California fish market owner buys 70-pound octopus just to set it free 
 
 An octopus accidentally caught by a crab fisherman in San Luis Obispo County had an unexpected savior: the owner of a fish market. 
 
 Giovanni DeGarimore, owner of Giovanni's Fish Market, is usually in the business of selling fresh seafood to customers in Morro Bay. But this 70-pound, eight-legged creature (who he later named Fred) had a different fate. 
 
 "Gio bought [Fred] from a fisherman yesterday with the sole intention of releasing him back into the wild," reads a post on the business's Facebook page from earlier this month. 
 
 The purchase cost DeGarimore "a couple hundred dollars," according to the Tribune. He says he released the octopus back into the water the following day. 
 
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 A spokesperson for Giovanni's Fish Market explained that octopus hold a special place in DeGarimore's heart. 
 
 "Really it just came down to a personal decision for Gio. He's an avid diver and lover of the ocean, and though Gio makes his livelihood on selling seafood, he felt conflicted when it came to these magnificent and arguably sentient beings." 
 
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 DeGarimore told the Tribune he used to sell octopus, but couldn't bring himself do it any longer after a close encounter with one of the cephalopods while diving in Fiji. 
 
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 Since sharing Fred's story on Facebook, the post has been shared hundreds of times. 
 
 "At the end of the day Gio said, 'It might not change the world, but I'm going to do one thing and if it only makes me and Fred happy, that's okay too.'" 
 
 Read Alix Martichoux's latest stories and send her news tips at amartichoux@sfchronicle.com. ||||| Of all the animals kept in aquariums around the world, one always stands out. The jellyfish, the sharks, the skates, the giant sea bass, and the clownfish—they’re beautiful and often impressive, sure, but in the end, behind their glass enclosures, they’re basically moving wallpaper. There’s only one creature that knows everything that’s going on, watches everyone who walks by, and judges it all. 
 
 The giant Pacific octopus is both my favorite and least favorite animal to visit at the aquarium. I think cephalopods are fantastic, and octopuses in particular have long been a particular fascination of mine, and the culture at large. But it’s also been clear to me every time I’ve seen one in captivity that it knows it’s being held hostage. When they choose to come out, giant Pacific octopuses don’t just swim around doing their normal octopus things—they perform. Then they disappear again, away from the prying eyes of school field-trip groups and couples on dates. 
 
 The giant Pacific octopus is a master of deception. It play-acts, it camouflages, and it disappears into seemingly impossibly small crevices. Is it any surprise, then, that we know so little about the animal? 
 
 In fact, we know so, so very little about the giant Pacific octopus that it turns out to have actually been two species of octopus this whole time. Recent research from Alaska Pacific University has revealed that some number of giant Pacific octopuses are actually frilled giant Pacific octopuses. Earlier this week, Earther reported on the discovery, noting that the new species had been “hiding in plain sight.” Maybe it was more of a deliberate move of deceit on the part of the octopuses, and not so much a failing of human scientists’ investigative skills. 
 
 During the Alaska Department of Fish & Game shrimp surveys of 2012 and 2013, David Scheel, a marine biologist at Alaska Pacific, and Nathan Hollenbeck, an undergraduate student at the school at the time, collected 21 live octopuses that were snared as bycatch in shrimp pots. 14 of them were clearly giant Pacific octopuses, Enteroctopus dofleini, but the remaining seven were… different. These outliers looked kind of like the others, but they had frills all over their mantles. The seven strangers also had strange eyelash-like protuberances, and two white spots on the front of their heads, whereas the typical giant Pacific octopus has only one. 
 
 The researchers took a swab of epithelial cells—the cells that make up the tissues that line the cavities and surfaces of body organs—from the octopuses, and took them back to the lab for genetic testing. The tests confirmed that, indeed, these seven cephalopods were genetically distinct from the giant Pacific octopus in the scientific literature. 
 
