What’s a hipster to do when the really tasty renewable neighborhood foodstuff is also a local mascot? Marnie Hanel reports for the NYTimes:
In the months leading up to the hunt, Dylan Mayer trained twice a week in his parents’ swimming pool, asking friends to attack him, splay their arms and grab him, drag him to the surface and shove him below it, pull off his mask, snatch his regulator, time his recovery. By last Halloween, he was ready, and as the light began to fade that afternoon, the broad-shouldered 19-year-old jumped into a red Ford pickup truck with his buddy and drove some 40 minutes from Maple Valley, Wash., to West Seattle. They arrived at Alki Beach around 4 p.m., put on their wet suits and ambled into Cove 2. Then they slipped into Elliott Bay, the Space Needle punctuating the city line in the distance like an inverted exclamation point.
Under the dark water, the teenagers looked around with the help of a diving light. At 45 feet, they passed a sunken ship, the Honey Bear, and at 85 feet, beneath the buoy line, they saw further evidence of the former marina — steel beams, pilings and sunken watercrafts. Marine life thrived in this haven of junk, and for this reason, Cove 2 was a popular dive site. According to the permit he had just purchased at Walmart, Mayer was allowed to catch this sea life and cook it, which is exactly what he set out to do. He wasn’t much of a chef, but he had experience foraging for his dinner. Mayer had attended a high school known for its Future Farmers of America program; he also knew how to slaughter cows and castrate bulls. Now he was going to community college, where he was asked to draw something from nature. He figured that he might as well eat it too. And as he scanned the bay, he could already imagine searing the marine morsels on high heat and popping them, rare and unctuous, into his mouth. He soon spotted his prey. “That’s a big [expletive] octopus,” he scribbled on his underwater slate…
Eventually, he managed to pull the animal to the surface, where a number of divers couldn’t help noticing a teenager punching an 80-pound octopus. As they approached, Mayer freaked out. “Let’s get out of here,” he said, sucker marks ringing his face. “Maybe we shouldn’t have done this.” But it was too late. He dragged his kill ashore, where a few bystanders, in disbelief, took his picture and threatened to report him. Lugging the octopus to the red truck, Mayer cited his permit. But the divers kept taking pictures. That night, as Mayer butchered the octopus for dinner, they posted the photos online.
In a city finely attuned to both the ethics of food sourcing and poster-worthy animal causes (the spotted owl, the killer whale and marbled murrelet among them), Mayer’s exploits became an instant cause célèbre. On Nov. 1 and 2, Seattle’s competing news stations reported the octopus hunt. The next day, The Seattle Times ran the story on the front page. On Web forums, Seattleites tracked down the teenager’s name and address through the clues in the photos: the truck’s license plate, the high school named on Mayer’s sweatshirt and the inspection sticker affixed to his tank. “I hope this sick [expletive] gets tangled in a gill net next time he dives and thus removes a potential budding sociopath before it graduates from invertebrates to mammals,” read one typical comment, which received 52 “thumbs-ups.” Around the same time, Scott Lundy, one of the men who had confronted Mayer in Cove 2, issued a “Save the G.P.O.” petition to ban octopus harvesting from the beach and examine the practice statewide. By the next day, he had collected 1,105 signatures.
Across Elliott Bay, at the same time, a much subtler food sourcer was at work. Chef Matthew Dillon was building his highly anticipated new restaurant, Bar Sajor (pronounced “sigh-your”) in Pioneer Square. After the success of his first, Sitka & Spruce, Dillon, 39, earned an unsought reputation as the consummate locavore in a city filled with them. He cultivated rare herbs and foraged for mushrooms in the foothills of the Cascades; whereas many Brooklyn restaurants are only now coming around to wood sorrel and perilla, Dillon has been cooking with them since 1995. At Bar Sajor, there would be a rotisserie and a wood-fire oven, but no gas range; Dillon would make his own yogurt and vinegars, ferment his own vegetables and change his menu every day depending on what looked fresh and interesting — including, as it happened, giant Pacific octopus.
