There’s always something fishy going on at the Two Oceans Aquarium for Flow to get involved in – and today saw the spotlight fall on South Africa’s answer to Paul the “psychic” German octopus. Jabulani is the only common octopus on display at the Aquarium in Cape Town; this morning he was given the chance to stretch his soothsaying legs (all eight of them) and predict who will win Sunday’s FIFA World Cup™ final between Spain and the Netherlands.
Who’s he tipped to walk away with the World Cup Trophy? Spain!
It’s all part of the fun fringe of this very serious football tournament. The Aquarium decided South Africa needed its own cephalopod prophet after news about Paul and his spot-on predictions spread around the world. The German octopus, which lives in the Sea Life Aquarium in Oberhausen, correctly predicted all six of his country’s World Cup matches so far – and has foreseen another win (albeit a bittersweet one) for his team in Saturday’s third-place playoff against Uruguay.
On Wednesday, a blog about Paul drew a record number of visitors to the Two Oceans Aquarium’s website – it’s already been read over 5 000 times!
Today, Jabulani made the news with his pick, by electing to unscrew a jar bearing the Spanish national flag before opening another decorated with the Netherlands’ flag. Why was he so keen to unscrew the jars? Because each contained a tasty shrimp treat! Paul made his predictions in a similar fashion, by opening boxes bearing the flags of competing football nations.
Flow writer Ingrid Sinclair was on hand to cover the event for the Aquarium’s website – and was among members of the local and international media who watched Jabulani make history as Africa’s first eight-legged psychic. Ingrid was also privy to the planned prediction long before it happened.
“It was so exciting being part of this top secret, high-profile event, attended by esteemed members of the media and handled with such a delightful sense of light-hearted fun by the Aquarium’s staff,” she says.
It remains to be seen whether Jabulani is as prescient as Paul has proven to be, but his prediction has definitely added a bit of African flair to the quirky story of octopus oracles.