Pulpito, pulpito, donde estas?

May 14, 2025

At this point in our tide pool explorations we have flipped rocks in three different locations here in Puerto Penasco. Upon arrival back to CEDO on night one, we explored the sandy beach and tide pools straight down the road from CEDO. This was a great way to start our week! With only the light from the full moon and our lowly performing headlamps, we surprisingly were able to discover some sweet treasures, including a Sea Hare! These little gastropods coined their name from the cute little sensory tentacles that resemble bunny ears. The next morning I learned that, like other marine critters, they can ink when they feel threatened (thanks, Whitney, for the demonstration). (;

Speaking of things that ink… We’ve so far gotten our hands on a plethora of 8 legged hide-and-seek experts. That’s right, octopuses! Yes, it’s “octopuses,” trust me, we googled it while bouncing around on the washboard roads back to CEDO after a brief debate over the proper plural term. Our curiosity also prompted the question of whether some of these octopuses are more or less skilled at using their cryptic coloration. Pictured above, and in the video below, this cephalopod friend was found at the mudflats. I lifted a rock up near the water and sure enough, the little guy scurried out from underneath and almost immediately bunkered down in to a shell, switching to a new combination of color, pattern and texture. It became nearly impossible to distinguish between octopus and gravel.

Within about five minutes, it became an octopus party at the mudflats. At one point almost every student had gained eight tentacles and a new buddy. This was radically different from when we had found two to three at the previous tide pooling locations. Yesterday we kayaked through the estuary and learned about natures nursery, where the fresh water and sea water meet, creating brackish waters. These areas provide sanctuary and act as a nursery for marine life to lay eggs. The mudflats seemed to also serve as a nursery, as we found numerous eggs. With tides that come in and out and such soft nutrient dense sediment, it seems like a great place for young critters to start off.

One of two things, or maybe both, could be true- either the octopus party was supplied thanks to the safety of the mudflats, making the population of two spotted octopuses bountiful in this area, or the lack of rocks and coverage that the other locations had made it much easier for us to yank them up out of their cozy hideaways and we just simply had more access to them.