Editing Octopus (section)

==Relationship to humans==
===Cultural significance===
[[File:AMI - Oktopusvase.jpg| thumb|upright|[[Minoan civilization|Minoan]] clay vase with octopus decoration, c. 1500 BC|alt=An ancient nearly spherical vase with 2 handles by the top, painted all over with an octopus decoration in black]]
Ancient seafaring people were aware of the octopus, as evidenced by artworks and designs. It was depicted on coins during the [[Minoan civilization]] possibly as early as 1650 BCE and on pottery in [[Mycenaean Greece]] around between 1200 and 1100 BCE. A Hawaiian [[creation myth]] suggests that the octopus is the lone survivor of a previous age. The legendary sea monster, the [[kraken]] is conceived as octopus-like.<ref name=Courage/>{{rp|1, 4–5}} Similarly, [[Medusa]] was compared to an octopus, with her snake-hair resembling the creature's arms.<ref name=Schweid>{{cite book|last=Schweid|first=R|year=2013|title=Octopus|publisher=Reaktion Books|isbn=978-1-78023-177-8}}</ref>{{rp|133}}  The [[Akkorokamui]] is a gigantic octopus-like [[monster]] from [[Ainu people|Ainu]] folklore, worshipped in [[Shinto]].<!--<ref name="Batchelor">{{cite book |last=Batchelor |first=John |title=The Ainu and Their Folklore |url=https://archive.org/details/b29010664 |location=London |publisher=The Religious Tract Society |year=1901 |page=NEEDED; it may be there but not obvs and not in index }}</ref>--><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Srinivasan |first1=A. |title=The Sucker, the Sucker! [Review] |url=https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10024715/3/Srinivasan_Octopuses.pdf |journal=[[London Review of Books]] |volume=39 |issue=17 |pages=23–25 |date=2017}}</ref> 

In the [[Asuka period|Asuka-era]] Japanese legend ''Taishokan'', a female diver battles an octopus to recover a stolen jewel, which became the inspiration for [[woodblock printing]]s. Similarly, in the 1973 novel ''[[Gravity's Rainbow]]'' an octopus named Grigori attacks a woman on the beach. A battle with an octopus plays a significant role in [[Victor Hugo]]'s 1866 book ''Travailleurs de la mer'' (''[[Toilers of the Sea]]''). The octopus continues to be depicted as antagonistic in films such as ''[[Wake of the Red Witch]]'' (1948).<ref name=Schweid/>{{rp|129–131, 138–139, 145–147}} 

In [[political cartoon]]s, octopuses have been used to symbolise empires and large organizations, the arms representing long reach. Octopus also had an erotic appeal. Japanese erotic art, ''[[shunga]]'', includes [[ukiyo-e]] woodblock prints such as [[Katsushika Hokusai]]'s 1814 print ''Tako to ama'' (''[[The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife]]''), in which a woman is sexually intertwined with a large and a small octopus. This art style would inspire [[Pablo Picasso]]'s 1903 drawing ''An Erotic Drawing: Woman and Octopus''.<ref name=Schweid/>{{rp|126–128}} Some individual octopuses gained celebrity status, notably [[Paul the Octopus]] who predicted the winners of the [[2010 FIFA World Cup]].<ref name=Courage/>{{rp|3–4}}

===Danger to humans===
{{further information|Cephalopod attack}}
[[File:Colossal octopus by Pierre Denys de Montfort.jpg|thumb|upright|Pen and [[Wash (visual arts)|wash]] drawing of an imagined [[colossal octopus]] attacking a ship, by the [[malacologist]] [[Pierre Denys de Montfort|Pierre de Montfort]], 1801|alt=Coloured drawing of a huge octopus rising from the sea and attacking a sailing ship's three masts with its spiralling arms]]

