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800 Maynard Ave S, Suite 200, Seattle, WA 98134
800 Maynard Ave S, Suite 200, Seattle, WA 98134
That said, I would have been very disturbed by what the divers saw as well. Maybe expanding marine preserves off these popular beaches is a good idea.
Here's the link: http://wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/shellfish/sta…
I'm fine with fishing and hunting but it does seem like there would be more humane ways of harvesting Octopi. Also, it seems like there should be some regulation to protect females during breeding season. We have regulations of that type for crab, why not for Octopi?
@8 - Octopi can be eaten (not a connoisseur, so I don't know about this species in particular), but I surely wouldn't just chuck future food in my trash heap of a trunk like that.
Suggestions on how to take action on this?
Octopus is edible and is part of numerous cuisines. I don't know which types of octopus are best for food, though, or whether the local octopuses are good eatin'.
The Stranger did an article of octopus several years ago. I recall that it stated something like the word octopus is not of Latin derivation, so the plural is octopuses, not octopi.
I have news for you. The chicken, fish, beef (cows), and even vegetables all screamed in agony when they died so you could eat them.
Besides, given the very large sizes of octupus and other marine creatures in Puget Sound, where will the last of the Big Game Hunters go?
Also I believe that "octopodes" was actually the correct term in that article because "octopus" is rooted in Greek, but certainly "octopuses" is more correct than "octopi."
I have always thought giant octopi are a treasure unique to Puget Sound, as fascinating and awesome as orcas, as far as I'm concerned. They are also supposed to be super smart. Why would someone do this? It's so fucking lame and barbaric. You can't go into the woods and drag an animal out with your bare hands. Why so in the water?
Nyah, nyah! Ordering this now!
Octopi = 8Π ∼ 25.1327412
I believe this usage exempts me from being murdered in my sleep.
Uwajimaya sells octopus, but I don't know if it's local. I'm sure other fish sellers have it, also. I have no idea how to prepare it.
I think that's an incorrect tee shirt, as it depicts a quadipi, not an octopi.
It's also worth mentioning that they've pissed pretty much the entire northwest dive community off with this. Just about every shop in town has said they'll refuse to fill their tanks.
http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Conte…
@octopus-plural enforcers: usually I'm a grammar-nazi, and while I'll try to be gracious, it was a bit hard to remember my Latin roots when I was seething to see such mistreatment of the actual octopus. I just wrote a letter to the Wash. Dept. of Fish & Wildlife Commission urging them to take action on this, so I think my karma balances out here.
re: cruelty. It would not be okay to take a mother bear when she was with her cubs, and it would generally be considered inhumane to drag a dying animal behind your car, even if you planned to eat it. The first is poor wildlife management, and the second is sadism. We don't hunt by tooth and claw, so we don't get to shrug off respect and mercy.
@sanotehu, your depiction of nature as "red in tooth and claw" -- with "hyenas tearing into the stomachs of still-living prey" is not accurate. You do realize that these shows are edited for maximum drama. I spend a lot of time in the field with wildlife and I can tell you that natural predation is in no way as incessant and dramatic as what, say, a field of waterfowl hunters incurs. In fact, most prey animals live in relative peace with occasional intrusions by predators, and they are adapted to the scents, signals and communal communications that tend to occur, say, among bird species when an overhead predator is spotted. This is nothing close to what we humans deem as "natural" when we insert ourselves into this same system.
Suggesting that because nature is sometimes cruel, that we humans should also be cruel, is a logical fallacy, and one that betrays our better nature and our ability to decide otherwise.
Keep it up, divers. WDFW has been gutted by funding cuts and inefficient management at the upper levels. This--making a stink--is the best way to get policy changes made.
It's a religious thing.
You wouldn't understand ...
The issue here is that the west seattle Octopi are basically tame and once divers start hunting them they will learn to avoid those waters and then voilĆ no more pretty octopi to look at. Or hunt.
Cruel is relative.
And as a person who spend a great deal of time in nature and watching wildlife your characterization of wild animal predation has some how less painful or more noble than human predation is romantic poppycock. The idea that a deer being shot through the lungs by .30-06 is any less cruel than it's throat being torn out and it being asphyxiated by a predator is nonsense.
BTW I have seen with my own eyes bear kill and torture a deer purely for sport. Big cats and even wolves are notorious for this.
The difference is wild animals live in balance with their prey. If they over hunt, prey becomes scarce and the predator starves until population balance is restored.
Human predation, on the other hand, can occur regardless of the status of the prey population and can hunt to extinction wildlife in short order.
That's why we need to regulate hunting.
Do you know what's cruel? That you and I live in this sprawling over-populated technological society and rarely question the immense impact our lives of convenience have on the natural world. That our lifestyles themselves cause orders of magnitude MORE suffering and cruelty on animals than hunting ever could.
Any MORE cruel. oops.
To simply shrug one's shoulders and say, "Well, it's legal, people are gonna do it" is unacceptable.
"So far allot of people have listened to what this man has said. and haven't heard my side.
