Smuggling for fun and profit

Escape artist: Inky the octopus swimming in a tank at the National Aquarium of New Zealand in Napier, New Zealand. Inky the octopus escaped the Aquarium for the Pacific Ocean, according to Fairfax New Zealand. – AP

INKY, an octopus shaped roughly the size of a rugby ball, made an audacious escape through a narrow pipe at New Zealand’s National Aquarium, reports said, with the “great escape artist” returning to the ocean.

The male octopus, given to the Napier aquarium two years ago after being rescued from a crayfish pot, made a dash for freedom by slipping through a small gap in his enclosure, sliding across a wet floor and squeezing through a 150mm-diameter pipe, Fairfax New Zealand reported on Tuesday.