 So far, according to Earther, Hollenbeck and Scheel have only spotted the frilled giant Pacific octopus in waters ranging from Juneau to the Bering Sea. In comparison, their non-frilled genetic cousins have been spotted all over the northern Pacific Ocean, from the western coast of the lower 48 states of the US, up to Alaska, and all the way across the sea off the coast of Japan. 
 
 That said, the giant Pacific octopus is well-known to be a master of disguise, and scientists admit they don’t have a strong grasp on their behavior—to the point where we really have no idea how many of them are out there. In addition, marine biologists and ecologists have long suspected that the giant Pacific octopus might actually be better thought of as an umbrella term encompassing a bunch of different species. So who knows? Perhaps there are plenty of frilled giant Pacific octopuses—which have not yet been given an official Latin taxonomic name—and we just have been fooled this whole time. ||||| The wonderpus octopus is native to the Indo Pacific region. Each individual has unique white markings on its head, allowing scientists to track individual specimens. It, along with other cephalopods, will be part of the new "Tentacles" exhibit at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The exhibit opens April 12 and runs through Labor Day of 2016. 
 
 A red octopus' normal color is red or reddish brown, but like many other cephalopods it can change quickly -- in a fraction of a second -- to yellow, brown, white, red or a variety of mottled colors. The red octopus is thought to be a clever animal. In 2012, a tiny juvenile red octopus hitchhiked into the Monterey Bay Aquarium on a sponge. It hid in one of the exhibits for a year before being discovered walking across the aquarium's floor in the middle of the night. The discovery helped to explain why so many crabs had gone missing during that period of time. They had gone into the red octopus's tummy. The then out-of-place octopus was eventually released into Monterey Bay, but the species will be represented by others in the new exhibition. Best Ocean Animal Photos 
 
 Up to 50 nautiluses will occupy a huge exhibit, with a ceiling-to-floor viewing window. These animals like to hide away safely in their protective shells. Many other cephalopods are equally evasive, desiring to blend into their surroundings for protection and to surprise prey. This can make putting them on display challenging. As Bitondo said, "We're trying to display something that doesn’t want to be seen." 
 
 Unlike other species of octopus, the day octopus is more active in the daytime than at night. The day octopus originally arrived at the aquarium via a direct flight from Honolulu, Hawaii, since it is native to waters there. It lives in East African waters as well. The large, almost 3-foot-long predators are short-lived. They survive just one year, on average, and breed only once. Cephalopods, in general, don't live for very long, which is why the aquarium is cultivating cephalopods during the exhibition. "These are all short-lived animals," Monterey Bay Aquarium special exhibits coordinator Jennifer Dreyer said. "Many are species that have never been exhibited for very long by any of our colleagues, or raised through their entire lifecycle. This is definitely a first for any aquarium." 
 
 These are bigfin reef squid eggs, which were collected from the northern Indo Pacific, Monterey Bay Aquarium aquarist Alicia Bitondo told Discovery News. She added, "There are about 300 egg pods in this tank, with about 6 embryos per pod." She and others at the aquarium are breeding the species through multiple generations as one of the featured exhibit animals in the new special exhibition. 
 
 A cuttlefish moves by undulating a delicate fringe that runs along its entire body, but for a quick getaway it expels a forceful stream of water through its siphon, according to Monterey Bay Aquarium aquarist Bret Grasse. When threatened, cuttlefish can produce a cloud of ink called sepia. Long ago, this dark-brown ink was used for writing and drawing. Artificial 'Cuttlefish' Muscles Contract for Camouflage 
 
 On the other side of the size spectrum is the giant Pacific octopus. It is the largest octopus species in the world. Adults can weigh hundreds of pounds and have an arm span of more than 12 feet. The giant Pacific octopus is a master of disguise, like many other cephalopods. It can change both its skin texture and color in order to defend itself. Video: Giant Pacific Octopus Returns 
 
