By Danielle Davey
For centuries, octopuses have suffered a bad rap. Aristotle called them “stupid creatures”, and throughout mythology and popular culture they’ve been unfairly cast as the kraken – a destructive sea monster to be feared.
Above left, an octopus deploys a cloud of ink. Photo: Shane Myers; Above right, a common octopus. Photo: Ernie Black
But it turns out all this time they’ve been misunderstood. Setting the record straight, Rosebud marine biologist Sheree Marris shares the truth about these creatures in a fascinating book you’ll want to dip into again and again: Octopuses: Underwater Wonders.
In demand as a keynote speaker and media presenter, Sheree’s animated conversational style is replicated in the books she writes. “The power of storytelling is drawing people in,” she said. “And I do that in a way that translates science into a format that’s entertaining and fun, so it’s almost like education by stealth.”
Octopuses: Underwater Wonders invites readers to “imagine a world where everyone eats through their armpits and tastes through their bodies”. The secret life of octopuses is exposed, and it’s downright quirky.
Complementing the stunning photographs, Sheree’s descriptive narrative is equally vivid: “It looks like this octopus has sneezed its eyeballs out, but it’s a deliberate design,” she writes. Humorous anecdotes come with a side of stats, each entry including the scientific name of the featured octopus, its home base, measurements, and some “ink-credible facts”.
Above, Sheree Marris. Photo: Zoe Strapp
It was curiosity about the otherworldliness of sea creatures that sparked her interest in marine studies, fuelled by the discovery of a brightly-hued nudibranch (sea slug) on a school excursion to Western Port. Pursuing a degree in marine biology at Deakin University, she won three Young Australian of the Year awards: the National Unilever Award, Young Australian of the Year (Victoria) and Victorian Unilever Environment Award.
Years later, she continues to be amazed by marine life. In 2021, she found an octopus holed up in a bit of plastic pipe on the sand at Rosebud Beach. Emerging from one end, hundreds of eggs were revealed inside the makeshift nursery. To Sheree’s astonishment, the mother – which she named Casey – used its arms to roll the pipe down to the water in a bid to save its eggs. A video of her discovery attracted millions of views online.
Weeks later, the pipe and its inhabitants washed ashore again, so this time Sheree lifted it further into the bay, anchoring it for security. The eggs hatched, but sadly – in accordance with the female octopus’s life cycle – the mother died shortly afterwards. Coincidentally, subsequent to Sheree’s interaction with Casey, octopuses were declared sentient at the end of 2021.
Learn more about these enigmatic creatures in Sheree’s magnificent Octopuses: Underwater Wonders, available online and in bookshops.
A male argonaut octopus hitches a ride on a jellyfish. Photo: Blue Planet Archive