Octopuses generally avoid humans, but some conflictual incidents have been verified. For example, a {{convert|2.4|metre|feet|0|adj=on}} Pacific octopus, said to be nearly perfectly camouflaged, "lunged" at a diver and "wrangled" over his camera before it let go. Another diver recorded the encounter on video.<ref>{{cite news |last=Ross |first=Philip |title=8-Foot Octopus Wrestles Diver Off California Coast, Rare Encounter Caught on Camera |url=http://www.ibtimes.com/8-foot-octopus-wrestles-diver-calif-coast-rare-encounter-caught-camera-video-1556415 |work=[[International Business Times]] |date=18 February 2014}}</ref> All species are venomous, but only blue-ringed octopuses have venom that is lethal to humans.<ref>{{cite web|title=Eight Strange and Wonderful Facts About Octopuses|website=Shedd Aquarium|date=6 September 2023 |url=https://www.sheddaquarium.org/stories/eight-strange-and-wonderful-facts-about-octopuses#:~:text=Venom,Australia%20is%20dangerous%20to%20humans|accessdate=4 April 2025}}</ref> Blue-ringed octopuses rank amongst the most dangerous marine animals; their bites are reported each year across the animals' range from Australia to the eastern Indo-Pacific Ocean. They bite only when provoked or accidentally touched; bites are small and usually painless. The venom appears to be able to penetrate the skin without a puncture, given prolonged contact. It contains [[tetrodotoxin]], which causes paralysis by blocking the transmission of [[nerve impulse]]s to the muscles. This causes death by respiratory failure leading to [[Cerebral hypoxia|cerebral anoxia]]. No antidote is known, but if breathing can be kept going artificially, patients recover within 24 hours.<ref>{{cite web |title=Blue-ringed Octopuses, ''Hapalochlaena maculosa'' |url=http://marinebio.org/species.asp?id=403 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120524092455/http://marinebio.org/species.asp?id=403 |archive-date=2012-05-24 |access-date=12 April 2017 |publisher=The MarineBio Conservation Society}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Caldwell |first1=Roy <!--University of California at Berkeley--> |title=What makes blue-rings so deadly? Blue-ringed octopus have tetrodotoxin |url=http://www.thecephalopodpage.org/bluering2.php |website=The Cephalopod Page |access-date=12 April 2017 |archive-date=18 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180718144602/http://www.thecephalopodpage.org/bluering2.php |url-status=dead }}</ref> Bites have been recorded from captive octopuses of other species; they leave temporary swellings.<ref name=Wells/>{{rp|68}}

===As a food source===
{{Main|Octopus as food}}
[[File:Tako nigiri 2.jpg|thumb|Octopus [[sushi]]]]
Octopuses [[fisheries|are fished]] around the world and between 1988 and 1995, catches varied between 245,320 and 322,999 metric tons.<ref name=gillespie>{{cite web |last1=Gillespie |first1=G. E. |last2=Parker |first2=G. |last3=Morrison |first3=J. |date=1998 |title=A Review of Octopus Fisheries Biology and British Columbia Octopus Fisheries |publisher=Canadian Stock Assessment Secretariat |url=https://waves-vagues.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/Library/227412.pdf}}</ref> The world catch peaked in 2007 at 380,000 tons, and had fallen by a tenth by 2012.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Rocliffe |first1=S. |last2=Harris |first2=A. |url=https://blueventures.org/publication/status-octopus-fisheries-western-indian-ocean/ |title=The status of octopus fisheries in the Western Indian Ocean |year=2016 |access-date=18 June 2017}}</ref> Methods to capture octopuses include pots, [[fish trap|trapping]], [[trawling|trawling]], snaring, drift fishing, spearing, hooking and catching by hands.<ref name=gillespie/> Octopuses are also [[bycatch]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Sauer |first1=Warwick H. H. |last2=Gleadall |first2=Ian G. |display-authors=etal |date=6 December 2019 |title=World Octopus Fisheries |journal=Reviews in Fisheries Science & Aquaculture |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] |volume=29 |issue=3 |pages=279–429 |doi=10.1080/23308249.2019.1680603 |issn=2330-8249 |s2cid=210266167 |hdl-access=free |hdl=10261/227068}}</ref>

Octopus is eaten in many cultures, such as those on the Mediterranean and Asian coasts.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/animal-guide/octopus-and-kin/giant-pacific-octopus |title=Giant Pacific octopus |website=[[Monterey Bay Aquarium]] |date=2017 |access-date=1 August 2015 |archive-date=4 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180704213912/http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/animal-guide/octopus-and-kin/giant-pacific-octopus |url-status=dead }}</ref> The arms and other body parts are prepared in ways that vary by species and geography. Live octopuses or their wriggling pieces are consumed as ''[[san-nakji]]'' in Korean cuisine.<ref name="Guardian">{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2010/nov/10/live-and-let-dine |access-date=15 April 2015| last=Eriksen |first=L. |date=10 November 2010 |work=[[The Guardian]] |title=Live and let dine}}</ref><ref name="Newyorker">{{cite magazine |date=3 October 2014 |title=Why not eat octopus? |last=Killingsworth |first=Silvia |url=http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/eating-octopus |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |access-date=15 April 2016}}</ref> If not prepared properly, however, the severed arms can choke the diner with their suction cups, causing at least one death in 2010.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Dodgson |first=Lindsay |date=2019-05-11 |title=Here's why eating a live octopus can be deadly |url=https://www.insider.com/eating-live-octopus-can-kill-you-2019-5 |website=Insider}}</ref> Animal welfare groups have objected to the live consumption of octopuses on the basis that they can experience pain.<ref name="Observer">{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/may/30/food-restaurants-macho-eating-live |title=Macho foodies in New York develop a taste for notoriety |access-date=15 April 2015 |last=Ferrier |first=M. |date=30 May 2010 |work=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref>

