What a week it’s been for Blue Ringed octopus sightings. Within the past 5 days there have been 6 different ones spotted at different dive sites. You have to realize how special this is. Normally for many of us who dive every day we might be lucky to see one, once or twice a year! To see this amount in such a short time is astounding. The great thing is that it’s not just the dive guides who have been seeing them, it’s the divers. Lucky Elizabeth Annand from Vision Divers managed to see three in her last two days of diving with us.  We don’t really understand why we are seeing so many right now.  We do know that the water temperature has warmed up in the past 10 days and we just had a full moon. Perhaps this might have something to do with it?  Maybe it’s a mating season so they are coming out to find a mate and lay eggs?

According to Wikipedia: Blue-ringed octopus females lay only one clutch of about 50 eggs in their lifetimes towards the end of autumn. Eggs are laid then incubated underneath the female’s arms for about six months, and during this process she does not eat. After the eggs hatch, the female dies, and the new offspring will reach maturity and be able to mate by the next year.

Puerto Galera is still in the Northern Hemisphere, but in the Southern Hemisphere it’s autumn now so they are there breeding now. Maybe they think they are in the Sothern hemisphere??

Read more about Blue Ringed Octopus here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue-ringed_octopus