I would like to state that the octopus was not on eggs and nor I did say it was. when he asked me āwhat if it was protecting its eggsā I said āwell its not nowā sarcastically. I never said there were eggs and I am outraged this story was fabricated... let alone the game warden said she thinks it was male shortly after she told me I broke no laws taking this animal. she even looked over the body at my house Thursday to be sure I did not stab it (and yes I did still have the body after butcher).
that being said I did not know this would get people in an uproar. and yes I did brag, I am a 20 year old GUY what did you expect, I got him by myself and I was proud of the catch. this is no different from a salmon fisherman proud of a huge fish he may have gotten. and yes was I rude to this man, however I kept my cool as long as I could and all I could think was āthis asshole is yelling at me when there are others doing it dailyā. Iāve only gotten two. I donāt do it because Iām sick and like to kill things. I do it because I enjoy the meat. ever had sushi? well what do you think some of the roll have in them?
lastly because of all the death threats, harassment, oh yeah and posting my employers number (they were innocent here but still had to deal with a couple HUNDRED calls from you people), I've decided that if this guy apologizes and asks me nicely to not hunt that area (like he should in the first place have, I would have understood if he didn't start off with calling me a fucker) to me via email/ gets rid of the people threatening to kill me and my family to stop, then I will never hunt that area again.
however if he refuses and I continue to get people calling me, messaging me, threatening me, spamming me, etc, then I will continue to hunt the area. local law enforcement have been contacted in regards to the issue and they say you may not stop me, touch me, block me, or interfere with me in anyway or the individuals will be subjected to criminal prosecution."
Well, enjoy getting your tires knifed, Dylan.
I'm pretty fond of octopuses myself but does no one here see the extreme dippiness of flaking out about killing/eating cute and/or cuddly animals and then donning the leather jacket to go out for a burger?
https://www.google.com/search?q=tako+hun…
Octopussy gets punched? Outrage!
You need to see a therapist. Me, I love my octopussy served up sashimi style or in a lovely takoyaki at a summer matsuri. I've also eaten whale and Dolphin. Don't like that? Fuck you racist.
What insufferable, entitled jerks.
this is a very one sided article considering none of these people even tried to contact me and just began typing up new fabricated stories like the other sites all brought on by one individual who made false statements.
i would also like to say the my family and i have gotten hundreds of death threats over this, i lost my job due to hundreds of calls going in at my work, and i am no longer able to go to school in Washington state to be a rescue diver because these lies have traveled to the schools of which banned me.
let me add all this stuff i have said is all over a octopus i legally fished thinking it was okay. lawyers have been contacted and because of the effect these false postings have cause, legal action is being considered.
-one of the octopus huners
this is a very one sided article considering none of these people even tried to contact me and just began typing up new fabricated stories like the other sites all brought on by one individual who made false statements.
i would also like to say the my family and i have gotten hundreds of death threats over this, i lost my job due to hundreds of calls going in at my work, and i am no longer able to go to school in Washington state to be a rescue diver because these lies have traveled to the schools of which banned me.
let me add all this stuff i have said is all over a octopus i legally fished thinking it was okay. lawyers have been contacted and because of the effect these false postings have cause, legal action is being considered.
-one of the octopus huners
Despite their incredible intelligence and beauty, however, current fishing regulations do very little to protect this species. Current regulations permit the harvest of one GPO a day year-round, meaning a single ambitious diver could effectively decimate the entire Alki GPO population in a matter of days. Because of this, it is absolutely vital to the ecosystem of Puget Sound to protect this iconic creature, and the population residing at Seacrest Park represents an incredibly unique and valuable resource for divers and the city of Seattle alike. Protecting this population would empower visitors from around the world to visit and witness the majesty of our octopus population, educate the public about the importance of marine conservation, and establish Seattle as a world-class diving destination.
The Orca, the Sixgill Shark, the Wolf-eel ā these are all iconic Pacific Northwest species that have earned the protection they deserve, and yet the Giant Pacific Octopus is conspicuously absent from this list. We request that the Washington Department of Fisheries and Wildlife and/or the City of Seattle (1) establish a GPO harvest-free zone encompassing the marine environment surrounding Alki Seacrest Park, and (2) begin evaluating the long term consequences of limiting GPO harvesting in Washington State.
http://www.divenewsnetwork.com/index.php…
Seriously?
By all means petition to create a protected area. Maybe the species should be protected if it is threatened. But carnivores freaking out about the killing of some particular animal just because they happen to think it is cool/cute whatever, is just plain nutty.
Sometimes the dippiness in this town is just embarrassing.
Are they endangered or are you just imposing your 'superior' cultural values on the rest of us? Why are white people such racists against other cultures eating habits?
As my wife just said, "why doesn't someone go punch the real Octomom instead"? Exactly!
Thanks to all!
Descriptivist buffoons wouldn't know English if it slapped them in the common usage.
Better go picket the tapas restaurants, because pulpo is the #1 tapas.
I'm pretty sure animals don't know the difference of whether they will be sport and dinner.
The changing of a -us suffix to an -i to denote plurality is for Latin, not Greek (e.g. alumnus to alumni). You should never change octopus to octopi to denote plurality.
Octopuses is acceptable. In English, we don't always follow the rules of the original language when making words plural. So while we follow Latin for alumnus, we don't follow Latin for campus. We say campuses, not campi.
Dear Typical Trolling Racist Cocksucker,
Fuck you.
Love,
The Asians
The plural is "octopuses". Period. And stadiums, and campuses, and pajamas, and assassins, and robots, and tycoons, and bananas, and skis. People who use Latin endings because they think it makes them look smart are achieving the opposite effect.
But you are incorrect in your statement that English never follows original language pluralization rules, case in point: alumnus/alumni, cactus/cacti, appendix/appendices, etc.