Wrestling Octopuses—And It’s Called Sport

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30277, 1 November 1963, Page 16

Wrestling Octopuses—And It’s Called Sport

VANCOUVER.

Octopus wrestling is one of the latest ways for muscular young Canadians and Americans to amuse themselves off the Pacific coast. They work both with and without air tanks for the underwater battles. If tanks are used, the unarmed wrestlers work in teams of three.

“If you are working

skinny (without breathing apparatus), two men go together,” says a 23year old diver, Phil Nuytten. The sport is almost exclusive to the west coast of Canada and the United States. Largest Octopuses

“In this area, you have the largest, most accessible octopuses in the world,” says Nuytten. To find an octopus, the divers look for an area where the bottom is disturbed and where there are broken crab shells. Then they look for a fissure in the rocks. The diver must hover above the nock slit, out of sight of the octopus within, and squirt a copper sulphate solution into the crack. When the octopus squirts back the diver knows he is on the right track.

The sulphate irritates the octopus and it leaves its hideout. The diver considers it unsporting to use a knife. He grabs for the octopus’s oval-shaped head and punches a hand into one of the many gill openings. Clamp Tight The gills clamp tight and the arms—“don’t call them tentacles”—wrap around the diver. Hie hand inside the octopus grips vital organs. “This begins to paralyse the octopus,’’ Nuytten said. “You push the sea bed as hard as you can with your legs and head for the surface with the octopus wrapped around you. You land him, weigh him, measure the arm spread. “Then we usually chuck the octopus overboard. He usually recovers soon.” Wrestlers are awarded one point a pound if they are working with tanks. It is two points a pound without tanks.—(Reuter)