There’s a vacancy at the inner-active tank just inside the doors of the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport. Velma, the latest unofficial octopus greeter, has been released back into the wild after five months in captivity. Carried inside a plastic tote bin, the octopus was released Wednesday, Aug. 20, into Yaquina Bay. The HMSC is now looking for a new octopus. Normally, fishermen provide the octopus after one is inadvertently brought up in a net and then given to the research facility at South Beach. However, officials are opening their search to anyone who discovers an octopus.
