Into the Octopus's Den - Scuba Diving in Puget Sound with Giant Ocotopus

The Pacific Giant Octopus is arguably the coolest thing about diving in Puget Sound.  At Cove 2 in Seacrest Park, West Seattle, the beasts are encountered nearly every dive, sometimes two or three of them. Octopus lairs are easy to find because of octo's sloppy eating habits.  They feed primarily on dungeness crab, but do not eat the shell.  So dozens of pieces of crab carapace form an "Octopus's Garden" infront of the den.
The octopus in this den was a huge one, measuring at least eight feet across, from tentacle-tip to tentacle-tip.  You can try and guess his size by looking at the car tire in his den as a comparison. I came up after another group of divers, and as soon I looked into the den I could tell he wasn't very happy.  He was making himself large and moving his tentacles around like eight slippery eels. His color was changing from pale to dark, and his texture was morphing like Mystique.  I knew he was coming out, so I set my GoPro Hero2 camera down at the entrance and retreated thirty feet behind an outcropping. The octopus crept on top of my GoPro, tasted it for a few moments, then crept further out of its den.  It looked around, and walked back and forth on two of its tentacles, looking for me. Soon it decided the threat was gone and went back into its lair.
As the Giant Pacific Octopus swam back it kicked up a cloud of debris, making visibilty nil as when I went to grab my camera.  I could feel my heart thumping in my chest as I reached into the dark cave after the GoPro, knowing that the irritated octopus was just out of sight.
Thankfully I grabbed the camera with no problem, and got this amazing shot of the octopus.  This is what billions of dungeness crabs have seen in their last seconds of life. If you have any octopus stories, or like this video, please comment below.