Octopuses Quotes

“We rested, people and octopus regarding one another for several more minutes. And then, to my surprise, she floated up again to us. As she rose, we scanned the bottom of the barrel and saw that she had dropped the squid Wilson had fed her. We wished she had eaten, but we learned something new: Hunger was not the reason she had surfaced earlier, and it wasn't what brought her now.

The reason she surfaced was abundantly clear. She had not interacted with us, or tasted our skin, or seen us above her tank for ten full months. She was sick and weak. In less than four weeks, on a Saturday morning in May, Bill would find her, plane, thin, and still, dead at the bottom of her barrel. Yet, despite everything, we knew in that moment that Octavia had not only remembered us and recognized us; she had wanted to touch us again.”
― Sy Montgomery, The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness

“My ears are screaming as Rob gives the thumbs-up sign that it's time to surface. I ascend with him slowly, like a dying soul reluctant to leave its body, and we watch the silver trail of our babbles rising above us like shooting stars.”
― Sy Montgomery, The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness

“Kali was extremely lucky to have lived as long as she did. Most octopuses die as paralarvae. Only two in 100,000 hatchlings survive to sexual maturity-otherwise the sea would be overrun with octopuses. "And at least we know she had a good last day, " I said. "Yes," said Wilson. "She had a day of freedom. And that she got out tells you a phenomenally inquisitive and intelligent creature wanted her freedom. We know, clearly, it must have taken a lot of effort to get out. A stupid animal wouldn't do that."

"She died like a great explorer," I said. Like the astronauts who died blasting off in Challenger, or the brave men who perished in attempts to find the source of the Nile, penetrate the Amazon, visit the poles, Kali had chosen to face unknown dangers in the quest to widen the horizons of her world.”
― Sy Montgomery, The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness