Ghost is a giant Pacific octopus, a former internet sensation, and a currently dying icon living in the Aquarium of the Pacific in California.
Ghost has been living in the aquarium since May 2024 and arrived as a three-pound cephalopod overflowing with charisma. She’d grown into a 48-pound celebrity, drawing in fans, inspiring tattoos, and charming aquarium staff. It was all unusual for octopi, who usually prefer isolation and scurrying from danger.
Ghost is nearing the end. She’s transitioning to a natural end-stage of octopus life known as senescence. It’s a slow-fade-out period that begins after the first and only time a female lays eggs and devotes her remaining weeks to guarding them.
She, and nearly every other female octopus, becomes so singularly focused on caring for her unborn babies that she doesn’t even eat. This is made all the more tragic by the fact that ghost eggs are unfertilized. They’ll never hatch. Her devotion to her eggs is honorable, beautiful, but ultimately futile.
Fans Say Goodbye to Ghost, the California Octopus Spending Her Last Days Protecting Eggs
Out in the waters of British Columbia, where Ghost is originally from, this is all par for the course. Giant Pacific octopuses live solitary lives, only meeting to reproduce and then going their separate ways. And that period of reproduction is usually quite aggressive. Octopus life is rough.
Ghost seems to have formed something that looks like a friendship with her human caretakers, or at least as much as an octopus can become friends with a person. Her powerful bond with humans sparked a devoted following. Visitors post farewell messages, wear Ghost-themed sweaters, and at least one person even got tattoos to honor her legacy.
The query was posted to Instagram that Ghost “is a wonderful octopus” and “has made an eight-armed impression on all of our hearts.”
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