PORT ANGELES — The giant Pacific octopus on display at the Arthur D. Feiro Marine Life Center got an early Christmas present — a bigger house.
Center volunteers moved her to a larger pen Wednesday afternoon.
She also now has a name, said Deborah Moriarty, director.
She has been dubbed Ariel by Port Angeles High School students who are studying her behavior as a research project — “probably because they were raised on “The Little Mermaid,” Moriarty said.
The 2 ½-year-old female, who is from Freshwater Bay, was named last week.
She was brought to the center on Port Angeles’ City Pier over a year ago, and was called by various names until Ariel stuck, Moriarity said.
She is now the resident octopus, since the center released Octavia back to the bay a few weeks ago to breed, and finish her life span.
Giant Pacific octopi can live for three to five years. Breeding is a death sentence.
Males live for a few months after mating, and females die shortly after their eggs hatch, starving to death because they don’t eat during the one-month period spent taking care of their unhatched eggs.
Ariel was moved from her present tank into Octavia’s former home, a larger tank in a quiet room in back.
“That’s her Christmas present,” Moriarty said.
Ariel and other exhibits of local marine creatures at the center can be seen on Christmas Eve, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.
The center will be open from noon to 4 p.m.
Exhibits include a touch tank, a rarely seen basket star, a school of iridescent black rockfish and a new resident, a Pacific Spiny Lumpsucker.
“Come touch a sea star and feel its rough skin or try to count how many flat fish are hiding under the sand,” Moriarty said.
Admission is free or by donation.
The center charges a fee in the summer, but is free in the winter months,
“It’s nice to let local citizens just drop in and not to have to worry about cost,” Moriarity said.
The center is open daily from Memorial Day to Labor Day, and on weekends or by special arrangement in the winter.
For more information about the nonprofit center, phone 360-417-6254 or see http://feiromarinelife
center.org.