So as the “Save the G.P.O.” campaign raged this spring, the city raved about Dillon’s octopus salad. In The Stranger, the influential alt-weekly magazine, Bethany Jean Clement described it as having “a restrained oceangoing flavor, a bouncy but tender texture — sometimes a little chewy but never rubbery,” plated that day with “a thick walnut sauce, dill for freshness, and an oozing egg yolk for vivid creaminess and color.” The Seattle Times also heaped praise. “Bar Sajor Is Matt Dillon’s Finest Yet,” ran one Friday headline, just a week after another: “New Hunting Rules Likely for Puget Sound Octopus.” Whenever the salad appeared on the menu, it sold out. Inevitably this posed a most uncomfortable question for Seattle’s food community: should it save the giant Pacific octopus or just eat it? …
NotMax
Not nearly as tasty as the more elusive Pacific Northwest tree octopus.
some guy
eat! my vote, anyway.
tybee
mmmmm. cephalopod for dinner.
KG
@NotMax: that’s because the tree octopus doesn’t have the salt water taste
Yatsuno
Octopii are hardly endangered and also are considered pests to other mollusk farmers. Eat the damn things.
@Spaghetti Lee: Seattle is a wee bit famous for our militant vegans.
Spaghetti Lee
“I hope this sick [expletive] gets tangled in a gill net next time he dives and thus removes a potential budding sociopath before it graduates from invertebrates to mammals,”
Well, I’m glad people are being level-headed about this.
mikej
As a Seattlite, octopi aren’t endangered. I have no problem with eating them.
Redshirt
Octopi are wicked smart. Don’t eat them!
Yatsuno
@mikej: I find them quite brave to eat anything from that part of the Sound honestly.
xenos
There is a real moral dillemma regarding the highly intelligent and often delicious octopus.
But not squids. They are obnoxious and I will eat them without the slightest hesitation.
CaseyL
I got to play with octopuses* when I volunteered at the Seattle Aquarium. I kind of adore them so, no, not eating any.
*That’s right. Octopuses, not octopi. Greek, not Latin.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
@CaseyL:
Right. Which is why it’s octopodes.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
My team has won 55 games in a row. What’s your done lately?
Keith G
We are a terminally stupid people.
PsiFighter37
Apparently the NYT did a good job of not reporting the full story. From surfing the Internet, it seems that the folks in Seattle have an issue with a) this particular octopus being relatively well-known to divers and being friendly with those who had dove there, and b) the kid who hunted the octopus having Facebook photos of him punting around dead porcupines and blowing up snakes (i.e. suggesting he’s not terribly animal-friendly to begin with). Can’t have inconvenient facts blow up your subject for a story that weaves in with how a chef cooks his bycatch octopus, though.
Of course, this would be far too difficult for our modern-day media to report, so we just have to search the interwebs ourselves and find out.
Aside from whether or not the guy was just ignorant or being a bad seed…if you aren’t a vegetarian, this is the messy business of killing what you eat. That is life.
Studly Pantload, the emotionally unavailable unicorn
I started leaning toward the vegetarian side when I found out porcine are smart as dogs, and you know how Americans are generally put off by dog eating. Now I’ve been full-on vegetarian for 20 years, and it’s long since gotten past the point where the smell of actual meat turns the ol’ tum (ditto for Mrs. Pantload).
I can’t claim to really be “above” it all, having eaten meat for as long as I did. But it is weird to see the dichotomies that I once housed. The aforementioned canine/porcine thing. People who love to eat our eight-legged friend from the deeps, which critters are smart enough to figure out how to remove a screw-on lid to get at a jar’s contents. And we have a couple for neighbors who we truly adore; one of them has worked for PAWS, they are great kitty and doggie parents, they share our dismay at a neighbor of ours who lets his kitty out, even though the kitty once lost half his tail in a tussle with a car (plus there are raccoons, owls, and even possums about, even though we are within two miles of downtown Seattle), and yet they eat rabbit and recently attended a goat roast, complete with pictures the Mrs. and I wished we hadn’t seen.
