Giant Pacific octopus
| Giant Pacific octopus Temporal range: Pleistocene to recent | |
|---|---|
| E. dofleini observed off Point Piños, California, at a depth of 65 m (213 ft) | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Mollusca |
| Class: | Cephalopoda |
| Order: | Octopoda |
| Family: | Enteroctopodidae |
| Genus: | Enteroctopus |
| Species: | E. dofleini |
| Binomial name | |
| Enteroctopus dofleini (Wülker, 1910) | |
| range of E. dofleini | |
| Synonyms | |
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The giant Pacific octopus (Enteroctopus dofleini), also known as the North Pacific giant octopus, is a large marine cephalopod belonging to the genus Enteroctopus and Enteroctopodidae family. Its spatial distribution encompasses much of the coastal North Pacific, from the Mexican state of Baja California, north along the United States' West Coast (California, Oregon, Washington and Alaska, including the Aleutian Islands), and British Columbia, Canada; across the northern Pacific to the Russian Far East (Kamchatka, Sea of Okhotsk), south to the East China Sea, the Yellow Sea, the Sea of Japan, Japan's Pacific east coast, and around the Korean Peninsula. It can be found from the intertidal zone down to 2,000 m (6,600 ft), and is best-adapted to colder, oxygen- and nutrient-rich waters. It is one of the largest octopus species on earth and can often be found in aquariums and research facilities in addition to the ocean. E. dofleini play an important role in maintaining the health and biodiversity of deep sea ecosystems, cognitive research, and the fishing industry.