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First - of - its - kind footage captures the import an devilfish fires projectile at predatory fish while hiding in a clam shell , like a mini sharpshooter .
The cartridge holder , film for Netflix ’s new series " Our Oceans , " shows a coconut octopus ( Amphioctopus marginatus ) , also know as a veined octopus , as it give the axe flyspeck stones from its siphon — a tube - like social structure devilfish apply to drown and guide — at fish swimming by .
The coconut octopus shot stones out of her siphon at passing fish — a behavior that had never been seen before.
" We could n’t believe it , " Katy Moorhead , assistant producer and area theatre director for the series , told Live Science in an electronic mail . " She was shooting fish , with stones , through her siphon ! We were so surprised . Nobody had ever recorded veined octopuses using their siphons as weapons before . "
The team filmed the clipping around 30 feet ( 9 beat ) below the ocean surface in Southeast Asia . The filmmakers were initially look at the impact of plastic befoulment on the ocean , take a lone octopus living in a trash - filled seabed . But when they reviewed the footage , they recognize they ’d enamour a completely new demeanour .
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The coconut octopus shot stones out of her siphon at passing fish — a behavior that had never been seen before.
The team returned to the devilfish to find out if this was a one - off event , or if the octopus had worked out how to expend its siphon as a pea - hired gun to discourage predators . Roger Munns , the director of photography , spent 110 hour with the octopus over three weeks , eventually capturing the deportment in item — show how she gathered rocks and detritus , load it , then fire the projectile out . " She turns her siphon into a gunman , " former President Barack Obama , who narrates the serial publication , said in the show .
The stone were fired out so tight it could only be visit on the footage in slow motion .
" face with a large Pisces who was giving away the localisation of her buck hideout , the octopus fired a stone out of its breathing siphon , and hit the Pisces the Fishes square on the fount , " executive producer James Honeyborne told Live Science in an email .
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Coconut devilfish be given to hold up in sandy , cloudy home ground in shallow waters . They’re obtain throughout the Indian Oceanand emerge from their concealment home at dawn and dusk to forage . They ’re known forbuilding armour from clam and coconut shells , pulling the halves together to make shell . When not in use , they persuade these shells around with them — stacking them up , sit inside the shells , then sticking their branch out to move along the seafloor .
The newly immortalise shooting behavior is now being analyzed to better interpret how and why these octopuses do it . " The fish were clearly startled and did then leave the neighborhood of the octopus , suggest it is an effective balk , " serial producer Jonathan Smith told Live Science in an electronic mail . " A scientist is now analyzing this surprising footage to get more answers . "
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