THESE A~IENNES'SUR MICROFICHE 1+ National L~braryof Canada B~bl~othQuenatlonale du ~a"nada Collecttons Development Branch D~rect~ondu developpement des collections Canadian Theses on Service des theses canadiennes , Microfiche Service sur microfiche Ottawa, Canada KIA ON4 NOTICE , AVlS The quality of this microfiche is heavily dependent La qualite de cette microfiche depend grandement de upon the quality of the original thesis submitted.for la qualite de la these soumise au microfilmage. Nous microfilming. Every effort has been made to ensure avons tout fait pour assurer une qualit6 superieure . the highest quality of reproduction possible." de reproduction. If pages are missing, contact the university which S'il 'manque des pages, veuillez communiquer granted the degree. avec I'universite qui a confere Is grade. 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Veuillez prendre connaissance des accompany this thesis. formules d'autorisation qui accompagnent cette these. THIS DlSSERTATlON P HAS BEEN MICROFILMED . EXACTLY AS RECEIVED NOUS L'AVONS RECUE Nat~malL~brary B~bliothkpenationale CANADIAN THESES TH&S CANADIENNES I+of Canada du Canada OIY MICRff ICHE SUR MICROFICHE Growth of the giant Pacific octopus Octopus dofleini martini OF THESIS,TITRE DE LA 7Hix - on the west coast of British Columbia UNIVERSIN/IJNIVERSIT~ Simon Fraser University DEGREE FOA WHICH THESIS WAS WESENTEDI GRADf POUR LEQUEL CETTE THESE FU T P~SEN~~E Master of Science YEAR THIS DEGREE CONFERRED/ANNL!EDD'OBTEN71CHI DE CE GRADE 1983 . Dr. E. B. Hartwick NAME OF SUPERVISOR/NOM'DUDIRECTEUR DE TH~SE Permission IS hereby granted to the NATIONAL LIBRARY OF ' L'autorisation est, par la prdsente, accordbe B la BIBLIOTHP- b CANADA to microfilm this thesis and to lend or sell copies QUE NATIONALE DU CANADA de mic~ofilmercette thCsc er of the film. de pr6ter ou de vendre des exemplaires du film. The author reserves other publication rights, and neither the L'auteur se rCserve les autres droits de publication; ni la thesis nor extensive extracts from it may be printed or other- thcseni de longs extraits de celle-ci.ne doivenr 6tre irnprirn6s wise reproduced without the autbr's written permission. ou autrement reproduits sans I'autorisation Ccrite de I'auteur. e GROWTH OF TEE GIANT PACIFIC OCTOPUS OCTOPUS DOFLEINI MARTINI ON THE WEST COAST OF BRITISH COLUMBIA w ~hawn.~ichael Charles Robinson BSc(H0nor.s) Acadia University 1979 -. THES IS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE in the ~e'partment of Biological_, Sciences @ ' Shawn Michael Charles Robinson 1983 SIMON FRASER UNIVERS ITY April 1983 All iights reserved. Thishork may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without permission of the author. PARTIAL COPYRIGHT LICENSE - I hereby grant to Simon Fraser University the right to lend my thesk project or extended essay (the title of which is shown below) to users of the Simon Fraser University Library, and to make partial or s i.ng 1e copies on1 y for such users or in response to a request from the I A I?brary of any other univeety, or other educational institution, on its own behalf or for one of its users. I further agree that permission for multiple copying of this work for scholarly purposes may be granted by me or the Dean of Graduate Studies. It is understood that copying or pub1 lcation of this work for financial gain shal l not 'be al lowed without my written permission. ' \ Growth of the giant Pacific octopus Octopus do•’leini marrini . on the west coast of British Columbia S. M. C. 1obinson Approval Same : S. M. C. Robinson IIeg\ Master of Science I Title of Thesis: Growth of the giant Pacific octopus Octopus dofleini martini on th~westcoast of British Columbia 1 Examining Committee Chairman : Dr. B. A. HcKeown - - . - - - - , . - - Dr. E. B. Hartwick, Senior Supervisor I 1-v7 Dr. L. N. Dill I. \ Dr. .li. J. &$ 'th - . , - .I --. Dr. Paul Breen VI , 1 I/ w - Dr. 3. !R. GrosS,- dssktdt Professor, Biological' sciences, SFT, Public Examiner 4 4 Dats approved d $A,.