Campaign group Compassion in World Farming says the project will ‘inflict unnecessary suffering on these intelligent, sentient and fascinating creatures’. Photo / 123rf, File
Campaign group Compassion in World Farming says the project will ‘inflict unnecessary suffering on these intelligent, sentient and fascinating creatures’. Photo / 123rf, File
The world’s first octopus farm being built in Spain’s Canary Islands has been criticised as “cruel” over its plans 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 Compassion in World Farming (CiWF) and Eurogroup for Animals groups.
The plans, from Spanish seafood company Nueva Pescanova, show that the octopuses would be kept in tanks shared with other octopuses and under constant light when in nature the animals are solitary and prefer dark conditions.
The octopuses would be killed by being placed in water at a temperature of minus 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.
Octopus with saffron-whipped potato. Photo / Babiche Martens, File
Animal rights groups also say that confining octopuses in barren underwater tanks will cause the animals to suffer and risk aggression, territoriality, and even 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 1000 communal tanks in the port of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
The two animal rights groups have called on the Canary Islands authority not to license the octopus farm and also asked the European Union to step in by banning such facilities.
Elena Lara, research manager at 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”.
Calls for EU to ban octopus farming
“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,” said Reineke Hameleers, CEO at Eurogroup for Animals.
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. The animals adapted to group life, the company said, “without territorial aggression”.
Opponents claim confining octopuses in barren underwater tanks leads to suffering and risks aggression, territorialism, and cannibalism. Photo / Supplied, File
The company plans to supply international markets including the US, Japan and South Korea with 3,000 tonnes 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 Telegraph that Nueva Pescanova had applied for EU funding from the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility to support its octopus farming project.
“This would be an inappropriate usage of EU public funding that is meant to drive sustainable development,” said Hameleers.
Nueva Pescanova did not respond to The Telegraph’s request for comment on the allegations of cruelty surrounding the planned farm.
