--- description: The Seattle Aquarium cancelled its annual Valentine's Day octopus mating session out of fear that the love might devolve into cannibalism title: You'll Never Guess Why an Aquarium Canceled an Octopus Mating Event image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Newsfeed](/tag/time-section-newsfeed/) ## Newsfeed Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # You'll Never Guess Why an Aquarium Canceled an Octopus Mating Event  by [Katie Reilly](/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Feb 15, 2016 2:20 PM CUT  by [Katie Reilly](/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Feb 15, 2016 2:20 PM CUT The Seattle Aquarium [cancelled its annual Valentine’s Day viewing party](http://komonews.com/news/local/aquarium-cancels-octopus-sex-act-due-to-cannibalism-concerns "undefined") of an octopus mating session out of fear that the love might devolve into cannibalism. The aquarium’s male octopus, Kong, weighs 70 pounds and is roughly twice the size of the female octopuses, who weigh 30 to 40 pounds, KOMO 4 reports. Aquarium staff will instead release Kong back into the Puget Sound on Monday afternoon, an event that will actually prolong his life for some time because an octopus dies shortly after mating. \[[_KOMO 4_](http://komonews.com/news/local/aquarium-cancels-octopus-sex-act-due-to-cannibalism-concerns "undefined")\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4224714/seattle-aquarium-octopus-mating-cancelled/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4224714/seattle-aquarium-octopus-mating-cancelled/"},"headline":"You'll Never Guess Why an Aquarium Canceled an Octopus Mating Event","datePublished":"2016-02-15T14:20:34.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:30:02.025Z","description":"We humans don't have this problem","url":"https://time.com/4224714/seattle-aquarium-octopus-mating-cancelled/","keywords":["Newsfeed","animals","Washington"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4224714/seattle-aquarium-octopus-mating-cancelled/","name":"You'll Never Guess Why an Aquarium Canceled an Octopus Mating Event"}}]}] ```