Page 8 - Palm City Spotlight - June '24

Page 8, Palm City Spotlight

Book review

Secrets Of The Octopus worldwide, ranging in After a while, Sy the author gently uncoiled the
size from tentacle spreads tentacle, turned to me and said, “It’s your turn, Nils.”
By Nils A. Shapiro of 2 inches to 16 feet! I stepped up to the tank and was handed a small fish, a
It seems to me that after Octopus es are capelin – the octopus’s favorite food. A tentacle arose,
300 million years of their technically members of took it from my fingers … but dropped it into the water.
life on this planet, one the mollusk family, which She was already too weak to eat and was starving.
of the most extraordinary also includes scallops, The tentacle arose again from the water and touched my
creatures to have ever oysters, clams and snails. hand. She was tasting me, right down to my bloodstream.
existed is today, more than But at some point during I passed the test – and I was there with her friend, Sy
ever, the focus of human their evolution octopuses the author. So slowly and gently her tentacle, sucker by
attention. There are several lost their shells and, like sucker, encircled my wrist, feeling like wet velvet, and
reasons for such current squid and cuttlefish, are stayed there as we looked at each other.
interest. One reason is gelatinous – meaning they Soon, realizing that here was a creature as different
that – thanks to decades have no bones, which is from me as would be an alien from outer space – yet at
of research by marine scientists – we now have more how an octopus that has a least as intelligent as myself and greeting me in the only
knowledge about octopuses’ remarkable intelligence tentacle spread of as much as 16 feet can escape from its way she could – I began to speak silently to her, choking
and incredible range of abilities, several of which are tank in an aquarium by squeezing through a hole as small back tears with every word: “Do you realize what’s
described later in this review. as 2 inches round! happening?” “Do you know you’re dying?” “You want
A book written by Sy Montgomery, The Soul of an Octopuses are also cephalopods – their eight legs to protect your babies, I know.” “I wish I could help,
Octopus, which I highly recommended in an earlier (tentacles) are attached to their heads, rather than to a but there is nothing I can do.” Finally, the official from
review, quickly climbed the bestseller lists in 25 countries torso, as in the case of humans and most creatures. The the aquarium said it was time to go. I said my goodbye,
around the world. fact that an octopus has three hearts, blue blood and the uncoiled the tentacle and left.
That book inspired a 27-year-old New Yorker, Warren equivalent of nine brains – each of its eight tentacles can For many months after, I could not discuss what was
K. Carlyle – who had been fascinated by octopuses since think for itself – is only the beginning of what makes this one of the most emotional experiences of my life without
was a young boy – to launch in 2015 an online octopus alien-like creature so fascinating. Moreover, if a tentacle bursting into tears. It’s also why I fully related to Canadian
fan club and educational organization named OctoNation. is lost it can grow back in two to four months. And from scuba diver Krystal Janicki’s description in this new book
Today, that club numbers more than a million members author Montgomery’s own and others’ experiences we of her own experience on one dive – an encounter with
worldwide. Carlyle has also written for this new book, learn that these highly intelligent octopuses are as curious a giant Pacific octopus, which reads in part, “I forgot
Secrets of the Octopus, the informative and beautifully about us humans as we are about them. everything else existed … One arm is up and over my
illustrated OctoProfiles of 16 different octopus and Here are just a few examples of the hundreds of cheek and holding my head against her mantle. We’re
cuttlefish species that follow the book’s major text. remarkable facts you will discover in the pages of this completely off the ground. We’re floating. She’s holding
book (some text has been omitted for lack of space and me with two arms. I’m feeling her breathe …”
been replaced by ellipses). “The sense of communion was palpable as the two adult
“Boneless, venomous, and equipped with eight females – one vertebrate, one invertebrate; one marine,
powerful suckered arms (a single large sucker on the the other terrestrial – stared into each other’s eyes across
largest species, the giant Pacific, can lift 35 pounds – a chasm of half a billion years of evolution. “It stole me in
and there are 200 on each arm), octopuses are gifted a way I’ve never felt with a human or an animal before,”
with talents that seem so otherworldly you’d have to says Janicki. “It was an honor and incredible. I’ll never
go to outer space or science fiction to match them … forget how powerful it was.”
Octopuses can taste with every inch of their skin. They
can squirt ink … as a smokescreen … They can drool a
muscle-dissolving acid and a neurotoxic venom … But the
octopus’s hallucinatory ability to change color and shape
is its signature superpower – one it can deploy faster than
a human can blink an eye!”
An octopus can change its colors and overall skin
patterns to match any background it may be next to –
To meet the demands of this worldwide attention, the various corals, rocks, sea grass, etc. – 100 times a minute,
National Geographic Society has produced a television faster than a human can blink, in order to camouflage
series, Secrets of the Octopus, which on April 21 began itself to hide from a predator … even though the octopus’s
streaming on the Hulu and Disney channels. They wisely eyes are actually color blind! It is the octopus’s skin that
turned to the author of the earlier book, Sy Montgomery, senses the background’s colors and textures!
to write a new companion volume for their TV series. Officials at aquariums have learned that octopuses get
An interesting foreword has been added by Alex Schnell, bored very quickly and must be kept mentally challenged.
Ph.D., an Australian wildlife scientist and research For example, it takes them only minutes to learn how to
associate at the University of Cambridge. open a childproof cap on a prescription medication – press You would do well to read both of Sy Montgomery’s
While this gorgeous new volume, Secrets of the down, then turn – or a jar that holds a tempting treat, like octopus books to derive the most benefit. If you consider
Octopus, is different from Montgomery’s earlier The a shrimp: unscrew the metal top by turning it counter- them as cameras from which to view the lives of these
Soul of an Octopus in important ways, each offers its clockwise. The answer is to provide different kinds of creatures, Secrets of the Octopus will provide a rich
own special pleasures. Since this column is a review of puzzles regularly, all year round. panoramic view of their truly superhuman combination of
the new book, I will focus on that one here. Octopuses can distinguish between different human faces intelligence and range of physical capabilities, as well as
The most obvious difference is that it takes advantage and will bond with individual humans. I can personally today’s broad diversity of species in this 300-million-year
of the National Geographic Society’s staff of explorer- attest to that. When my review of The Soul of an Octopus inheritance.
photographers to include more than 60 stunning full-page was published some years ago in this column, author Sy The Soul of an Octopus, a deeply satisfying and
and double-spread color photos of octopuses in their Montgomery (whom I had never met) called to thank me emotional read, will be your close-up lens from
natural habitats. There are more than 300 different species and asked if I would like to meet Sy, the octopus at the New which to view how two
England Aquarium in Boston that had been named after her. of this world’s creatures,
Southern Exposure Technologies But, she cautioned, the octopus had laid her 100,000 eggs so alien in every way
Computer Install/Setup/Repair and, as I would know from having read her book, since there from one another – author
are many predators in their natural ocean habitat female
Sy Montgomery and the
(561) 315-0144 octopuses instinctively spread their tentacles atop the eggs, several octopuses she
getsetgo.annie@gmail.com stop foraging for their own food, and over a period of several studied – were able to
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* Virus/Spyware/Adware Fix stepped to the top of the tank, the octopus looked up and, the lives of these undersea
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* Business Consult/Startup/Move as weak as she was from not eating, she raised a tentacle, geniuses.
* Website Design/Maintenance wrapped it around the author’s waist in greeting and kept
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