Recently, a six-year-old boy was attacked by a Giant Pacific octopus named Cthulhu at the San Antonio Aquarium. The attack occurred when the boy, named Leo, put his hands in an unsupervised open-air touch tank and Cthulhu wrapped himself around the boy’s arm. When one of the staff members approached Leo and his mom as the incident occurred, they made light of the situation and remarked on how “playful” the octopus seemed that day, despite Leo’s clear discomfort and safety risk.
To help release Leo from Cthulhu’s painful grip, aquarium staff applied ice to stun the octopus. Pictures from the incident showed bruises on Leo’s arm from Cthulhu’s suction cups. The experience was also undoubtedly frightening for the young boy. According to Leo’s mother, when they returned several hours later to check on the octopus, Cthulhu changed colors and began advancing towards Leo as they approached the tank. While Cthulhu remains housed in an open tank in reach of visitors, it is likely that repeat incidents will occur.
Octopuses are Known Escape Artists
Giant Pacific octopuses are the largest species of octopus in the world. They generally reach lengths of up to 16 feet and weigh up to 150 pounds in the wild, though the heaviest Giant Pacific octopus on record weighed a whopping 600 pounds. An adult Giant Pacific Octopus can have as many as 2,240 suction cups on their arms, giving them a powerful grip. They are native to the Pacific Ocean, ranging in waters from California to Japan. They also have a venomous beak; they inject venom into prey with their sharp beaks upon capture. The species are not usually kept in open air tanks, as they are known escape artists. An octopus can squeeze through any hole large enough to accommodate their small beak; 50-pound octopuses have been observed to fit through a hole as small as two inches.
This is Not the San Antonio Aquarium’s First Scandal
According to the San Antonio Current, the San Antonio Aquarium is owned and operated by Crystal Covino, whose husband, Ammon Covino, was convicted in 2013 of conspiring to buy illegally harvested marine animals. In 2022, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) cited the San Antonio Aquarium after federal inspectors discovered the aquarium was keeping rabbits in overly hot rooms and housing baby kangaroos in rooms that doubled as administrative office space. The aquarium was cited again by the USDA the following year after an escaped female porcupine was impaled by the quills of a male porcupine.
Touch Tanks Present Serious Health and Welfare Issues
Our 2023 report, Oceans Away from Home: The Suffering of Fish in Captivity, exposed the glaring health and welfare issues associated with aquarium touch tanks. First, no standards apply to touch tanks. As such, the animals kept in touch tanks, amount of time animals are exposed to direct human contact, bacterial concerns from pathogens introduced from outside of the animals’ habitat, and any measures taken to reduce stress or injuries experienced by the animals involved are largely inconsistent and sometimes completely disregarded.
Touch tanks not only harm the welfare of animals but can also impact human welfare and safety. Zoonoses – diseases that can be transferred from animals to humans – pose major health risks. Serious bacterial infections that are often asymptomatic in marine animals can cause serious illness in humans. Additionally, records of animal attacks in touch tanks at other facilities have occurred across the country; in a separate incident in 2022, a 12-year-old girl was bitten by a shark while feeding stingrays in a touch tank at the Turtle Back Zoo in New Jersey. The zoo made no modifications to their touch tank exhibit or interaction practices following the incident. Similarly, at least 30 people were injured by animals at SeaQuest’s Colorado location between 2018 and 2019, including several shark bites and a stingray barb that pierced and got stuck in one visitor’s hand. Three of the reported injuries were from puffer fish, whose bite may transfer a dangerous neurotoxin that can cause numbness and difficulty breathing.
Following the incident involving Cthulhu, the San Antonio Aquarium officials failed to respond to media inquiries about whether the exhibit is still open to the public and whether the behavior is typical for the octopus. Because the facilities themselves are clearly failing to take accountability for continuously endangering the public and the animals they hold captive, we urge our supporters to stop visiting aquariums and discontinue participating in touch tank experiences, as they do not contribute to any genuine conservation efforts and directly negatively impact the welfare of the animals and humans involved. Octopuses are remarkably intelligent and sentient creatures, who do not deserve a life of being poked and prodded in a tiny tank.
For more information, please read our full report and aquarium investigation here.
Dear Reader,