Expand<\/a><\/p>\nBecause here\u2019s the thing: laying eggs is a bittersweet milestone for octopuses. It marks the beginning of their final life stage, called senescence. During this time, which can last anywhere from one to 10 months, the female stops eating and devotes all her energy to her eggs as her own body deteriorates. (Males have it even worse; they die shortly after mating.)<\/p>\n
For Ghost, a 45-pound octopus believed to be between 2 and 4 years old (the average lifespan for her species), it means she\u2019ll fiercely guard her eggs, using her arms to circulate water around them, even as her body breaks down. A female octopus generally dies around the same time, or just after, her eggs hatch.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s particularly sad about Ghost\u2019s story \u2014 depending on how you look at it \u2014 is that her eggs are unfertilized. They will never hatch. This was an intentional choice by aquarium staff, since the octopus mating ritual can be perilous \u2014 even deadly \u2014 for both males and females.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur priority is always going to be our animals\u2019 health and well-being, and because of that, we did make the decision not to pair her with a mate,\u201d said Ghost\u2019s primary caretaker, Brooke Hernandez. \u201cFemale octopuses will go through their natural egg-laying process whether or not those eggs are fertile.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since entering senescence, Ghost has been moved to a private area of the aquarium, where she can live out the rest of her days undisturbed by the public.<\/p>\n
So far, she\u2019s doing well and showing only subtle signs of slowing down \u2014 being a little less social, a little pickier with food.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to make sure that she is at the optimal comfort that she could possibly be,\u201d Hernandez said.<\/p>\n
An octopus like no other<\/p>\n
Like all giant Pacific octopuses, Ghost is a solitary creature.<\/p>\n
But she has playmates.<\/p>\n
Hernandez, for one. A senior aquarist with more than a decade of experience caring for marine mammals and invertebrates, the Orange County resident has been with Ghost since the octopus\u2019 arrival at the aquarium in 2024, when she was acquired from a vetted scientific collector.<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t take long for Hernandez to see that Ghost had a special personality.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrying to get work done with an octopus around is a challenge,\u201d Hernandez joked, telling me how Ghost likes to steal tools and climb on her when she goes into the tank to do maintenance. \u201cEven though they\u2019re solitary, they seek out interaction with us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hernandez described Ghost as a playful, mischievous little cephalopod who loves playtime even more than food.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of times I\u2019ll be playing with her and I\u2019ll say, \u2018Hey, here\u2019s some of your food,\u2019\u201d Hernandez said. \u201cAnd she will toss the food aside because she doesn\u2019t want her eating time to get in the way of her playtime.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is why she\u2019s so beloved by us all,\u201d she added. \u201cShe sought out human connection.\u201d<\/p>\n
She\u2019s a sly one, too. When Hernandez makes her weekly scuba dive into Ghost\u2019s enclosure for cleaning, Ghost likes to unzip her booties or take off her face mask and snag the objects for herself.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mask is wildly entertaining for an octopus,\u201d Hernandez said. \u201cShe loves to take that off, and I can\u2019t work without a mask underwater, so I have to stand there and wait for her to give it back.\u201d<\/p>\n
That said, Ghost can be cooperative. When she needs to be weighed, for instance, she\u2019s trained to slither her little body into a basket so that Hernandez can lift her out of the water and put her on a scale.<\/p>\n
Sometimes, Hernandez said, Ghost will hold her hand while she works \u2014 one soft tentacle curled around a human palm.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve worked with a lot of octopuses. They\u2019re all very special and I love them all dearly,\u201d she said, \u201cbut I think Ghost definitely holds a really special place in my heart, and that one\u2019s going to be a hard loss.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Remarkably bright\u2019 creatures<\/p>\n
As far as boneless creatures go, octopuses are unusually intelligent \u2014 arguably the smartest invertebrates on Earth, according to experts. They have been known to solve mazes, open screw-top jars and use tools.<\/p>\n
In 2016,\u00a0 Inky, a common New Zealand octopus at the National Aquarium of New Zealand, escaped his tank by squeezing through a gap in the lid, crawling across the floor and slipping down a 6-inch diameter drain pipe to the ocean.<\/p>\n
Fun fact: Every suction cup on an octopus\u2019s tentacles has its own ability to taste and feel. In fact, researchers say, each sucker can detect textures and chemicals, and even distinguish between familiar and unfamiliar objects.<\/p>\n
That means when Ghost wraps her arms around a toy (Hernandez said her favorite is a clear plastic hamster ball that she loves to pry open when it\u2019s stuffed with treats), she\u2019s not just holding it; she\u2019s studying it, tasting it and learning what it is in a way no human hand ever could.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery single octopus is different, which makes them really fun and challenging to work with,\u201d Hernandez said. \u201cSome can be shy and more reserved; others are very boisterous and want to play and interact. We really bond with these animals.\u201d<\/p>\n
With such a close bond, you\u2019d think Ghost\u2019s transition to senescence would take an emotional toll on her keepers.<\/p>\n
But Hernandez said it is all part of the animal\u2019s life cycle.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou sort of build up an understanding for it,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s always a sad time, but there\u2019s also something beautiful about the natural life cycle of an animal.\u201d<\/p>\n
The internet, of course, is an emotional wreck. Ghost has become somewhat of a social media celebrity since the aquarium released a post on Sept. 8 announcing her senescence.<\/p>\n
The post garnered thousands of views and made national and international news, with fans expressing their love for the eight-armed superstar. One person said they had Ghost tattooed on their arm; others said they had Ghost emblazoned on their clothing.<\/p>\n
Looking forward<\/p>\n
The aquarium welcomed the publicity.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis story about her end of life is very natural,\u201d Nate Jaros, the vice president of animal care for the Aquarium, said in a CBS News video online. \u201cThis is something that we predict, that we come to terms with \u2014 it is normal and healthy,\u201d<\/p>\n
In an email, Jaros told me he hopes Ghost\u2019s story serves as inspiration. There are other octopuses currently housed at the aquarium, including a young giant Pacific octopus that arrived shortly before Ghost entered senescence. People can see her in the aquarium\u2019s second floor Northern Pacific Gallery.<\/p>\n
\u201cGhost is beloved by staff, visitors and those who learned about her online,\u201d Jaros said. \u201cWe know people care about these intelligent animals as much as we do. We hope this inspires more people to care about marine life and become ocean stewards.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is a different kind of ghost story. It\u2019s about an octopus. Her impending death. And the love…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30250,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132,22295,22296,16227],"class_list":{"0":"post-30249","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-long-beach","8":"tag-long-beach","9":"tag-long-beach-headlines","10":"tag-long-beach-news","11":"tag-tbr-kindness","12":"tag-tbr-news","13":"tag-the-beach-reporter"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/p>\n![\"Ghost](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/TBR-L-FAGC-COL-1030-03.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Ghost\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/TBR-L-FAGC-COL-1030-04.jpg\")
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