 "Dwarf squid are the smallest squid species in the world," Monterey Bay Aquarium aquarist Chris Payne told Discovery News. In addition to this petite creature, the new exhibit features a dozen living exhibits showcasing rotating appearances by up to two dozen species -- many never exhibited before. See Photos of the Giant Squid 
 
 Flamboyant cuttlefish are colorful, and deadly. Its muscle tissue is highly toxic, making it one of only a handful of cephalopods known to be toxic. They can change color to help them sneak up on prey or to scare predators. Video: Learn About the Cuttlefish 
 
 A star at the Monterey Bay Aquarium's new exhibit "Tentacles: The Astounding Lives of Octopuses, Squid and Cuttlefishes" is the flapjack octopus. The name was inspired by its flattened appearance. It is among the most anatomically compressed species in the world. The character "Pearl" in the Disney/Pixar film "Finding Nemo" was based on a flapjack octopus. Video: Octopus Mimics Flounder 
 
 An Antarctic octopus gives literal meaning to the phrase “blue blood,” as a new study finds the cephalopod has blue pigments in its blood that allow it to survive sub-zero temperatures and possibly higher temps associated with climate change too. 
 
 The findings, published in the journal Frontiers in Zoology, help to explain why the Antarctic octopus -- Pareledone charcoti -- is faring well now, while other animals in its habitat are not. 
 
 “This is the first study providing clear evidence that the octopods’ blue blood pigment, haemocyanin, undergoes functional changes to improve the supply of oxygen to tissue at sub-zero temperatures,” said lead author Michael Oellermann, from the Alfred-Wegener-Institute, in a release. 
 
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 “This is important,” he continued, “because it highlights a very different response compared to Antarctic fish to the cold conditions in the Southern Ocean. The results also imply that due to improved oxygen supply by haemocyanin at higher temperatures, this octopod may be physiologically better equipped than Antarctic fishes to cope with global warming.” 
 
 The Antarctic Ocean is home to these fish, the octopus, and many other creatures despite the region’s history of inhospitably cold temperatures. While it can be hard to deliver oxygen to tissues in the cold due to lower oxygen diffusion and increased blood viscosity, ice-cold waters already contain large amounts of dissolved oxygen. 
 
 With that in mind, and hoping to learn more about the sturdy “blue blood” octopus, Oellermann and his team collected and analyzed the haemolymph (a fluid equivalent to blood) from the Antarctic octopus. They also did this for two other octopus species collected from warmer climates: the Southeast Australian Octopus pallidus and the Mediterranean Eledone moschata. 
 
 All of these marine animals possess three hearts and contractile veins that pump haemolymph, which is highly enriched with haemocyanin. This oxygen transport protein is analogous to haemoglobin in humans and many other animals. It leads to blue-colored blood, however, instead of red, which has to do with components in the pigment and how the oxygen is processed in the body. 
 
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 The Antarctic octopus had the bluest blood of all, with at least 40 percent more haemocyanin in its blood compared to the other species. This is among the highest levels ever reported. 
 
 The Antarctic octopus’ haemocyanin was also found to shuttle oxygen between gills and tissue far better when temperatures were above freezing. This is where the other octopuses lagged behind. The ability may help the Antarctic species to tolerate warmer temperatures in addition to the cold. 
 
 It could also explain the lifestyle of this animal, which tends to hang out in warmer (well, warmer for Antarctica) shallow waters and rock pools. 
 
 Photo: The Antarctic octopus Pareledone charcoti. Credit: Armin Rose ||||| You wouldn’t think a giant octopus could hide in plain sight for decades. But researchers have now learned that the giant Pacific octopus (GPO)—the largest known octopus on Earth, ranging from California to Alaska to Japan—is actually two species. Now that we’ve been properly introduced to the new “frilled giant octopus,” we’ll need to learn more about it to ensure its survival. 
 
