OCTOPUSES: IN THEIR ELEMENT
We haven’t seen many octopuses in these parts for quite a while. Time to put that right. The seas of the Bahamas teem with many many marine species, but few are as fascinating or indeed versatile as the octopus. Don’t take my word for it, just watch ‘Finding Dory’ to see how amazing Hank the… [what’s that, Skippy? It’s fiction?]. As you were. That these extraordinary creatures even exist let alone thrive in our waters is a truly wonderful thing. Here are a few to admire – or in the case of the one below, to admire you.
‘Here’s lookin’ at you…’
You can find out some more about octopuses – including the correct plural for ‘octopus’ – by clicking the links below. More importantly, you’ll see more of them too.
THE PLURAL OF OCTOPUS & RELATED CEPHALOPOD MYSTERIES
MARINE BAGPIPES FILLED WITH INK
OCTOPUSES: WORTH LEARNING TO SCUBA FOR
All octopedal photos: thanks to Melinda Riger / Grand Bahama Scuba (1 – 4) and Adam Rees / Scuba Works (5)
ROLLING HARBOUR ABACO 
It’s octopodae. You’ll just have to trust me. Though absolutely nobody uses it. The marine biologists I know use octopus as a plural.
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Hi Thomas. Well, I really can’t see any linguistic basis for that. It might apply if the Graeco-Latin base were Octop(od)a, Octopusa or some such 1st declension construct. It’s hardly found online, and the one place I checked was riddled with spelling errors, so empirically unreliable. Mmmmmmmmm. But I like octopus as a scientific plural (as with ‘a thousand squid’, which sounds quite natural). Can we agree on that one please?
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