Strange Stranger

Today in class we talked about gay penguins and wasps that recognize other wasps by their faces. Professor Bell said that just because one learns something new about a creature, doesn't necessarily mean that one will change the way they treat it in the future. I certainly agree with this statement to an extent, but I also believe that it depends on the person and how the information is presented.

This past summer I spent most nights with my english friend who had acquired a ton of David Attenborough's documentary series. All of them are amazing (especially Life of Mammals episode 3). My father is a contributing writer to a food magazine (as his hobby), and likes to take me with him to taste the weird food that my mom won't touch. This includes octopus.

I was watching Life episode one: Challenges of Life, when David Attenborough started exploring the life of a female giant pacific octopus. This is a remarkable creature and her life is like a wonderful tragedy. Once pregnant, she spends the rest of her life guarding her den and tending to her 15,000 precious eggs. She never strays from her den. She starves herself and dedicates her energy to blowing water over her eggs. After six months she gives one final blow to help her eggs hatch. They hatch and she proudly dies. She sacrifices herself to give life to others. She gives birth once in her lifetime and only a few of the babies will live until adulthood.

The next time my dad asked me to try octopus I couldn't get David Attenborough's somber voice, or the footage of the octopus and sound of the sad viola out of my head. "Though only a few can survive to adulthood, she's given them the best chance she can. After her long and lonely vigil, she is dead. Surely this sacrifice must make her one of natures most devoted mothers."

From then on I have always declined octopus as food. I think it's because the documentary made me see the strange stranger as being not strange at all. The only thing strange was that it was strangely familiar. I've always found octopuses to be both terrifying and fascinating. They sound like they are monsters when described in words (and they are super smart -- A few years back the Seattle Aquarium couldn't figure out what was happening to their dogfish sharks. They were disappearing. When they looked back at the security tapes they saw that the giant pacific octopus had been sneaking out of its cave at night and eating the sharks!)

Learning about the life of a giant pacific octopus through this intimate footage and narration made me realize that they aren't monsters at all. They're actually very honorable creatures who value life, love, and family. I'm not saying I want to go and hang out with a giant pacific octopus, but I guess now I value the lives of giant pacific octopuses and I really respect them.