In March 2025, in our own version of March Madness, Chalice UUC voted octopuses as our favorite Pacific Ocean dweller. (As otter was our 2024 winner of favorite animal, otter was excluded from this year’s voting). We voted in five rounds over four weeks, whittling 32 animals down to the winner. The votes of children and youth ages 17 and younger were weighted. Octopus and leafy seadragon were our two finalists, and octopus won decisively!

There are over 300 different species of octopuses. The most common type we see down here in San Diego is the two-spot octopus. It is a smaller size octopus, averaging 18 inches in length.

Many of us have seen the documentary My Octopus Teacher, featuring what’s called a common octopus, which grows up to 10 inches long.

Many of us have read the New York Times bestseller Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt. This novel features as one of its protagonists a Giant Pacific octopus, which is the largest species of octopus in the world. Its average length is 15 feet, weighing an average of 110 lbs.

Although octopuses are carnivores, there are many animals that hunt them. Predator animals are usually hunting for the smaller octopus species. Except, of course, for sea otter. Sea otter is an apex predator, and they are not afraid to hunt for octopuses more than twice their size. Sea otters are known to attack even giant octopuses, which they overpower with their body weight advantage and strong jaws. Sea otters generally prefer larger prey, as they need to consume 20% of their body weight in a day. Remember sea otters don’t have blubber, so they have to eat a lot to generate enough energy to stay warm.

We probably aren’t going to find cute photos of sea otters and octopuses together.

The best thing we can do to protect the ocean that is habitat to these incredible creatures is to do what we can to reduce our use of plastics, especially single-use plastics. We gathered many ideas about reducing plastic consumption and helping the environment at our water ritual this past September. They are compiled here. Chalice congregants are encouraged to look them over and be inspired—or re-inspired—to do what you can to help conserve our oceans.