern was like a fingerprint that confirmed she was the same animal he had seen each time in the Kiama rock pool.
The Academy award-winning documentary My Octopus Teacher documented a year spent by film maker Craig Foster forging a relationship with an octopus in a South African kelp forest.
It highlighted the potential for interaction between a person and a wild octopus.
“I missed the hatching of the eggs by a day, but I’ve loved sitting there and observing her become a mum,” Mr Gutterson said.
“I went in today and she was looking quite mottled and she came out and grabbed my hand like a ‘goodbye and see you later’… it’s hard to imagine after a few months you can have a bond with this creature.”
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