The new site is the second gloomy octopus settlement
Mating is traditionally the only interaction that occurs between males and females, and once it's over, the octopuses go their separate ways. While little is known about the solitary lives of octopuses, a few octopus settlements—areas where multiple individuals congregate and communicate with one another—have been found in recent years. The newly-discovered settlement of gloomy octopuses, whose range extends from the waters off Sydney to New Zealand, supports the idea that octopuses can congregate and socialize under the right conditions.
"At both sites there were features that we think may have made the congregation possible—namely several seafloor rock outcroppings dotting an otherwise flat and featureless area," said Stephanie Chancellor, a Ph.D. student in biological sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago and an author on the paper. "In addition to the rock outcroppings, octopuses who had been inhabiting the area had built up piles of shells left over from creatures they ate, most notably clams and scallops. These shell piles, or middens, were further sculpted to create dens, making these octopuses true environmental engineers."
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-09-evidence-octupuses-loners.html#jCp
