Blue Ringed Octopus - Edithburgh Jetty

The Blue Ringed Octopus, Hapalochlaena maculosa, is one of the deadliest creatures in the sea! Its powerful venom can easily kill a human despite its diminutive size of less than 12cm.

Although these creatures are a relatively common inhabitant here at Edithburgh, they're not often seen as they hide during the day and come out at night to hunt. This guy seemed only slightly annoyed as the bright strobe captured this image before crawling away at a leisurely pace to hide under a nearby rock.

The weekend was great with the water temperature still at 19 even though the days were a chilly 15! A good friend Paul joined us for one of the days and he made quite a find too..., but I'll leave that for another post!

Due to repeated requests I have upped the resolution of my photos but am using more compression to keep the size down. Please let me know what you think.

Until the next post, take care out there and keep diving ( if that's what you do! ) ...Robert


Photo: Robert Rath C5060 1/60s at f/4.0 ISO100 Inon UCL165AD Macro Lens and D2000 Strobe