Octopus farms raise huge animal welfare concerns - and they're unsustainable too
When you imagine an octopus's world, you might well see a curious creature in a complex undersea environment.
Yet the reality of life for some octopuses is existence within a barren tank, inescapably surrounded by humans and other octopuses. This is the bleak world of octopus farming—and soon there could be new commercial farms on the horizon.
Recently a Spanish company announced its intention to open a new industrial octopus farm, with a goal of producing 3,000 tonnes of octopus a year. This raises huge concerns for animal welfare—because there can be no doubt that octopuses are complex and intelligent animals.
Wild octopuses are masters of camouflage, rapidly changing their skin patterns to blend in with their backgrounds. Sometimes they cover themselves with shells or even carry coconut shells to hide from predators. And they are well-known escape artists in captivity, able to squeeze through extraordinarily small spaces.
They may even have a mischievous streak, with frequent reports of octopuses squirting water at unsuspecting visitors and caregivers. One octopus in Germany was renowned for repeatedly squirting water at the lights, seemingly aware that this would short-circuit the electricity and cause a commotion.
In a laboratory setting too, they have shown themselves adept at solving mazes and other puzzles to acquire a food reward.
And octopuses are not only intelligent. They are also sentient, capable of experiencing feelings such as pain and pleasure.
We recently produced a report for the UK government, after analysing over 300 scientific studies. We found strong evidence in favour of sentience in cephalopod molluscs (including octopuses, squid and cuttlefish) and decapod crustaceans (such as crabs and lobsters).
For many scientists, our findings merely reaffirmed what they already believed: that octopuses are conscious animals with feelings and inner lives, just like vertebrates.
For us, all of this sits uneasily with the idea of octopus farming.
While octopus has long been an occasional menu item for many, demand for octopus meat is growing rapidly. And that has led to the proposals to start farming octopuses on an industrial scale. As well as Spain, there are similar efforts in Mexico, Chile, China and Japan.
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