We’re a complex species. If we weren’t, we’d all be soshulists.
jenn
I wish I hadn’t read this, particularly knowing this was a friendly almost-pet. Feels like betrayal. And that’s not even going into the fact that the person who did it evidently likes to blow up animals.
NotMax
@Studly Pantload, the emotionally unavailable unicorn
Not smart enough to dope out working on not being delicious.
If intelligence is to be the arbiter, guess it’s required to chow down on the pavonine. Thicker than bricks (not the wild type, they’re wily). Also too, sheep.
Brandon
@Yatsuno: As a Seattle native, I agree with you completely. 1) species not endangered, so not any different from fishing or collecting mussels/clams/urchins/etc (the cognitive ability of ones food should not affect ones ethical position as to whether it is ok to eat, we dont have similar cognitive tests to differentiate ethical treatment of fellow humans), and 2) that area of Puget Sound is highly polluted, with several Superfund sites nearby in the Duwamish estuary. I say good luck to anyone who wants to eat something from there.
chopper
Imagining this kid in a half-hour underwater fist fight with an octopus makes me think of Peter Griffin and the giant chicken.
Redshirt
@efgoldman: Koji time.
CaseyL
@mikej:
I’m going to hand out signs for the local octos to carry, stating they’re from Spokane, not Seattle; and therefore are endangered.
eemom
west coast people problems.
Yatsuno
@CaseyL:
So they’re Republicans on meth?
:: ducks ::
Han
@PsiFighter37: Links? Because all I’m finding are some unsubstantiated claims. Mayer may have scrubbed his facebook, but if he’s such an asshole I don’t know why he’d bother. He says he deliberately chose an octopus he had not seen in the area before, instead of several he had. Which makes more sense than this was the only octopus in the bay and was a local “pet”. I don’t have a reason to believe Mayer, but I also don’t have a reason to believe these people who wish for his death because he made a legal kill. I found one claim that he took the octopus off her eggs, which would have been difficult, as in another article I saw a game warden who examined the kill said it was male.
Redshirt
Sox win! Octopi lose!
CaseyL
@Yatsuno:
No, they left to get away from all that; that’s why they’re here. Octos are very good at blending into their surroundings. Some have begun wearing skinny jeans and smoking weed.
They draw the line at drinking Starbucks coffee, though. Makes their chromatophores strobe.
J.W. Hamner
I’m certainly of the opinion that people need to understand where their food comes from… that meat doesn’t grow from the ground wrapped in cellophane… but I don’t know that we really need people killing their food with their bare hands. Seems a little over the top. Most hunters I’ve heard of don’t seem to be into causing extensive suffering which “punching to death” seems to qualify as.
Yatsuno
@efgoldman: BTW Liz Warren knows how to stay popular up your way. She threw up a post on Book of Faces congratulating the Sox. Learned from the Coakley mishegas, she did.
Redshirt
@CaseyL: I’m certain humans will replicate Octopi camouflage techniques soon enough. Full on blending into the background, no matter the background, for starters. Thermal invisibility. Radar immunity.
Mike E
@Yatsuno: Speaking of, what the hell is up with Al Franken?
ETA Who did he wrong to go into witness protection?
Yatsuno
@Mike E: I have…no earthly clue. Should there be?
Brandon
@J.W. Hamner: Considering that the report said he had sucker marks on his face, one could assume he was acting defensively. Though I agree that he cold have investigated more humane means to achieve his goal, e.g. a net, spear or knife.
Mike E
@efgoldman: I suppose I wouldn’t begrudge him if that’s the case, but, wow. Poof. How bad is our gov’t if a writer/comedian can’t hack it?
ETA Congrats on the pennant, I know who I’m rootin’ for in the Series!
Han
@Brandon: That would be illegal. Stupid, but true. The only legal method is to subdue them and wrestle them to shore.
ruemara
@Mike E: Where are you getting that from? he seems to have been doing quite well.
