First octopus farm would be a ‘living hell’

Animal welfare groups say site being built in Canary Islands risks aggression and cannibalism in tanks

THE world’s first octopus farm being built in the Canary Islands has been criticised as “cruel” over its plan to freeze the animals to death.

The farm would produce around one million octopuses for food every year, despite concerns over animal welfare, according to plans revealed by the groups Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) and Eurogroup for Animals.

The plan, from Nueva Pescanova, the Spanish seafood company, shows that the octopuses would be kept in tanks shared with others and under constant light, when in nature they are solitary and prefer dark conditions.

The octopuses would be killed by being placed in water at a temperature of -3C, a method already used commercially to slaughter fish and which studies have shown results in a slow, stressful death. The World Organisation for Animal Health says the “ice slurry” method “results in poor fish welfare” and the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) has argued that the technique should be banned unless fish are stunned beforehand.

The animal rights groups also say that confining octopuses in barren underwater tanks will cause the animals suffering and risk aggression, territorialism and cannibalism.

According to a report by CIWF, experimental trials to farm octopuses suggest that the mortality rate in these systems would be around 20 per cent. The Canary Islands’ General Directorate of Fishing must decide whether to approve the ground-breaking facility, set to comprise around 1,000 tanks in the port of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

The animal rights groups have called on the authority not to license the farm and also asked the European Union to step in by banning such facilities.

Elena Lara, of CIWF, said the octopus farm “will inflict unnecessary suffering on these intelligent, sentient and fascinating creatures, which need to explore and engage with the environment as part of their natural behaviour”. She also noted that octopuses’ carnivorous diets require huge quantities of animal protein to sustain, “contributing to overfishing at a time when fish stocks are already under immense pressure”.

Reineke Hameleers, CEO at Eurogroup for Animals, added: “We’re calling on the EU to include a ban on octopus farming before it ever sees the light of day, in order to avoid plunging more sentient beings into a living hell.”

Nueva Pescanova announced in 2019 that it had achieved a breakthrough in research that meant it could be possible to farm and breed octopuses in communal tanks. It plans to supply international markets, including the US and Japan, with 3,300 tons of octopus a year, which CIWF calculated would mean between 10 and 15 octopuses living in each cubic metre of tank space.

Eurogroup for Animals told The Daily Telegraph that Nueva Pescanova had applied for EU funding. “This would be an inappropriate usage of EU public funding that is meant to drive sustainable development,” said Ms Hameleers.

Nueva Pescanova did not respond to a request for comment.