I love this place, but don't be fooled.  This was the only day that it did not rain on my trip!  The most amazing thing that I saw was the sunstars literally pulling a dead octopus apart.  If there is one thing that I would fear on the bottom of the ocean, it would be starfish - they look safe enough, but they move rapidly across the bottom and devour anything that they can.  The rest of the critters are what you would expect to see  - wolf eels, crabs, rockfish, plumose anemones.....lots of fun stuff to interact with, including some very fit and well Giant Pacific Octopus, one of which tried to take my light away from me.

 

With regard to the dead octopus, the females will stay on their nests fanning water over their eggs until they hatch.  The female will not eat and will die shortly after the eggs hatch and either they will leave the nest or the dead body will be pulled out by crabs or starfish.  Check out the pictures.