Just a little guy

Petting a blue ring octopus could definitely be a once in a lifetime event!
- Well they were planning on Effing it, so maybe they were wearing "protection".

The bite actually doesn't kill you, it just shuts down your nervous system so you can't breath.
People if given cpr immediately (kind of need someone to know it's what bit you) till it wears off / get on a ventilator will live.
I remember reading about someone who survived. They got but, and a team started doing cpr. The only issue was his eyes were open the entire time on a hot sunny day. So he was blind after the damage the hot sun did.
- The bite actually doesn't kill you, it just shuts down your nervous system so you can't breath.
  I feel that's like saying "getting mauled by a bear doesn't kill you, it just causes major lacerations so all your blood leaks out". Technically sure, but it seems like a bit of a pedantic distinction...
  
  Reminds me of people who insisted COVID didn't kill anyone because it was the symptoms that actually killed people
  
  You’re not totally wrong but some things are not so easily treated as with rescue breathing. This is the same problem with any paralytic agent (e.g. botulism) is that the mechanism of death is suffocation since you can’t breathe. But from a rescue standpoint its really easy to breathe for someone whereas its not easy to stop multiple lacerations leading to exanguination and I think that is the point they were making is that this could be a survivable event if a rescuer is nearby.
  
  I was thinking "it's not the fall that kills you, it's the sudden stop at the end."
  
  Getting bit by a venomous snake in Australia and you're blood starts to disassemble itself. The only counter is antivenom or die. Your blood breaking down is what kills you. And there is no way to separate the bite from that.
  Being able to counter the venom in such a simple way is what makes it different. You can logically break it down into steps that are separable.
- Breathing - famous for being optional for those that would like to live.
  Yes, there have only been around 3 people killed by them (largely because they're shy, aquatic, and somewhat uncommon), and intervention can be made to stop them from killing you, but they're one of the most toxic animals on the planet, and are unquestionably deadly.
  
  I'm shy, aquatic and uncommon
  
  We do have a lot of experience with their toxin though, since so many other animals people like to eat and play with also use TTX like newts(on their skin itself), pufferfish, and sea slugs. The blue ringed octopuses are just unique in using it as a venom. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK507714/
- Blind as permanently blind?
  
  Correct, nothing can move, not your lungs, not your eye lids, nothing. So he went very blind from staring at the sun for 30mins straight while people did cpr until ambulance arrived
- wears off
  I think it is in the duration of hours, rather than minutes before wearing off.
  So yes, a team in rotation is required for CPR, or one triathalon participant.
- Hmm, does one also not feel pain during such event? Also what happens in your head during it? Are you conscious or it also just shuts down your brain as whole?
  
  It depends on the dose, but yes you can be conscious with respiratory failure due to TTX. If you get a large enough dose you'll lose vascular tone and go into shock. At that point even CPR may fail to save you because what you really need is vasopressor drugs.
  
  In one episode of Kleo, the assassin used home-made TTX in powder form (gathered from a pufferfish) to neutralise a target and claimed they would be feeling pain during the entire time. Made me wonder as well, considering the nervous system gets shutdown I would assume the ability to feel pain also went away?
- It's not the heavy metal poisom that kills you, it just shuts down your nerve cells from restoring its membrane potsntial.
  It's not corona that causes you to die from suffocation, it'z just the immun response that results in changes to the mitochondria, powerhouses of the cell, and shortness of breath.
  It's not the cancer that kills you, it's the organ failure!
- So what you're saying is I should take a date to see the blue ring octopus. Then I should get stung and tell them to give me CPR for a few hours or I'll die.
  
  Get bitten by that spider that gives you a permanent boner first to make it super awkward.
  
  Well, at least you won't be embarrassed for long after she turns you down.
- Ah, great to know! I’ll be taking my kids down there for some blue octopus pets 😁

If not friend, why friend shaped?
- You see, it's not.

I didn't read 'Effing SC'. I was confused as to why they're cursing the petting zoo.
- Maybe because they’re trying to get people to pet a blue-ringed octopus?
  
  Once in a lifetime. Probably the crowning achievement
- Because they brought in blue ringed octopi for casual petting

Has the "swim with the box jellies" experience reopened since the accident... and the other accident.. and those 3 accidents that happened before that?

