FIGHT WITH AN OCTOPUS

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 78, Issue 7016, 7 February 1949, Page 5

FIGHT WITH AN OCTOPUS

TERRIFYING EXPERIENCE A RISKY VENTURE Sir Arthur Grimble, in a recent BBC programme, told of a fight with an octopus. He has had a great dread of these fearful fish since childhood, but it had lain dormant for years until he was serving as District Officer in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, he watched two islanders at their business of catching and killing octopi for food. This fish, termed a decapod because he has two short arms in addition to his eight long ones, anchors himself in a niche on the lagoon reef a few feet below water and stays there, looking for some tasty morsel to pass nearby, when he strikes and holds the victim inescapably in his suckers. The Gilbertese hunt these abominable fish in-pairs, a dangerous job which they take very lightly. One man acts as bait, the other as killer. The bait dives near the lurking decapod and is caught in the tentacles, which seek to pull him into its niche. The killer then dives down, snatches at the octopus, jerks his pinioned colleague smartly backwards and so tears the decapod adrift. Immediately the bait gives a kick which brings him to the surface with the decapod clinging to him. He turns on his back and exposes the beast for the kill. The killer grasps the great fish’s head from behind, turns the face towards himself, plunges his teeth between the bulging eyes, and bites down and in with all his strength. The decapod dies instantly, the suckers release their hold and the partners string their catch on a pole and set off to get the next one. Sir Arthur asked many questions as to how the job was done. The boys explained the simplicity-of the operation and, as he was known to like swimming and fishing, their courtesy impelled them to offer him a chance to join in the fun. He could not refuse, for a District Officer cannot afford to show fear of doing what the islanders regard as ordinary work. “I hope I didn’t look as yellow as I felt when I stood to take the plunge,” he said. He described his encounter with the fish, saying, “I remember chiefly a dreadful sliminess with a Herculean power behind it. Something whipped round my left forearm and the back of my neck, in the same flash something else attached itself high on my forehead and I felt it crawling down inside the back of my singlet. My boyhood’s nightmare was upon me. A mouth began to nuzzle below my throat, at the junction of the collarbones. I forgot there was anyone to save me. Yet something still directed me to hold my breath. I was awaked from my trance by a quick, strong .pull on my shoulders, backwards from the cranny. The big cables around me tightened painfully but I knew I was adrift from the reef. I gave a kick, rose to the surface, and turned on my back with the brute sticking out of my chest like a tumour. My mouth was smothered by some flabby, moving horror. The suckers felt like hot rings pulling at my skin. My friend came up between me and the reef. He pounced, bit down, and the thing was over.”