Thank you Manuela!

Thank you for visiting the Marine Biological Laboratory on your recent trip to Woods Hole and thank you for your concern about the welfare of the octopus located in our Exhibit Center. The health of the animals in our care is of utmost concern to us. Our highly-trained and experienced animal care specialists evaluate the health of all animals at the laboratory daily to make their stay with us as comfortable as possible. In the wild, many octopus species, including the species on display in the exhibit center, Octopus vulgaris, live in dens and prefer to inhabit small spaces. For this species the tank size in the exhibit center is appropriate and we ensure this is the case through our daily monitoring. Cephalopods (octopus, squid, cuttlefish, nautilus) can provide unique scientific value and MBL researchers are embarking on a groundbreaking new effort to culture cephalopods in the laboratory with the goal of creating a new model organism. You can learn more about this work and all MBL research by taking a free MBL tour (mbl.edu/tours) or by visiting mbl.edu/cephalopods.