By Xeno
Octopus Walks on Land at Fitzgerald Marine Reserve – YouTube.
A trained human free diver could easily be under water for as long as this octopus was out of water, but it is still amazing.
Octopus breathe through gills that should be suspended “weightless” under water for all the tiny lamellae to be in touch with oxygenated water, in very much the same manner as fish gills behave. Taken out of water the surface area drastically diminishes to an unsustainable level and the octopus suffocates. This limits the time spent outside of the water to minutes rather than hours before the animal dies. Dessication is a compounding factor. In all, an octopus can travel from tidepool to tidepool and back to the sea, but I would suggest limited to distances one would measure... More...
