Helen's Reviews > The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness

** spoiler alert ** *Spoiler alert of epic proportions*

The subtitle of Sy Montgomery’s The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness clearly states Montgomery’s purpose. And she starts her exploration off well enough. She’s meeting Athena, the New England Aquarium’s 40 pound, two and a half year old, octopus for the first time. Montgomery is charmed. I’m charmed. For “those who work with octopuses report seeing things that, according to the way we’ve learned the world normally works, should not be happening.” Montgomery proceeds to eloquently make her case; octopuses are intelligent, emotional beings with distinct personalities and memory.

So imagine my surprise, no my dismay, when she reveals that “in [her] quest to get to know an octopus better, [she] had been looking into acquiring one of [her] own.” Yes, Montgomery feels a need to possess an animal that she herself, in the very title of her own book, acknowledges possesses a soul. She goes on to say,“… whether you’re a person or a monkey, a bird or a turtle, an octopus or a clam, the physiological changes that accompany our deepest-felt emotions appear to be the same. Even a brainless scallop’s little heart beats faster when the mollusk is approached by a predator, just like yours or mine would do were we to be accosted by a mugger.” Or captured in your ocean home by a strange creature, and transferred to a barren tank in that creature’s otherwise uninhabitable living room.

Fast-forward…Athena has died. Octopuses, we know from chapter one “live fast and die young. Giant Pacific octopuses are probably among the longest-lived of the species, and they usually live only about three or four years.” Thus, the aquarium is now home to Octavia, who is nearing the end of her life, and Kali, Octavia’s replacement who lives in a dark, 50 gallon barrel. The flower pot Montgomery had given her to hide in has been removed from her barrel for lack of space.

At which point Montgomery decides she needs to experience the ocean; would “love to be actually in the real ocean with them.” She wants to be in the very ocean home denied the same octopus she wants to be in the real ocean with. Huh.

Montgomery describes the ascent from her final dive: “I ascend with [Rob] slowly, like a dying soul reluctant to leave its body, and we watch the silver trail of our bubbles rising above us like shooting stars.” Is this how Kali felt on her final ocean ascent? Is this how Kali feels in her barrel right now?

Fast-forward again… after living in a dark 50 gallon barrel for roughly six months, Kali has finally been transferred to a new, temporary enclosure. The first night she escapes and dies; somewhat reminiscent of an only slightly less tragic escape scene at the end of Finding Nemo. Of the incident Montgomery and aquarium staff says:

"Kali was extremely lucky to have lived as long as she did. Most octopuses die as paralarvae. Only two in 100,000 hatchlings survive to sexual maturity – otherwise the sea would be overrun with octopuses. “And at least we know she had a good last day.” I said. “Yes,” said Wilson. “She had a day of freedom. And that she got out tells you a phenomenally inquisitive and intelligent creature wanted her freedom. We know, clearly, it must have taken a lot of effort to get out. A stupid animal wouldn’t do that.”
“She died like a great explorer,” I said. Like the astronauts who died blasting off in Challenger, or the brave men who perished in an attempt to find the source of the Nile, penetrate the Amazon, visit the poles, Kali had chosen to face unknown danger in the quest to widen the horizons of her world.
“Octopuses have their own intelligence that we can’t match,” Wilson said. “And hopefully we’ll learn from our mistakes. That’s the best we can do. After all,” he said, “we’re only human.”

I’m not convinced the comparison to astronauts and African explorers is valid. For those souls chose a life of adventure and Kali was not on a “quest to widen the horizons” of “her” world. She was on a quest to widen the horizons of an artificial world forced upon her. Nor am I convinced that Kali enjoyed one happy day. In Wilson’s own words, “…that she got out tells us…[she] wanted her freedom.” She didn’t get it.

Like Wilson, I too, hoped they would learn from their mistakes. So imagine my surprise when, eight days after Kali’s escape the aquarium has ordered another octopus off the internet. She will be named Karma. With no permanent tank for her, they put her in Kali’s dark prison barrel. Leaving me unclear as to what any of them have learned. Except that instead of planning ahead, and putting kindness before profit, when tragedy strikes we shrug our shoulders and claim we’re innocent…because we’re human.

I picked up The Soul of an Octopus because, ten years ago, I was utterly enamored with Mongtomery’s The Good Good Pig. My expectations were so high that the contrast between what I learned about the inner lives of octopuses, and the Stockholm Syndromesque relationships between they and their keepers became too disappointing, too enraging, and just too tiring. While I imagine Montgomery’s aim is to paint a portrait of herself and her aquarium colleagues as fighting the good conservation fight, she has unwittingly lumped her book in the same category of documentaries like Blackfish, and books like David Kirby’s Death at Sea World.