World's First Octopus Farm Planned For 2023 Is Raising Serious Ethical Concerns

The Spanish aquaculture business Nueva Pescanova has been prompted by escalating demand in the world cephalopod market to move ahead with its ambitions to launch the first octopus farm sometime in 2019.

The project's supporters assert that the breeding initiatives would provide local jobs while reducing the strain on overburdened fisheries. Environmentalists, zoologists, and ethicists aren't persuaded and warn that there are many good reasons not to cultivate octopuses.

In theory, octopus farms make sense since many species that are often consumed can reproduce a lot, gain weight fast, and reach maturity in a year or two.

However, the notion of octopus aquaculture comes with a long list of expenses and issues.

They prefer to consume live prey since they are finicky eaters, especially when young. Octopuses don't perform well in captivity either since they can become hostile to the point of self-mutilation when confined with one another. In addition, octopuses are known escape artists that may discover a way out with the slightest provocation.

Significant environmental problems remain with regard to aquaculture in general. Despite substantial advancements over the past two decades, the business continues to be a source of pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and aquatic pests and illnesses.

Companies like Nueva Pescanova approach these challenges pragmatically and anticipate using science to overcome them, but they are notoriously secretive about exactly how this could ultimately manifest.

A deeper philosophical problem, however, may be more difficult to resolve.

Research over the years has given us the notion that octopuses are highly clever creatures with a neurological system that is fundamentally different from our own and are also capable of feeling emotions like anticipation and anguish.

Due to these factors, a growing number of nations, including the UK, Norway, and Austria, are now enacting animal rights legislation that provides safeguards for octopuses and other cephalopods.

The king of seafood meals is the octopus in Galicia, on Spain's northwest coast. Local fishers compete on a global market where roughly 630,000 metric tons of the animal are anticipated to be shipped by 2025, up from just over 380,000 tons a few years ago.

By 2026, Nueva Pescanova, which has its research center in Galicia, plans to cash in by offering the market 3,000 tons of reasonably priced octopus flesh yearly, investing 65 million euros (about US$73 million) to do so.

David Chavarrias, the center's director, asserts that they have already discovered answers to issues that make octopuse farming challenging, such as their propensity to grow hostile when confined.

According to Chavarrias, "We have not discovered cannibalistic behavior in any of our tribes."

The dispute is not about proper nutrition, but rather about culture, commerce, and gastronomy because the biggest consumers of octopus flesh also happen to be mostly wealthy, food-secure nations.

Given enough time and money, sustainable, lucrative octopus farming may ultimately become a reality: Anyone who can corner the market on ready-cooked supermarket pulpo a la gallega will make a lot of money off of cheap tentacles.

But we can't use studies to determine whether it's worthwhile to cause misery to an animal that shares so little (but so much) with humans.