This past spring Highline College’s Marine Science and Technology Center welcomed a new octopus to its tanks.

Percy is a Pacific Red Octopus who was found washed up on the shore of Redondo beach during a low tide. She moved into the aquarium shortly after, where she teaches the public about her species.

“Red Octopuses are the smaller cousin of the Giant Pacific,” Rus Higley, director of the MaST center stated in an interview. The breed generally lives between 18 and 24 months, and can be found from the southern Gulf of California up to the Gulf of Alaska.

Higley estimates that Percy is roughly a year old, and has an arm span of roughly eight inches. Putting her on the smaller end of the breed.

Despite her small stature, Percy exhibits a large personality “One of the most feisty Red Octopus we’ve ever had,” Higley said. “She’s a fun little one. She’s on the cool spectrum of Red Octopus, she’s pretty cool.”

Her strong disposition showcases her unique personality, something commonly seen in the Giant Pacifics but not the Reds.

Percy joined the MaST Center’s tanks in an unusual way. “She was actually being attacked by a seagull, she was on a low tide and caught out in the open,” Higley explained.

Percy washed up on the shores of Redondo where the MaST center is located and was rescued by staff; under their care Percy recovered and adapted to her new life at the aquarium.

Percy’s release back to the wild has not been decided upon yet. “We probably will release her but if we do we actually need a permit,” Higley explained. MaST center staff are still determining if and when to release Percy back to her home waters of the Puget Sound.

At the MaST Center Percy represents her breed as an educational ambassador, teaching visitors about her role in the Puget Sound and threats that the Red Octopus faces in the wild. Helping to connect people to the cause she represents, she spurs them to action.

“Realizing that this animal is looking back at you, that it’s thinking, that it sees you…that really helps,” Higley explained when describing the role of animal ambassadors, and how they move visitors to protect her home, the Puget Sound.

The MaST center is home to roughly 250 native species of the Puget Sound, held in fifteen tanks full of roughly 3000 gallons of flow-through sea water.

You can visit Percy here on Discovery Days every Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., where she remains a popular attraction pulling visitors from all over the Seattle area.