I grew up on the East Coast of the United States. MD and FL to be specific. Going to the beach was a regular thing in our household, whether it was the Chesapeake Bay or the Atlantic Ocean somewhere in West Palm Beach. My grandad has a house on the actual bay. Grew up spending every family gathering there. The adults would visit/catch up, and us kids would be in the water. I was NEVER scared of the water.
Then, as a young adult, Im sitting at an inprocessing for a base in Okinawa, Japan, and the briefer is going over local hazards in the region.
I had never heard of the Blue Ringed Octopus before.
And from that moment on, I became terrified of things in the ocean.
My husband always laughs about that story because its rare that they even make it into the waters around Oki, but that genuinely really was the moment that my brain was like "Omg, you have to worry about more than sharks in the ocean."
- The ocean is beyond beautiful. Spent some time on the shores of NC and VA...
  Started studying marine biology due to the oceans vast amount of mystery...Now it's "The ocean is beyond beautiful and just as deadly."
  
  The ocean is indeed beyond beautiful. I'm not a marine biologist, but I went to Jamaica for my honeymoon and truly appreciated it there. A lot of my time was spent just ... Admiring the water.
  I remember a Jamaican local commenting that she'd seen the ocean around the USA in movies and wouldn't swim in the ocean around the country based on that.
  Also, I got punched in the face by a fish while I was down there.
  Beautiful, though.
  
  Started studying marine biology
  How were you able to dissect one?!?
- For a while, I lived in Havre de Grace, MD. In that timeframe, I experienced several fourths of July. One of those times, for some reason, my then-girlfriend and I got in a mood to watch horror movies.
  We opened Netflix (then our only streaming service) and looked in the horror category, eventually settling on The Bay. We'd never heard of that movie before and selected it pretty much at random.
  Turns out that movie is implicitly set in HdG and explicitly on the fourth of July. Kinda freaked us out for a bit.
  After that, we looked up movies set in HdG and that's how I found From Within, a mediocre movie featuring Bruce Willis' daughter; and also that's how I found out that House of Cards filmed Kevin Spacey's home town there..
  edit: basic grammar.
  
  Well, as someone who adores horror movies of all styles from pure camp to serious, and as someone who feels hella nostalgia for MD, I thank you for putting The Bay on my radar!
  My husband is a super cinephile though, so Im super hell be interested in the others (provided he hasnt already seen them).

- For sure, pettings this cute little guy can be the the experience of the rest of your life, same as listen the sound of the sea in a Conoidea
  
  If you put it to your ear, you can hear the sound of yourself screaming.
  
  Oh it's the rule 30 sea snail! Didn't know they were super poisonous, huh
- Wouldn't any joke from that account be an effing joke?
  
  so it is

Oh man I would love to live in a town called Effing. If only it wasn't in South Carolina.
- I have good news for you:
  https://open.spotify.com/track/0bcBDZprbPETfPnmWsAsy4

Oh no.

Yeah that might be the best of your lifetime as it might be drastically shortened

I honestly want to know the story behind this picture. Maybe their venom glands can be removed? A quick Wikipedia search showed that this one isn't brightening up its blue rings like they do when they feel threatened, and that generally you can survive if a respirator is available, but that doesn't seem like enough to risk holding one..
- I honestly want to know the story behind this picture.
  Take it with a grain of salt: I remember reading years ago that the person handling the octopus was suffering from degenerative disease, and losing his fight against liver cancer. So, he wasn't fazed about the prospect of a fatal bite.
- If I remember correctly, the guy holding the octopus had terminal cancer and was traveling around doing dangerous things before he died.
- There's also a video of a woman holding one not realizing what it is. "my first reaction was just "pick it up"
  Meanwhile, in Mexico, an octopus swam near my brother and I and we both got the fuck out the water like it had turned to lava lmao
  
  A fish about a foot long jumped out of the water within arm's reach of me while swimming at a Florida beach. First thought was what might be hunting that fish. I got out for a while.

Shame they felt the need to censor the name of the petting zoo.
- Well they didn't want people getting the wrong idea.

Good god Im dead just watching this
Blue-ringed octopuses are among the world’s most venomous marine animals, carrying enough venom to kill 26 adult humans within minutes.
https://youtu.be/NAmTTCV7GyY?feature=shared
- These little bastards have an AoE attack?

I love the Effing petting zoo!

Ohh. Effing is a place!
I always thought... Never mind.

I mean I'd love to see one just maybe not handle one. Also, just how bitey are they really
- That is the thing. They will bite if the feel scared, so it you are competent, relaxed and crazy enough, you may be able to handle one like this. They also have a little beak.
  The Venn diagram of venomous and dangerous is not a plain circle.

I love the f---ing petting zoo.

Another cute and friendly little guy, spreading a lot of joy.

Once in a lifetime... As in you can do it once.

I love Octopus, but this on is better not to pet. Yes, you can survive a bite, but only if there is an medical aid very near.

mating behavior
The initiation of physical contact is completely independent from sex, size, or residency status.
However, sperm is only released during sexual interaction with females but not with males,
which indicates that upon copulation, the male can distinguish the difference on whether to inseminate or not.
Huh, neat.