[imagesource:netflix]

If there was one thing that the critically-acclaimed, award-winning, much-loved South African documentary My Octopus Teacher taught us, it’s that we love octopuses and they must be protected at all costs.

Calamari is yummy, but I have struggled to stomach it since seeing the eight-legged creature capable of friendship and wonder, much like a person. I don’t know about you, but I don’t snack on friends.

So you can imagine the gasp I heaved out when I saw news of a company releasing the first proposal of its kind; to farm and slaughter millions of octopuses with rather cruel methods.

The big fishing company Nueva Pescanova plans to farm a million octopuses a year in the Canary Islands and slaughter them for food using ice water. The BBC reported on the plan after being given details about it by the animal rights group Eurogroup for Animals, noting how this would be the first octopus farm in the world if granted the go-ahead.

The welfare of the famously intelligent creatures has now become a real concern for scientists and ocean lovers all over the world, with many calling the proposed icy water slaughtering method “cruel”.

While octopuses caught in the wild using pots, lines and traps are eaten all over the world, including in the Mediterranean and in Asia and Latin America, they have never been intensively farmed before:

The race to discover the secret to breeding them in captivity has been going on for decades. It’s difficult as the larvae only eat live food and need a carefully controlled environment, but Nueva Pescanova announced in 2019 that it had made a scientific breakthrough.

But, but, but…

That captivating story is the least of it, honestly, and clearly, people all over are really upset with this company’s gall. I mean the National Museum of London lists eight ways that the creature “surprises” biologists with their abilities, including cleverness, using tools, and the ability to recognise people.

The molluscs are also proven to feel pain and pleasure, so Nueva’s plan to keep the animals in crowded tanks, sometimes under constant light, (they’re solitary animals who enjoy the dark!) only to kill them by steeping them in -3C water, is close to inhumane.

Currently there are no welfare rules in place, as octopuses have never been commercially farmed before. However studies have shown that this method of slaughtering fish using ‘ice slurry’ causes a slow, stressful death. The World Organisation for Animal Health says it “results in poor fish welfare” and the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) – the leading farmed seafood certification scheme – is proposing a ban unless fish are stunned beforehand.

Some supermarkets have already moved away from selling fish that have been killed using ice, including Tesco and Morrisons.

Prof. Peter Tse, a cognitive neuroscientist at Dartmouth University, told the BBC that “to kill them with ice would be a slow death … it would be very cruel and should not be allowed.”

There are efforts to lobby the Canary Islands authorities to ban the project. Elena Lara, with Compassion in World Farming, is among the lobbyists, saying that this idea will “inflict unnecessary suffering on these intelligent, sentient, and fascinating creatures”.

Online petitions are also one way to join the effort to stop the octopus farm.

[source:bbc]