A plan to build the world’s first octopus farm in the Canary Islands has generated deep concern among scientists and environmentalists over the welfare of the creatures renowned for their intelligence and solitary lives.
Nueva Pescanova, a Spanish multinational specialising in the capture, cultivation, production and marketing of seafood, sent planning proposal documents to the Canary Islands’ General Directorate of Fishing.
Belgium-based animal protection lobby, Eurogroup for Animals (EFA), obtained the documents which state that once fully operational, the proposed farm would produce around 3,000 tonnes of octopus annually – which equates to approximately 1 million octopuses, or three times the number currently caught in the wild by Spanish fisheries.
Nueva Pescanova’s plans reveal that the sea creatures would be kept in tanks with other octopuses, sometimes under constant light – a technique used to increase reproduction. If the plans go ahead, there will be around 1,000 communal tanks in a two-storey building in the port of Las Palmas in Gran Canaria.
EFA CEO, Reineke Hameleers, told FoodBev: “The octopuses will be kept in entirely artificial and crowded tanks with high stocking densities of 10-15 octopuses per cubic metre. The latter is a prerequisite for this type of land-based aquaculture system to be profitable. During the reproductive process, they will expose the octopuses to 24-hour periods of light to speed up production. The described living conditions are deeply troubling for keeping these solitary, inquisitive and light-averse animals [in].”
According to EFA, keeping the creatures in communal tanks will be detrimental to their welfare and pose the risk of aggression, territorialism and cannibalism, due to octopuses’ naturally solitary nature.
On the other hand, in the leaked plans, which were seen by the BBC, Nueva Pescanova claims that it has achieved a level of “domestication” in the species and that they do not “show important signs of cannibalism or competition for food”.
The company conducted research on the species’ co-habitation in captivity in collaboration with a number of institutions, including the Institute of Marine Research, the Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research, and the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO).
Nueva Pescanova says that population density studies developed by IEO have “proven how octopuses adapt normally to group living environments without aggression due to territoriality”.
Slaughter method
Nueva Pescanova’s proposed facility would kill the octopuses through a process known as ‘ice slurry,’ which involves submersion in a mixture of ice and water – where the octopuses are left to die through lack of oxygen.
EFA claims that this is “a highly..inhumane method scientifically proven to cause considerable pain, fear and suffering as well as a prolonged death,” while UK charity Humane Slaughter Association also lists death by ice slurry as an unacceptable method of slaughter.
Additionally, the European Food Safety Authority discourages its use for several fish species and the EU Commission is drafting new legislation to end the practice in parts of the aquaculture industry.
Protecting the species
Proponents, including Nueva Pescanova, argue that farming octopus offers a sustainable method of producing it for consumption, and would reduce pressure on wild populations.
A spokesperson for the company, cited by The Guardian, said that farming these creatures is necessary “to protect a species of great environmental and human value”.
Furthermore, on Nueva Pescanova’s website, the seafood supplier says that it is “ firmly committed to aquaculture as a method to reduce pressure on fishing grounds and ensure sustainable, safe, healthy and controlled resources, complementing fishing”.
In 2020, National Geographic reported that the global catch of octopuses totals 420,000 metric tons per year.
Feeding issues
Campaigners’ fears include that the octopuses will be fed with commercial feeds containing fish oil and fishmeal as the main ingredients.
“These feeds are highly unsustainable and have been driving overexploitation of the ocean’s resources,” explained EFA’s CEO, Hameleers. “The aquaculture industry has been unsuccessful in resolving this huge environmental issue, one they have been grappling with for decades.” Hameleers believes that introducing industrial farming of another carnivorous animal would be irresponsible and could drive further overfishing.
The number of octopuses caught each year is over ten times higher than the number in 1950, according to the BBC report. Nueva Pescanova stated that “aquaculture is the solution to ensuring a sustainable yield” and that farming would “repopulate the octopus species in the future”. However, conservationists are not convinced – many believe that farming octopus is inhumane and could lower the price of the food, bringing with it a new wave of markets and dangers.
© FoodBev Media Ltd 2024
