A creature of the ocean deep takes center stage when NATURE presents The Octopus Show.

A new age of ocean exploration is lifting the veil of mystery shrouding a creature of legend — the octopus. Dreaded by sailors through the ages, this other-worldly looking denizen of the seas is surrendering the astonishing secrets that have brought it almost mythical status.

With footage of octopus species rarely, if ever, seen before — including one with giant eyes and another with antennae in place of suction cups — NATURE takes viewers into the deepest realms of the ocean for a front-row view of The Octopus Show.

In Tahiti, it is called Rogo-tumu, a tentacled sea demon who drags unsuspecting seafarers to the ocean bottom. In the Bahamas, legends abound of the Lusca, a giant sea creature that can squeeze through the smallest cracks and change color in the blink of an eye. Along the ancient Mediterranean Sea, people spoke in reverent tones of Yamm, a sea god of many heads and legs who ruled over his watery realm.

Tall tales? Perhaps. But all are based on a remarkable real animal: the octopus. NATURE’s The Octopus Show helps viewers get their tentacles around this amazingly talented but little-understood creature. It follows the efforts of Mike DeGruy, a dedicated wildlife photographer, to capture these acrobatic but often shy animals on film, both in a laboratory-built “octopus gymnasium” and in the wild, deep sea. His quest pays off with riveting — and rare — footage of octopuses at work and at play.

It’s not surprising that octopuses have captivated both filmmakers and mythmakers alike. With their bulbous, floppy heads, big eyes, and long tentacles lined with suction cups, octopuses are attention-getting. But their looks aren’t the only thing that are striking. Octopuses also exhibit behaviors — from neon-bright flashing skin colors to breathtaking jet-propelled swims — that have made scientists sit up and take notice.

Only in recent years, however, have researchers begun to better understand these animals, which are members of an ancient group of animals called cephalopods. The other members of the group — squid, cuttlefish, and the chambered nautilus — typically have some kind of external or internal shell (in squids it’s a pencil-shaped internal structure called a pen). But the over 250 known species of octopuses appear to have completely lost their hard parts, evolving instead into a firm but flexible sack of tissues.

The flexibility pays off. As NATURE’s The Octopus Show illustrates, octopuses can squeeze into amazingly small spaces to hunt or avoid predators. Captive animals have been known to hide themselves in soft drink cans, aspirin bottles, and even under the plastic floors of aquaria. The ability to fit in a tight spot pays off when hunting, as octopuses can chase small crabs, shrimp, and fish into even tiny cracks, coaxing them out with their long tentacles.

At the same time, octopuses are amazing swimmers, literally jetting themselves along by squirting water out of a biological jet engine. The speed comes in handy when it is time to escape a hungry shark. But it isn’t the only trick they have up their sleeves for avoiding predators.

Octopuses have inspired many myths.

Thanks to special cells in their skin, octopuses have the ability to change color, and even texture, on command. In the blink of an eye, they can fade into the sea floor, appearing to be just another bumpy rock. And when it comes time to mate, some octopuses advertise the fact with bright flashes of color sure to attract a partner. One Pacific Ocean octopus has even earned its name by being an especially good shape-shifter: the mimic octopus has been known to imitate everything from giant crabs and sea shells to fish and sea snakes.

This ability to adapt quickly to new situations has paid off in other ways too. Octopuses appear to inhabit virtually every kind of ocean environment, from shallow coastal waters to the deep sea. And they come in a dizzying array of shapes and sizes. Researchers believe the North Pacific octopus — known to science as Octopus dofleini — may grow to over 30 feet long and weigh 100 pounds. The smallest, on the other hand, is thought to be the Californian ocotopus (Octopus micropyrsus), which never gets more than an inch long.

Then there is the blue-ringed octopus of Australia and the South Pacific, which is noteworthy for another reason: its venom is deadly poison. A single bite from the golf-ball sized creature can paralyze breathing muscles, inducing death within minutes.

