Deep below the surface of the Salish Sea lurks a nine-brained, eight-legged, blue-blooded creature that can change into any color its three hearts desire. Its soft body can weigh more than 100 pounds and stretch up to 20 feet across before squeezing into the smallest crevices. When it’s not perfectly disguised among the rocks and caves, it awkwardly scuttles across the ocean floor or cuts through the water like an ink-filled jet stream. It has been a source of awe and legend for centuries.
When the poorly constructed Tacoma Narrows Bridge—appropriately nicknamed Galloping Gertie for its worrying wobble—collapsed in 1940, legend had it that a 600-pound octopod living below wrapped its tentacles around the structure and pulled it under the water.