// ,j ,/?? - I 5 Ir ABSTRACT During the summer of 1980 and from May 1981 to May 1982 a tag-recapture growth study on Octopus dofleini martini (,Wulker) was conducted on an inshore, s.hallow water(2-15 m), octopus population in Clayoquot Sound, Vancouver Island. The -objective was to describe the growth of an average & dofleini individual in the field and to look for growth differences related to sex, season or location. Honthly collections of octopuses provided information on maturation. Growth and feeding experiments were carried out on captive -0. dofleini. In total, 211 octopuses were tagged and 87 of these were recaptured, some up to 8 times. Octopuses ranged in weight from 1.6m18..8- Kg and the sex ratio was skewed towards females. 0. - \ ddleini had a high growth rate in the field which was comparable to many smaller, warm water species of octopuses. The growth rates were variable for all sizes studied and there was an inverse relationship between size bhea specific growth rate(SGR). No difference was fouP d in growth rates between sexes or between study sites. There were two distinct growth seasons for -0. dofleini ia Clayoquot Sound, a slow period from January to June and a faster period from July to December. These two seasons correspond with the yearly water temperature cycle. Male -0. dofleini matured at a smaller size than females and spermatophores were fou~idin males over 12.5 Kg. No matux females were found although a vide size range was' sampled. There was no seasonal reproductive cycle for males in the shallow d iii water population in Clayoquot Sound. Laboratory studies showed an inverse relationship betueen octopus weight and the percent body weight ofi food eaten per day. Food conversion efficiency was high with a mean of 58%. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my sincerest appreciation to my - thesis supervisor Dr. Brian Hartwick for his guidance, interest - and bad puns throughout this project. Thank you also to Dr. Larry Dill, Dr. Michael Smith and Dr. Paul Breen for their C advice during -the ,course of the study. The Vancouver Public Aquarium and the Bamfield -Marine t .C Station provided facilities for the laboratory experiments and I would like to thank Dr. Jeff Marliave and Kitty for their assistance with the experiments. I would also like to thank my f&@nd and colleague, David Fyfe, for n'umerous invaluable discussions 6%? for,/his help in --' the field. Many other individuals assisted me in this project 7 and I gratefully thank Xahmood Shivji, Rob Probst, Dave Trotter, J Mark Ralsh, Les Tulloch, Greg Cox, Ron Smith, Norm Sloan and Richard ~ockhar~i - r' A special thank you goes to the McLorie .family in Tofino for their kind hospitality and for opening their home to me,. I Finally, I would like to expr,ess my deepest gratitude to Lesa Pomeroy for her understanding, typing and especially her patience. TABLE OF CONTENTS Approval .....................................................ii Abstrac~..................................................iii Y Acknowledgements ............................................v 9 List of Tables .............................................viii List of Figures .............................................. x . A. Introduction ............................................... 1 I B. Materials and Methods ........$. .......................... .8 (i Tag-Recapture Program .................................8 -0. dofleini Larval Studies ...........................12 Laboratory Studies ..............................:.....I3 h Field Cage Studies ................................... 16 Maturation Studies ..............................:.... 17 - - Data Analysis ...................................... 18 % Growth Curve Analysis ................................19 I. Tag Recaptures ................................+ .......22 d Population Informat ion Growth ................................................\. 26 11. Larvae ............................................ ..38 Observations I': Growth ............................................... 41 111. Laboratory Studies ..................................45 - IT. FXeld Cage Studies ....................................49 V. Haturation Studies ................................; ....53. D. Discussion ..................................................61 Population Information ............ Growth Aspects .................... * x ~ro& Model Evaluatiod ............ ~&edin~Aspects ................... Maturation ........................ .,.................................................74 E. Summary - LIST OF TABLES ,O Table Page .-' 1. List of dctopus study sites used in this project with their '* 10 respective