Many more kinds of amazing ocotopuses are still waiting to be discovered. Just recently, for instance, scientists accidentally discovered an octopus that has glow-in-the-dark tentacles. It will be years, however, before scientists understand why this and other octopuses do the amazing things they do.

When it comes to changing color, octopuses are the ultimate chameleons. In the blink of an eye, they can blend into the background — or advertise their presence with bursts of bright color. Some even put on light shows with glow-in-the-dark tentacles!

The secret behind their color capability is special skin cells called chromatophores. Each chromatophore consists of three bags of pigment. By squeezing or expanding the bags, octopuses can change the color displayed by each cell, allowing millions of subtle combinations. And since each cell is controlled separately, they can create remarkably sharp displays. In addition, reflective coatings under the cells help enhance the effect.

Octopuses don’t use this ability just to camouflage themselves. They also use color to display their mood, researchers believe. In many species, for instance, white signals fear, red shows anger, while brown suggests relaxation.

But some octopuses produce even more colorful displays. In 1999, scientists announced that they had accidentally discovered an octopus that has glow-in-the-dark tentacles.

The capture of the bioluminescent octopus was a big surprise for Edie Widder and Sonke Johnsen of the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution in Florida. Although bioluminescence is common in squid and cuttlefish, it is extremely rare among octopuses. Indeed, it was previously known only from two species, where bioluminescence appears as a glowing ring around the mouths of breeding females — glow-in-the-dark lipstick, perhaps?

What made the light-producing abilities of the newly discovered octopus, Stauroteuthis syrtensis, particularly surprising was where the light came from: the suckers. The researcher’s first clue that there was something odd about the octopus came when they brought one into a shipboard laboratory during a research cruise in the Gulf of Maine. First, they noticed that its suckers weren’t very sucker-like: they didn’t stick to anything. Even more surprising, when they turned out the lights, they discovered bright blue light where the suckers should be. Later studies revealed that although the suckers still had sucker-like traits, many of the muscles had been replaced by light-producing cells.

Widder believes that the change from sucker to light organ may have occurred during colonization of the deep open ocean by an octopus that was originally a shallow-water bottom-dweller. Once the suckers were no longer useful for clinging to the bottom, their only remaining value may have been for communication or attracting prey. In this case, the researchers say, the prey is small crustaceans that may flock to the suckers “like moths to a flame.”

Web Sites

The Cephalopod Page
http://is.dal.ca/~ceph/TCP/index.html
Everything you want to know about octopuses and other cephalopods from James Wood of the National Resource Center for Cephalopods.

The Octopus News Magazine Online
http://www.tonmo.com/
Tentacle news from octopus fan Tony Morelli.

The Giant Octopus Web Page
http://marine.alaskapacific.edu/octopus/
Facts and figures from biologist David Scheel.

National Resource Center for Cephalopods
http://www.nrcc.utmb.edu/CephInfoRes.htm
The world’s leading captive breeder’s list of Octopus resources.

The Lusca
http://www.theshadowlands.net/serpent.htm#octopus
Does the giant octopus really exist?

Books

Hunt, J. OCTOPUS AND SQUID. Monterey, CA: Monterey Bay Aquarium Press, 1996.

Lane, Frank W. KINGDOM OF THE OCTOPUS. New York: Sheridan House, 1974.

Paust, Brian. FISHING FOR OCTOPUS: A GUIDE FOR COMMERCIAL FISHERMEN. Anchorage, AK: University of Alaska Sea Grant, 1998.

Schaefer, Lola M. OCTOPUSES. New York: Bridgestone Books, 1999.

Swanson, Diane. WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF OCTOPUS. New York: Graphic Arts Center, 2000.

NATURE’s takes you into the depths of the ocean to discover the secrets of INCREDIBLE SUCKERS.

