Octoculture: why is the world’s first octopus farm so controversial?

The creatures consume about three times their weight in food a day, and are fed on mussels, prawns, crab and fish which could less wastefully be eaten by humans. They are highly territorial and anti-social by nature: they live in solitary dens, eat rival octopuses, and even mate from a distance (males extend a single arm with a sperm packet towards females). But perhaps the biggest criticism of farming them centres on their unique brains.

What’s unusual about their brains?

There is no clear distinction between the octopus’s brain and its body. They have half a billion neurons – about as many as a dog (humans have one hundred billion) – two-thirds of which are in their arms. Each arm can intelligently act on its own, is capable of taste and smell, and exhibits short-term memory. Even a surgically detached arm can reach and grasp, avoid painful stimuli and, like fully formed octopuses, change colour; yet the central brain retains executive control of the arms.

Last year, a UK government-commissioned review by the London School of Economics concluded that octopuses and squid are fully sentient, like vertebrates – i.e. they have the capacity to have feelings, such as pleasure, pain, distress or harm. The new Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill reflects this. The review also suggested a pre-emptive ban on farming octopus.

How intelligent are octopuses?

They’re amazingly bright: in the lab, they’ve been shown to be able to navigate mazes and unscrew jars and child-proof bottles to get food. They can solve problems, learn, use tools, and even show a capacity for mimicry, deception and – possibly – humour.

One study showed that once they’ve solved a novel problem – unscrewing a jar, say – they can retain a memory of the solution for at least five months. Research has also shown they can recognise individual humans and will respond differently to different people, greeting some with a caress of the arms, and spraying others with ink through their siphons.

What do advocates of farming say?

They point to soaring demand: between 2010 and 2019, the global trade rose in value from $1.30bn to $2.72bn – though landings only rose by 9% in that time. “If we want to continue consuming octopus we have to look for an alternative… because fisheries have already reached their limit,” said Eduardo Almansa of Spain’s Oceanography Institute, which developed technology used by Nueva Pescanova.

And octopuses do have some characteristics that make them attractive for aquaculture: their lifespans are short (usually one or two years), and they grow quickly.

What’s the likely upshot?

Plans for the farm are going ahead, but activists are pushing hard against it. “These animals are amazing,” said Dr Elena Lara of Compassion in World Farming. “So to put them in barren tanks… it’s wrong for them.” Popular awareness of octopuses’ intelligence and curiosity has been raised thanks to documentaries such as My Octopus Teacher. 

“People have this weird love affair with octopuses,” says biologist Rich Ross at the California Academy of Sciences, in San Francisco, who suggests double standards are at work. “I know those who would never eat them but have no qualms about eating pigs, and there’s abundant evidence that pigs are highly intelligent.”

Article source: https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/environment/956056/octoculture-world-first-octopus-farm-controversial