Vancouver Islanders get up close and personal with octopus

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Two Vancouver Islanders — one a painter, the other an underwater cinematographer — were part of the team that filmed a National Geographic series on the giant pacific octopus, one of the largest octopus on earth.

Krystal Janicki, a residential painter and Maxwel Hohn, a cinematographer, were part of the international crew hired by SeaLight Pictures to film the Canadian portion of the series, Secrets of the Octopus.

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The series premiered April 21.

“What we would do is go out and spend all day on the water and wait for slack tide, and try and find an octopus that was going to be friendly,” said Hohn.

Hohn, who was part of the team that won an Emmy award for the Netflix series Island of the Sea Wolves, was contracted for the filming work and pitched getting Janicki on board. Locals have named her “the octopus whisperer” for her uncanny ability to always find the animals when out for a dive.

“She just has this amazing connection with most marine species, mainly because of her demeanour — she’s very calm and relaxed underwater,” said Hohn.

Both Hohn and Janicki are enthusiastic and experienced divers.

The series streams on Nat Geo TV, Disney+ and Hulu.

Hohn estimated that when filming in Canada, the crew went on about 80 dives over 30 days to get the needed content, and it was over three excellent days of diving in the last stretch of filming that they got the bulk of their footage.

Octopus can be challenging to identify underwater, Hohn said, as they will use nearby rocks to barricade themselves in their dens to hide from predators and can camouflage their colour. Naturally, this proved a challenge for filming. Octopus, which are highly intelligent, all have different personalities, Hohn said.

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They had success, though. One particular octopus, Hohn said, “basically adopted us into its environment.”

“The connection between her and I was instant, which made it so easy to start filming with her and working with her once we did, because she was just so willing and as excited as I was,” said Janicki.

Another filming challenge was the water temperature, running about 7 Celsius; a swimming pool is more like 26 Celsius.

“We’re very limited on how long we can actually be underwater,” said Hohn.

The weather, the underwater visibility, the tide, and the current all affect the content filmmakers could get on any given day.

“We have a whole bunch of factors that make it quite challenging, and then also on top of that you have the wildlife — you can’t dictate what wildlife does. So you have to be very patient and hope that all five of those things align and you get the shots and make a sequence,” Hohn said.

After filming finished, Janicki went back to the dive site in hopes of seeing the same friendly octopus again, but it had already moved dens. They are only in one den for a week or two and then they move on.

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“That’s the thing — they grow so incredibly fast,” she said.

The connection between her and I was instant

The giant pacific octopus weigh around 33 pounds, with an arm span of 14 feet, and the largest ones have been measured at 110 pounds with 20-foot arm spans. They have nine brains and three hearts, and an incredibly short lifespan of three to five years.

“Octopuses are regarded as one of the most intelligent animals on the planet. They have the ability to solve puzzles, open childproof bottles, use tools, and have visual and tactile memory centres in their brains,” says a press release on the series.

A press release for the series says a team of five local divers assisted in the filming.

Hohn hopes people take away from the series how beautiful wildlife and nature is, and how it needs to be protected.

“I just want people to learn more about the natural world that we live in and choose to respect it, and cherish what we have here. We’re so lucky,” said Hohn.

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