 
 
 This discovery isn’t a total surprise. Scientists have suspected for decades that giant Pacific octopus might be an “umbrella name” covering more than one species. In 2012, researchers from Alaska Pacific University and the US Geological Survey found a genetically distinct group of GPOs in Prince William Sound. Unfortunately, they’d collected only small snips of arm tissue for DNA analysis before returning the octopuses to the wild, so they couldn’t find out whether the two groups might be visually distinct as well. So Nathan Hollenbeck, an undergraduate student at Alaska Pacific University, tackled these cryptic creatures for his senior thesis by looking at shrimp fishing bycatch, where the octopuses commonly turn up. 
 
 Shrimp fishers in Alaska lower baited pots into the water, let them sit for up to a day, then retrieve them to get the shrimp that have climbed in. Occasionally a giant octopus will climb in too—perhaps interested in the bait, or perhaps simply investigating crevices, as octopuses are wont to do. “Usually the octopuses have eaten the shrimp,” Hollenbeck told Earther, “so there’s a lot of shrimp shells and legs and antennae.” 
 
 Hollenbeck quickly found that he could identify two kinds of giant octopus just by looking at them. One was the familiar GPO; the other sported a distinctive frill along the length of its body. These frilled octopuses also exhibited curious “eyelashes” of raised skin, and bore two white spots on the front of the head, where GPOs have only one. 
 
 
 
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 To confirm that the visually distinct group matched the genetically distinct one, Hollenbeck cut off tiny pieces of the octopuses’ arms. And because he wanted to know if future work could avoid this invasive sampling technique, he also collected DNA by swiping the octopuses’ skin with cotton swabs. 
 
 “Presumably, people have been catching these octopuses for years and no one ever noticed” 
 
 You’d probably prefer that a doctor swab your cheek rather than stick a needle in your arm—or snip off the tip of a finger. (At least octopus arms regenerate.) Other animals probably share this preference. Scientists routinely use non-invasive sampling techniques on mammals and birds, but Hollenbeck was the first to try swabbing an octopus. It worked like a charm, and DNA from arm tips and swabs agreed: the frilled octopus is a separate species from the GPO. Hollenbeck and his advisor David Scheel published their results in November in the American Malacological Bulletin. 
 
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 “Presumably, people have been catching these octopuses for years and no one ever noticed,” Scheel said. Frilled giant octopuses appear to be less widely distributed than GPOs—Hollenbeck and Scheel have collected reliable reports of the species only from Juneau to the Bering Sea. They also seem to prefer deeper water, unfrequented by tidepoolers or scuba divers. In this habitat, though, they might be fairly common. Frilled giants made up a third of octopus bycatch in Hollenbeck’s shrimp pots. 
 
 
 
 Crab and cod are also fished with pots in the Gulf of Alaska, and it’s likely that many of the octopuses caught in these pots will turn out to be frilled giants, too. No one knows whether that poses a threat to the species’ survival. 
 
 
 
 Even for GPOs, we don’t have enough information to determine whether they’re at risk of overfishing. Government scientists at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center recommend “very conservative” management “due to the poor state of knowledge of the species composition, life history, distribution, and abundance of octopus” in the Gulf of Alaska. 
 
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 For the time being, federal regulations specify a maximum octopus bycatch based on the best available estimates of how many are out there. The Alaska cod fishery has been closed on at least one occasion when it hit this limit. But with GPOs and frilled giants lumped together in bycatch numbers, it’s impossible to distinguish the impacts of fishing on the two different species. 
 
 
 
 The frilled giant octopus doesn’t have a Latin name yet (though it’s expected to be in the same genus as the GPO, Enteroctopus). Named or not, frilled giants will continue to investigate fishing pots and get hauled to the surface, where they will sometimes be thrown back in the water and sometimes killed to use as bait. In either case, they will be recorded as just another giant octopus, indistinct from the GPO. 
 