===Science and technology===

In classical Greece, [[Aristotle]] (384–322 BC) [[Aristotle's biology|commented on]] their colour-changing abilities, both for camouflage and for [[signalling theory|signalling]], in his ''[[Historia animalium]]'': "The octopus&nbsp;... seeks its prey by so changing its colour as to render it like the colour of the stones adjacent to it; it does so also [[deimatic behaviour|when alarmed]]."<ref>{{cite book |author=Aristotle |title=Historia animalium |orig-date=c. 350 BCE |volume=IX |page=622a: 2–10 |authorlink=Aristotle}} Cited in {{Cite book |last1=Borrelli |first1=Luciana |url=https://doi.org/10.36253/88-8453-376-7 |title=A Catalogue of Body Patterning in Cephalopoda |last2=Gherardi |first2=Francesca |last3=Fiorito |first3=Graziano |date=2006 |publisher=Firenze University Press |isbn=88-8453-377-5 |series=Cataloghi e collezioni |location=Firenze |doi=10.36253/88-8453-376-7 |authorlink2=Francesca}} {{cite web |date=2006 |title=Abstract |url=http://www.fupress.com/scheda.asp?IDV=487 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180206145302/http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/history_anim.9.ix.html |archive-date=6 February 2018}}</ref> Aristotle noted that the octopus had a hectocotyl arm and suggested it might be used in reproduction. This claim was widely ignored until the 19th century. It was described in 1829 by the French zoologist [[Georges Cuvier]], who supposed it to be a parasitic worm, naming it as a new species, ''Hectocotylus octopodis''.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Harman |first=Oren |date=2016-01-01 |title=The Lagoon: How Aristotle Invented Science |url=https://doi.org/10.1215/0961754x-3323121 |journal=Common Knowledge |volume=22 |issue=1 |pages=128 |doi=10.1215/0961754x-3323121 |issn=0961-754X}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Leroi |first=Armand Marie |author-link=Armand Marie Leroi |title=The Lagoon: How Aristotle Invented Science |title-link=Aristotle's Lagoon |publisher=Bloomsbury |date=2014 |isbn=978-1-4088-3622-4 |pages=71–72}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The Cephalopoda |url=http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/taxa/inverts/mollusca/cephalopoda.php|publisher=University of California Museum of Paleontology|access-date=27 March 2017}}</ref> Other zoologists thought it a spermatophore; the German zoologist [[Heinrich Müller (physiologist)|Heinrich Müller]] believed it was "designed" to detach during copulation. In 1856, the Danish zoologist [[Japetus Steenstrup]] demonstrated that it is used to transfer sperm, and only rarely detaches.<ref>{{cite book |last=Mann |first=T. |title=Spermatophores: Development, Structure, Biochemical Attributes and Role in the Transfer of Spermatozoa |url={{google books |plainurl=y |id=imPrCAAAQBAJ|page=28 }}|year=2012 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-3-642-82308-4 |page=28}}</ref>

[[File:OCTOPUS arm1.JPG|thumb|Flexible [[biomimetic]] 'Octopus' [[robotics]] arm. The BioRobotics Institute, [[Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna]], [[Pisa]], 2011<ref name="Laschi Cianchetti 2012">{{cite journal |last1=Laschi |first1=Cecilia|author1-link=Cecilia Laschi |last2=Cianchetti |first2=Matteo |last3=Mazzolai |first3=Barbara |last4=Margheri |first4=Laura |last5=Follador |first5=Maurizio |last6=Dario |first6=Paolo |title=Soft Robot Arm Inspired by the Octopus |journal=Advanced Robotics |volume=26 |issue=7 |year=2012 |pages=709–727 |issn=0169-1864 |doi=10.1163/156855312X626343|s2cid=6104200 }}</ref>]]