The most remarkable life still undiscovered on our planet will certainly be found in the sea. As new machines explore this inner universe and penetrate depths beyond our reach, we are finding creatures — such as cephalopods — that defy our imagination.

Cephalopods are a group of animals that includes the octopus, squid, and cuttlefish. Basically, celphalopods are “sophisticated snails.” But these flamboyant animals have developed huge brains, superb vision, and probably their most obvious feature — sucker disks.

NATURE brings you face-to-face with these denizens of the deep — from cuttlefish to the “vampire squid from hell” in INCREDIBLE SUCKERS.

Online content for Incredible Suckers was originally posted November 1997.

Ocean Planet: In Search of Giant Squid
http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/OCEAN_PLANET/HTML/squid_expedition.html.
An interactive Web exhibit, via the Smithsonian Institution, on Dr. Clyde Roper’s quest for live giant squid.

The Cephalopod Page
http://is.dal.ca/%7Eceph/TCP/index.html.
FAQ and a wealth of information about these creatures.

Cephalopoda
http://tolweb.org/tree?group=Cephalopoda&contgroup=Mollusca
Basic information and references about cephalopods.

Cephalopod International Advisory Council
http://www.nerc-bas.ac.uk/public/mlsd/ciac/index.html.
A cephalopod research group.

Smithsonian Institution Research Information System
www.siris.si.edu/#ceph
A searchable bibliography of secondary sources.

North East Atlantic Squid Stocks
www.abdn.ac.uk/eurosquid/far.htm
A report on squid fishing in the Atlantic ocean.

Kaikoura @ National Geographic
www.nationalgeographic.com/features/97/kaikoura/
A feature on the New Zealand underwater canyon where giant squid are believed to reside.

Books

Doubilet, David. “Beneath the Tasman Sea.” NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, January 1997, 82-100.

Conniff, Richard. “Clyde Roper Can’t Wait to be Attacked by the Giant Squid.” SMITHSONIAN, May 1996, 126-136.

Puente, Maria. “Testing Waters to Learn More about Giant Squid.” USA TODAY, February 1, 1996.

Producer

MARY HOPE GARCIA

Art Director

SABINA DALEY

Designers

KAREN MATTSON

RADIK SHVARTS

Pagebuilding

BRIAN SANTALONE

Writer

KAREN DE SEVE

Production Artist

RUIYAN XU

Technical Director

BRIAN LEE

Thirteen Online is a production of Thirteen/WNET New York’s Kravis Multimedia Education Center in New York City. Anthony Chapman, Director of Interactive & Broadband. Bob Adleman, Business Manager. Carmen DiRienzo, Vice President and Managing Director, Corporate Affairs.

Television Credits

An Oxford Scientific Films Production in association with Thirteen/WNET New York and the BBC

This program was produced by Thirteen/WNET, New York, which is solely responsible for its content.

Just before Roper and his colleagues set out to investigate the mile-deep Kaikoura Canyon near New Zealand, local fishing boats hauled in four giant squid bodies.

After this discovery, they knew that they were on the right track. “It’s a matter of [spending] time in the water,” explains Roper, who compares the search to that for a rare bird in a spacious woodland: “If you spend enough time there, you will eventually see that bird.

Using a robot submersible vehicle equipped with a video camera, the crew recorded hours of footage of underwater life, but no giant squid.

“We’ll be going back to Kaikoura,” says Roper, who is raising funds for a future expedition to track down the giant squid, the creature he calls “the new dinosaur.”

He explained that he needs only a few minutes of giant squid footage to learn a great deal about the animal. “It will tell us about locomotion, and whether it is shy, neutral, or aggressive; if it is solitary or appears in pairs or schools.” His advice to anyone interested in these elusive creatures? “Join the hunt.”

From the ancient Greeks to modern-day writers, people have described giant squid and octopi as “sea monsters” whose masses of arms were able to pull ships underwater. Jules Verne promoted this image in 1861 with his book 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA.

