Octopus Floods Aquarium

Santa Monica, (CA) February 26, 2009 - When Santa Monica Pier Aquarium staff member Aaron Kind showed up early to work on Thursday morning, it was clear that something had gone terribly wrong. "The first thing I noticed was that there was water everywhere," said Kind. He quickly traced the source of the problem to the Aquarium's recently renovated Kids' Corner tanks and was able to shut off the flow of water. Emergency phone calls were made to Aquarium staff and everyone assembled quickly to get the marine education center back into working order before a school bus arrived with 60 students for a 9:30 a.m. field trip. Aquarist Brianne Emhiser was still asleep on her day off when her phone rang at 7:10 a.m. Emhiser was one of the first staff to respond and traced the source of the problem to the Aquarium's small two-spotted octopus. "Our best guess is that the octopus, who is incredibly gregarious and curious, tugged on a valve in her tank last night causing a steady stream of water to overflow out of the tank. We're estimating we lost a few hundred gallons of sea water onto the Aquarium floor," Emhiser said.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• two spotted octopus
• SMPA

[dumbblondepagan]

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!

[marikoramen]

haha unfortunately...it was terrible for the aquarium :[

we're still trying to dry everything

[deeseball1]

WTF!!!???? lol

[kriptonik55]

@lori123963 dont be mad at us because you live in a country with an aids epidemic.

[OceanOfTwilight]

@S0XF0X hahaha thats cute!

[ccckkkmmm69]

@lori123963 You chose a news clip of an octopus to say "fuck, I hate americans..." lmao. Lame!

[lori123963]

fuck, I hate americans...

[S0XF0X]

Haha! So cute. I remember meeting a Two-spot octopus at the Santa Barbara Sea Center who really enjoyed interacting with people. As I walked past, she'd "jump" out at me. It spooked me the first time, and I think she found my reaction entertaining, and would try to keep scaring me, haha. We eventually ended up playing a little game of peek-a-boo until she got bored and holed herself up under a rock. Funny little guys.

[elfbride]

They're really smart (and bratty as well it seems!)