Octopuses offer many [[model organism|possibilities in biological research]]; the California two-spot octopus had its genome sequenced, allowing exploration of its molecular adaptations.<ref name="Albertin Simakov 2015">{{cite journal |last1=Albertin |first1=Caroline B. |last2=Simakov |first2=Oleg |last3=Mitros |first3=Therese |last4=Wang |first4=Z. Yan |last5=Pungor |first5=Judit R. |last6=Edsinger-Gonzales |first6=Eric |last7=Brenner |first7=Sydney |last8=Ragsdale |first8=Clifton W. |last9=Rokhsar |first9=Daniel S. |title=The octopus genome and the evolution of cephalopod neural and morphological novelties |journal=Nature |volume=524 |issue=7564 |year=2015 |pages=220–224 |issn=0028-0836 |doi=10.1038/nature14668|pmid=26268193 |pmc=4795812 |bibcode=2015Natur.524..220A |doi-access=free }}</ref> Having [[convergent evolution|independently evolved]] mammal-like intelligence, octopuses were compared by the philosopher [[Peter Godfrey-Smith]], who studied the nature of intelligence,<ref>{{cite book |last=Godfrey-Smith |first=Peter |author-link=Peter Godfrey-Smith |title=[[Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness]] |date=2018 |publisher=William Collins |isbn=978-0-00-822629-9 |pages=77–105, 137–157}}</ref> to hypothetical [[Extraterrestrial intelligence|intelligent extraterrestrials]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Baer |first=Drake |date=20 December 2016 |title=Octopuses Are 'the Closest We Will Come to Meeting an Intelligent Alien' |publisher=Science of Us |access-date=26 April 2017 |url=http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2016/12/octopuses-are-intelligent-aliens.html}}</ref> Their intelligence and flexible bodies enable them to escape from supposedly secure tanks in [[public aquarium]]s.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/animalia/wp/2016/04/13/octopus-slips-out-of-aquarium-tank-crawls-across-floor-escapes-down-pipe-to-ocean/ |title=Octopus slips out of aquarium tank, crawls across floor, escapes down pipe to ocean |last=Brulliard |first=Karin |date=13 April 2016 |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=20 February 2017}}</ref>

Due to their intelligence, many argue that octopuses should be given protections when used for experiments.<ref name=protections>{{cite journal|author=Reardon, Sara|title=Octopuses used in research could receive same protections as monkeys|journal=Nature|accessdate=6 April 2025|date=15 September 2023|doi=10.1038/d41586-023-02887-w |pmid=37714985 |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02887-w}}</ref> In the UK from 1993 to 2012, the common octopus (''Octopus vulgaris'') was the only invertebrate protected under the [[Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986]].<ref>{{cite web |title=The Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act (Amendment) Order 1993 |url=http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1993/2103/article/3/made#text%3D%22Octopus%22 |publisher=The National Archives |access-date=18 February 2015}}</ref> In 2012, this legislation was extended to include all cephalopods<ref>{{cite web |title=The Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 Amendment Regulations 2012 |url=http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2012/3039/regulation/3/made |publisher=The National Archives |access-date=18 February 2015}}</ref> in accordance with a general [[European Union|EU]] directive.<ref name="EUdirective">{{cite web |title=Directive 2010/63/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council |url=http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2010:276:0033:0079:EN:PDF |publisher=Official Journal of the European Union |access-date=18 February 2015 |at=Article 1, 3(b) (see page 276/39)}}</ref> 

Some [[robotics]] research is exploring [[biomimicry]] of octopus features. Octopus arms can move and sense largely autonomously without intervention from the animal's central nervous system. In 2015 a team in Italy built soft-bodied robots able to crawl and swim, requiring only minimal computation.<ref>{{cite web |title=PoseiDRONE |url=http://sssa.bioroboticsinstitute.it/projects/PoseiDRONE |publisher=The BioRobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna |access-date=14 May 2021 |archive-date=15 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210515115844/http://sssa.bioroboticsinstitute.it/projects/PoseiDRONE |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="Laschi 2015">{{cite book |last1=Laschi |first1=Cecilia |title=Soft Robotics |chapter=Soft Robotics Research, Challenges, and Innovation Potential, Through Showcases |year=2015 |pages=255–264 |doi=10.1007/978-3-662-44506-8_21|isbn=978-3-662-44505-1 }}</ref> In 2017, a German company made an arm with a soft [[pneumatic]]ally controlled [[silicone]] gripper fitted with two rows of suckers. It was able to grasp objects such as a metal tube, a magazine, or a ball, and to fill a glass by pouring water from a bottle.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Burgess |first=Matt |title=This robotic octopus tentacle isn't creepy at all |url=https://www.wired.co.uk/article/octopus-robot-tentacle |magazine=[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]] |date=27 March 2017}}</ref>