Verne creates a terrifying battle between a giant squid (called a cuttlefish in the story) and Captain Nemo’s submarine. Walt Disney later brought this scene to the big screen in the live-action film of the book.

In 1874, Newfoundland’s Reverend Moses Harvey established the first known public giant squid exhibit. He displayed a specimen caught by a local fisherman to help dispel fears of these beasts from the deep; now seafarers could see what was swimming beneath them.

Even today, we are still fascinated with the idea of enormous sea monsters. In 1996, THE BEAST, a book by Peter Benchley (author of JAWS), was made into a TV miniseries. In the film, a giant squid terrorizes a seaside village, devouring whales and people with equal appetite and confounding local scientists.

But in reality, there is no substantiated record of any person encountering a live giant squid (Architeuthis dux) at sea, and today scientists continue to scan the deep oceanic canyons where it may reside.

Plunging into the ocean world with a deep-sea camera, filmmaker and biologist Mike deGruy brings you face to face with some of the most INCREDIBLE SUCKERS of the ocean: the cephalopoda, or “head-foot.” Octopi, squid, cuttlefish, and other denizens of the deep are shown in their natural habitats, some for the first time ever.

Unlike many other marine species, from bony fish to spiny corals, cephalopods, including squid, octopus, and cuttlefish, have few solid parts. But these invertebrates are far from “spineless” (in the sense of being afraid), as you can see from their aggressive and cunning behaviors on the show. Small squid cleverly disappear into the background and stand their ground as unwitting barracuda pass by, octopi attack their prey from many angles, and the deep sea “vampire squid from hell” displays intimidating rows of spikes on its underside.

While they have a catalog of defensive maneuvers, cephalopods also use their limber bodies to communicate. Dr. John Forsythe, one of the marine biologists featured on the program, points out that cephalopod species can recognize humans much the same way a household pet will identify its owner. Whether or not these behaviors are present in the largest of cephalopods, the giant squid, is yet to be determined.

Little is known about these enormous squid, which cruise at ocean depths greater than one mile. Researchers rely on carcasses found in the stomachs of sperm whales, or washed up on the shore, for the slightest tidbits of information about their diets and habits. Since INCREDIBLE SUCKERS was produced, scientists have embarked on expeditions in search of giant squid, but so far no one has looked one straight in its volleyball-sized eyeball — the largest eye in the animal world.

Dr. Roger Hanlon, who is featured on INCREDIBLE SUCKERS, also studies squid behavior. Hanlon has been following the genealogy of cephalopod populations by fingerprinting the males’ DNA. By comparing the results with those from his studies of mating behavior, he has pieced together a picture of cephalopod courtship rituals and their outcomes.

“It’s a complicated mating system in which males have [to use] a lot of tricks to get near the females,” he says. Not only does the female choose with whom to mate, she can also decide whose sperm to use for fertilization and whose to discard — exactly how, scientists are still trying to determine.

So, unlike in a lion’s lair, where the females mate only with the best fighters, cephalopod mothers choose a father based on other, unknown factors. “They’ve got to get [in] a lot of gene mixing every year, because they die after spawning,” explains Hanlon. Without gene mixing, the next generation will not be as fit to survive and reproduce. As cephalopods become more popular restaurant menu items, especially in Europe and Japan, this diverse mating scheme is an effective way to keep populations stable.

Calamari, or squid, is a favorite in any Italian restaurant, and Japanese sushi and sashimi feature squid and octopus. Just off the coast of Cape Cod is a squid fishery that sells about $40 million worth of squid per year, reports Hanlon. Fishermen have turned to this market now that the famous George’s Bank to the north and the surrounding cod grounds have been fished out. Fish managers suspect that if the fishing volume continues at its current rate, the squid population could soon disappear, but it will be years before biologists have the data to back up this hunch. In the meantime, people throughout the world will continue to slide cephalopods into their mouths.