MikeJ
@Mike E:
Franken talks to MN media all the time. He just refuses to talk to the national press.
Bubblegum Tate
1) Octopus is fuckin’ gross as a foodstuff.
2) If the humble octopus ever adapts to life on land, the human species is truly fucked.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@MikeJ: ah, he wants to be the Senator from Minnesota, not the Senator from Meet the Face the Press Nation Week?
scav
There might also be a difference between locavores going out and collecting stuff knowledgeably and presumably following whatever regulations there are and wildcatters pretending to be Aquaman Euell Gibbons. Aren’t there fishing licenses, so why not octocritters and bivalve critters licences along with Elk, Deer, Game Wardens, Hunters and that critical out of season Cow?
ETA, So he did have a licence, was just playing out his vivid fantasy life with living participnts in a drawn out way.
Mike E
@ruemara: I root for Al, no lie…he’s been, uh, under the radar it seems to me, plus speculation by watchers here and elsewhere that he’s walking on eggshells to maybe get re-elected. I dunno. Seems uncharacteristic for Al Franken…
ETA Being beholden to his constituents is wise and perfectly fine. I know he’s not there to whack Rush Limbaugh like a piñata.
NotMax
@Mike E
Strengthening up his bona fides, and championing some pet causes. Wasn’t elected to be a comedian.
CaseyL
SFAIK, Franken isn’t leaving the Senate; he’s favored to win re-election in 2014. If he’d decided not to run for re-election, it wouldn’t matter if he “only told” Minnesota media: word would get out.
badjim
I’ve given up on wild seafood, because we’re efficiently eradicating the entire category, and I have particular qualms about something as intelligent as a cephalopod, enticing as txipirones en tinto may be. Creatures who owe their existence to our taste for their flesh are a more defensible dish.
RandomMonster
Octopuses don’t live long in general; the Pacific Red lives much longer at up to 5 years. Maybe that’s not a good reason to favor eating them, but neither is intelligence — things feel pain regardless of how smart they are.
All that said, I admire all of the cephalopods for their beauty, grace, and intelligence, even while I find them delicious.
Joel
I’m generally a fan of yours, Anne, but your commentary just drips with snideness. I think the issue was that Meyer was taking an attraction from a popular dive site and capturing it in an inhumane manner, more than the conservation of the animal itself.
From the linked piece:
Joel
In other words, taking the octopus was just a dick move, kind of like dropping in on another surfer, or stealing someone’s fishing spot.
doug r
@NotMax: I think I filmed one of your Octopi heading to its tree habitat: http://youtu.be/4wTzdKMDztE
Origuy
@Bubblegum Tate:
They’ll have to evolve out of that dying after reproducing thing. Octopuses have a very short lifespan. Enteroptopus dofleini only lives about 3-5 years. So this one may have been a mascot, but it wouldn’t have been for very long.
Thlayli
@The prophet Nostradumbass:
That’s McCain’s seat.
Jack the Second
Shit, he was wrestling it out of the water and punching it to death. I guess he could have dived without an air tank, but how much more sporting can you get?
I’d like to see more hunters chase down their prey bare-handed in their natural environment.
Botsplainer
As a diver, the only things I ever take are lobsters – they’re plentiful, and require some work to get (25-35 feet down, you stuff a rod in the hole to agitate it, snag it with a net when it shoots out). I’ve heard some stories about spear fishing that make me gunshy – sometimes the sharks come to take a catch and wind up taking a little more.
That said, the kid impresses the shit out of me. Wrestling up a bigass octopus from that depth must’ve used up air at a hell of a rate, and even with nitrox, he must’ve been nearly in a deco dive. He’s a hell of a technical diver.
Rex Everything
As the show Portlandia demonstrates to hilarious effect, white people get damn silly when they’re only around each other.
GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)
@Mike E:
que?
Hobbes
@CaseyL: Yes, as Mitchell and Webb show, it’s important to apply rigorous standards at home and at the workplace.
Li
Do both. Sustainable fisheries FTW!
Li
Do both. Sustainable fisheries FTW!