The two-spotted octopus surveys the damage. Photo: Heal the Bay. Enlarge image.
The Aquarium's office floors continued leak water hours after the flood. Photo: Heal the Bay. Enlarge image.

When Heal the Bay’s Santa Monica Pier Aquarium staff member Aaron Kind showed up early to work the morning of February 26th, 2009, it was clear that something had gone terribly wrong. “The first thing I noticed was that there was water everywhere,” said Kind.

Aaron quickly traced the source of the problem to the Aquarium’s recently renovated Kids’ Corner tanks and was able to shut off the flow of water. Emergency phone calls were made to Aquarium staff and everyone assembled quickly to get the marine education center back into working order before a school bus arrived with 60 students for a 9:30 a.m. field trip.

Aquarist Brianne Emhiser wnas still asleep on her day off when her phone rang at 7:10 a.m. Emhiser was one of the first staff to respond and traced the source of the problem to the Aquarium’s small two-spotted octopus.  “Our best guess is that the octopus, who is incredibly gregarious and curious, tugged on a valve in her tank last night causing a steady stream of water to overflow out of the tank. We’re estimating we lost a few hundred gallons of sea water onto the Aquarium floor,” Emhiser said.

Damage to the Aquarium

While creating a massive mess for staff to contend with, no animals were harmed as a result of the flood. But the Aquarium itself was less fortunate.

Water from the octopus tank made its way through the marine education facility and back into the staff offices, soaking carpets and newly installed environmentally friendly linoleum and cork flooring. Even after two hours of sucking up water with a shop-vac, salt water continued to seep up between the tiles in the three staff offices. The façade on the jewel tanks exhibit – a six-tank display that houses the octopus as well as other habitat specific organisms - was pulling away from its cabinet base thanks to the volume of cascading water.

Despite these soggy conditions, by 9:30 that morning when the school bus rolled into the parking lot, the public portion of the Aquarium was back in order, mopped up and ready to accommodate an eager group of first-graders and their teachers. There to greet the group was the two-spotted octopus, still active in her tank, seemingly oblivious to the havoc it wreaked just hours before.

The Aquarium is highlighting its Aquadoption program as a way the public can contribute to repairing the flood damage. In addition, visiting the Aquarium at 1600 Ocean Front Walk, beach level at the Santa Monica Pier, is another important way to show support. The Aquarium’s emphasis is on teaching visitors about the marine life of the Santa Monica Bay.  All the local species on display – from the cephalopods to the crustaceans, the sharks and the sand dollars – inspire conservation and stewardship.

A Flood of World-wide Media Attention

By the end of the day and with a press release circulating on the Associated Press wires, a flood of media attention took priority; four television crews, including CNN (see video below), interviewed staff and shot footage of the now-infamous cephalopod while the phones lit up with questions from reporters and the public. The exposure dramatically impacted visitorship and public awareness of the marine education center.

Statistics on the number of website visits tell the story. While there are several entry points to the Aquadoption page on Heal the Bay’s website, just tallying the number of clicks to the program’s logo in the sidebar on the Aquarium home page shows a 727 percent increase in the week after the octopus news broke.  Traffic to the Aquarium homepage also increased considerably, registering an 825 percent increase following the news coverage while peak traffic overall to Heal the Bay’s website on Feb. 27th increased 825 percent over past peak days.

Art & Story Contest

The seawater spill also spawned “The Octopus Flood Art & Story Contest,” inviting elementary school aged children to put their creativity to work to tell a story of what happened the night the octopus flooded the Aquarium.

Contest winners were announced, Sunday, April 19, at the Aquarium during Earth Weekend. Please see the sidebar on the right side of this page for the winning entries.

The Cleanup Continues

Meanwhile, the Aquarium staff continues to work with insurance representatives to assess the damage and move into the repair phase. The flooring installed last September in the three offices had to be ripped up because of buckling from water damage. The façade of the Kids’ Corner jewel tanks exhibit, which houses the octopus exhibit, was also damaged and must be replaced.

“All is going well,” Aquarium Director Vicki Wawerchak concluded. “It will probably take us a few months to get back to normal but we are well on our way.”

As for the gregarious octopus that started the whole chain of events, her curiosity and dexterity are channeled into more productive pursuits. The cephalopod can be viewed on You Tube opening a plastic ball to retrieve a piece of squid, an exercise that allows the animal to satisfy its curiosity as well as its appetite. The octopus is also fed live crabs to exercise its predation skills. And as an added precaution to this animal’s mischievous nature, the octopus exhibit now has a rigid, hard line mechanism in place, preventing any further destructive antics.