Octopus Floods Aquarium in Santa Monica & Brings Wide Attention to Heal The Bay

Cleaning up the water | Photo by Tara Crow

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Ever since stories of the octopus who flooded some Heal the Bay offices yesterday morning spread across the internet (it was the LA Times' number one online story today), the nonprofit has been getting a lot of attention. "We’ve been inundated with calls," said Matthew King of the organization. "In response, we’ve made the public aware of our adoption programs for various animals down at the aquarium. These monies are used to help pay for their ongoing care."'

In fact, we at LAist were not even aware there was a small open-to-the-public education marine facility on the Santa Monica Pier. 70,000 people a year visit the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium, according to Heal the Bay. It's open six days a week and will be this weekend.

So what happened with this octopus? "It was noticed when one of our first staff arrived this morning and put his foot on the floor and the water was all over the floor," explained Randi Parent of the aquarium. An unnamed two-spotted octopus--now nicknamed "flow"--pulled a valve connections causing around 200 gallons of water to spill out overnight. Luckily, most of the public area was cleaned up by 9:30 a.m. As for the staff areas--"our offices are a little soggy," Parent said.