An octopus has caused havoc in his aquarium by performing juggling tricks using his fellow occupants, smashing rocks against the glass and turning off the power by short-circuiting a lamp.
Staff believe that the octopus called Otto had been annoyed by the bright light shining into his aquarium and had discovered he could extinguish it by climbing onto the rim of his tank and squirting a jet of water in its direction.
The short-circuit had baffled electricians as well as staff at the Sea Star Aquarium in Coburg, Germany, who decided to take shifts sleeping on the floor to find out what caused the mysterious blackouts.
A spokesman said: “It was a serious matter because it shorted the electricity supply to the whole aquarium that threatened the lives of the other animals when water pumps ceased to work.
“It was on the third night that we found out that the octopus Otto was responsible for the chaos.
“We knew that he was bored as the aquarium is closed for winter, and at two feet, seven inches Otto had discovered he was big enough to swing onto the edge of his tank and shoot out the 2000 Watt spot light above him with a carefully directed jet of water.”
Director Elfriede Kummer who witnessed the act said: “We’ve put the light a bit higher now so he shouldn’t be able to reach it. But Otto is constantly craving for attention and always comes up with new stunts so we have realised we will have to keep more careful eye on him – and also perhaps give him a few more toys to play with.
“Once we saw him juggling the hermit crabs in his tank, another time he threw stones against the glass damaging it. And from time to time he completely re-arranges his tank to make it suit his own taste better – much to the distress of his fellow tank inhabitants.”
Medical first for veterinarians who operated on live reef shark
A French veterinary surgeon has made surgical history by performing the first known operation on a live shark.
The two-metre fish was anaesthetised with a form of clove oil used by dentists before going under the knife at Nausicaa, an aquarium in Boulogne-sur-Mer in northern France.
“We have contacted other aquariums across the world and it is apparently the first time anywhere that an operation of this sort has been carried out on a shark,” said Dominique Mallevois, deputy head of the aquarium.
The medical team intervened after the 20-year-old shark, named Gilles, began losing weight a few months ago and staff noticed a nylon thread extending from its stomach. When the shark was put to sleep, an X-ray revealed that it had swallowed a 10cm hook (4in) that staff believe was attached to a fish it had eaten.
Gilles was anaesthetised for a second time this month for the hour-long operation, carried out by Alexis Leccu, a veterinary surgeon from Vincennes Zoo in Paris. While water and oxygen were blown into the shark’s mouth, Mr Leccu managed to extract the metal object without damaging any blood vessels.
Mr Mallevois said clove oil was used because it has been found to be well tolerated by fish of all species.
“The shark’s in good form now,” said Mr Mallevois. “It’s swimming and eating just like the other sharks and if you look in the aquarium, it would be difficult to tell which one had been operated on. “ In fact, the only way of knowing is the wound, although it’s difficult to see.”
He said the shark arrived at Nausicaa more than 15 years ago. “Grey sharks usually live to the age of 25 or 30 in aquariums, which is more than in the wild,” he said. “So we hope he will be with us for a while yet.”
Researchers identify largest turtle graveyard in world
Two Santa Cruz scientists have pinpointed a Baja California beach as the sandy graveyard of more dead sea turtles than anywhere else in the world, and they blame poor fishing practices for the deaths.
Next week one of the researchers plans to visit Mexico City and ask the Mexican government to create an ocean preserve to limit fishing off Baja California Sur to help stop the turtle deaths.
“Our goal is to convert that knowledge into some kind of action that makes that part of the ocean safer for animals,” said Davenport researcher Wallace J. Nichols with the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.
“We weren’t counting them just for the heck of it,” Nichols said. “There was an agenda, and that was to make sure these animals don’t go extinct.”
Nichols and UC Santa Cruz graduate student Hoyt Peckham have spent the past five years counting dead loggerhead sea turtles along the 43-kilometer Playa San Lazaro, near Lopez Mateos in Baja California Sur, Mexico.
During that half-decade, researchers counted nearly 3,000 loggerhead carcasses on the beach. Peckham and Nichols estimated that the two fishing fleets in nearby waters killed 1,500 to nearly 3,000 loggerhead turtles each year. Those deaths were caused by long lines and gill nets on the sea floor, Nichols said, which hook or trap the turtles and stop them from surfacing to breathe.
“We saw what are apparently the highest documented stranding and fisheries bycatch rates in the world,” said Peckham, lead author of a research paper published last week in a special issue of Endangered Species Research.
Nichols spotted the magnitude of the turtle deaths when he first visited Playa San Lazaro 10 years ago. He and Peckham are now working with local fishermen to build tourism based on seeing the turtles, making them more valuable alive than dead, Nichols said.
The new research draws attention to the devastating effect small fisheries can have in biological “hot spots,” Nichols said. Until now, he said, conservation efforts focused more on the effects of larger fisheries than small ones.
Peckham saw the findings as an opportunity. “By working with just a handful of fishermen to diminish their bycatch, we can save hundreds of turtles,” Peckham said.
For more under the sea tales head to underwatertimes.com
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