I grew up hunting. And fishing. People who do it in parks are fucked.

GD it, I just considered that I fish in the Oly Nat'l Park...oh forget it!

I still don't like what he did, and although I once considered them to be delicious, I don't eat Octopus because they are smart. And awesome.

Yeah, it's funny how much a little timely reporting could've helped readers learn more. Nobody did that at the time so we all did the best we could. Better late than never I suppose.

Thank you, New York Times, for doing our local reporting on this. And I'm very glad the legislation passed to keep hunting and recreational diving separate.

Man, he sounds like me except with more ambition, gumption and manliness.

So did he actually eat it? I read the entire article, and I didn't see any mention of it. Did I miss it? And what does one person do with a nine-foot octopus?

The part about him training in a swimming pool using his friends as proxy octopuses? Amazing.

Agreed with @1. My problem -- as a diver and as an eater of local wildlife -- was that (a) he chose to do it at a popular site where his dinner was a regular attraction for folks and that (b) he really didn't care about other users of the site.

There were other signs that he was kind of antisocial, too: bragging about fishing at Edmonds Underwater Park (where it IS illegal for him to do so), the firecracker-in-the-snake hijinks he claimed credit for on his Facebook, and so on.

I have no problem with people who fish in the Sound, however they go about it. I do have a problem with people who take wildlife attractions at sites that are almost more zoo than park. Even if it was legal to, say, hunt the bald eagles at certain parks in Seattle, it would be wrong to do so because of its impact on other users of that park.

The state did the right thing here, in how the six or seven relevant underwater sites are treated. And the kid didn't do anything illegal, so there shouldn't be any legal sanctions against him. But what he did was being a big jerk to other divers at Alki, and they should be indignant. (Though if he's learned his lesson they should move on...)

Frankly, the notion that locavores don't realize that someone has to get the food is idiotic. One of the points of being a locavore, however, is to understand the interaction between what goes in your mouth and the rest of the local community -- something that he probably learned, in the end, maybe against his will.

@12 said it better than I could have

@#3

Thank you, New York Times, for doing our local reporting on this

And, if you'll note, using a Portland-based freelancer to do it. Was there literally no-one in Seattle - in Washington - up to / interested in reporting seriously on this, in the last 11 months?

If anything, I actually think less of Mayer after reading this than if he was some random law-of-the-jungle thrill-killing yahoo. What difference did all your moral nuances make to the octopus? Did you question your sense of entitlement at any point during the 25 minutes in which the octopus made known its objection to being fucked with?

If that octopus had killed the diver, the mob would be down there wiping out the octopus. So that octopus did not die in vain.

@15 I'm with you. I think way less of this guy, knowing more about him.

@15 and 18, yes. There was no rational reason for him to kill that octopus. None. He's not living in a story by Hemingway.

I'm just proud to see everyone writing "octopuses"and not "octopi". Great work, everyone.

It's good to see all the outrage for the killing of an octopus, which is not endangered, from a bunch of people who are merrily pursuing habitat-destroying lifestyles that kill far more salmon, orcas, etc., which are.

All I can think this whole time is, "What? He's 19? He's the oldest looking 19 year old I've EVER seen!"

Yeah that poor kid, struggling for his life against that Octopus that was minding its own business before he cam along and tried to kill it! Thank god he was able to persevere. *eyeroll*