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 And yet the skin-deep differences between the two species may represent any number of more fundamental differences in lifestyle, diet, or reproduction. About the frill, Scheel said, “I’ve been thinking: why would an octopus have a ledge coming off its body like that? Maybe we’re seeing differences in their habitat selection and ecology reflected by differences in their body.” He’s interested in comparing the giant species to smaller octopuses that also sport frills, to look for patterns in habitat use. 
 
 For now, we know little more than these admiring words of Scheel’s about the new giants: “They’re so pretty.” 
 
 
 
 Danna Staaf is a freelance science writer, author of Squid Empire: The Rise and Fall of the Cephalopods, and followable on Twitter. ||||| A Washington state panel on Friday prohibited the recreational hunting of giant Pacific octopuses at seven popular scuba diving sites in the Puget Sound region, following an outcry when a man was spotted killing one of the elusive creatures. 
 
 The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission called for a review of the rules after a diver killed an octopus in October near Alki Point in Seattle. A diving instructor who arrived on the beach saw him beating the octopus to death. 
 
 Photos of the event outraged other divers who are familiar with octopus lairs and watch for the creatures. Divers petitioned the panel to outlaw octopus hunting or to create marine preserves where they'll be safe. 
 
 The commission's unanimous vote came Friday, after the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, working with a citizen advisory committee that included sport fishermen and recreational divers, developed options ranging from no rule changes to banning the recreational hunt throughout Puget Sound. 
 
 Current rules allow a person with a valid state fishing license to harvest one giant Pacific octopus per day in most areas of Puget Sound. 
 
 One of the sites where hunting will be prohibited is the spot where the octopus was killed last fall. 
 
 Fish and Wildlife received hundreds of comments on the options, the commission said in a statement. The commission sets policy for the Fish and Wildlife Department. 
 
 Many sport fishermen wanted to keep current rules while many divers favored a Puget Sound-wide ban, said Craig Burley in Fish and Wildlife's fish management program. 
 
 The Puget Sound octopus population appears healthy and the current recreational harvest is very small, Burley said. 
 
 The Seattle Aquarium says giant Pacific octopuses average 90 pounds and their arms can span 20 feet across, but a fully grown octopus can fit through a hole the size of a lemon. 
 
 The octopuses live in rocky dens, recognized by the discarded shells of crabs and clams they eat. They hunt at night and also eat fish and other species of octopus. Their suckers hold prey, which the octopus tears apart with a parrot-like beak. 
 
 Giant Pacific octopuses can change color at will depending on their surroundings and mood. 
 
 Several commission members mentioned the creatures' broad appeal to recreational divers around the world. 
 
 "Washington is an important dive location, and protection of the octopus is important both to the dive community and to the economy of the state," said Commissioner Conrad Mahnken of Bainbridge Island, located west of Seattle across the sound.
– A California fish-market owner bought an octopus and set it free because he feels a certain affinity with cephalopods, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Giovanni DeGarimore, owner of Giovanni's Fish Market in Morro Bay, bought the 70-pounder earlier this month for a couple hundred dollars from a local crab fisherman who'd caught it by mistake. DeGarimore then named it Fred and released the creature in a secure area without sea lions or other potential risks, the San Luis Obispo Tribune reports. So why this octopus love when DeGarimore makes a living selling fish? "It's just been a culmination of events through the last 10 years," says DeGarimore, who recalls how a cousin once bought a live octopus from a sushi restaurant and set it free. "She was kind of my inspiration." DeGarimore also encountered an octopus while scuba diving in Fiji and marveled at its intelligence. "Essentially, we played a game of hide and seek for 15 minutes under the ocean," he says. (Scientific American has reported on octopuses' smarts and the Tribune on their ability to wiggle away.) DeGarimore says he didn't intend to attract all this attention, but will be pleased "if my little contribution can make a bigger difference in the world." (See Fred on Facebook or watch a video of an octopus being born.)