Octopalooza

Octopalooza

Pregnant?  Always a good idea to hang out with other moms to be.   And maybe find some nice warm water seeping into the deep dark cold depths!   

10,000 feet below the ocean surface off Big Sur, here are a few of 1000 octopus mothers in a maternity support group, all brooding over their babies, literally turning themselves inside out (tentacles exposed, fertilized eggs underneath) to feed and shelter their youngsters.

Check out https://nautiluslive.org/album/2018/10/28/octopalooza-davidson-seamount for more pics.  Note that these highly educated scientists call this surprise discovery “Octapalooza.”

I am back from my retreat in Italy about St. Clare and St. Francis and writing again every Wednesday about Blue Theology, ocean stewardship and ocean spirituality.   What better welcome back home than meeting some octopus moms doing the unexpected in my neighborhood, the deep dark cold waters off Big Sur?  Most octopus give birth alone, but scientists found 1000 of them all together, huddling “expectantly” over the warmer waters of deep sea thermal seeps. 

Like standing with your legs apart over a heating vent – ahhh!.  

Thanks all you US tax payers for supporting this government funded science, courtesy of NOAA and the privately funded Nautilus Ocean Trust. 

You think prenatal care is hard to find in our health care system?  This octopus maternity garden, the Davidson Sea Mount, an extinct volcano the size of Mt. Shasta deep in the ocean, is currently protected as part of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.  But our administration plans to open it up to oil exploration.  Hard to have babies when they are drilling for oil all around you. 

I’m posting this early in the morning after Election Day.  Like a pregnant mom, I’m not sure what the future holds.  I too am brooding about the future of my (American) family.  Will my larger human family be able to find safety and warmth and new life?  Will we make choices based on knowledge and hope, or on fear?

Our Blue Theology Mission Station in Pacific Grove welcomes youth and adult groups to learn more about ocean families and human families, what God calls us to do to protect and preserve Her wet creation.  Be in touch for a visit.  Hold us in your prayers. Bluetheology.com.  You can also read these posts on Facebook at my page or Blue Theology Mission Station.

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I will be writing about my Francis and Clare retreat at my other site, www.thebackroadcafe.com.  As Francis would say, “Peace and all good.”