Plans for the world’s first octopus farm in a Brits holiday hotspot have been met with fury amid animal welfare fears for the highly intelligent creatures.
The farm in Spain’s Canary Islands, slated to open this year, would use industrial tanks to raise a million octopuses annually for food.
But the proposals have sparked an outcry among scientists and activists who say the eight-limbed mollusc - clever enough to use tools and known to feel pain and pleasure - would suffer under intensive farming methods.
These include a “cruel” and slow proposed icy water slaughtering method which expert studies have claimed is stressful for dying sea animals and “results in poor fish welfare”.
Some UK supermarkets like Tesco and Morrisons have already shifted away from selling fish killed through so-called “ice slurry” techniques amid the welfare concerns.
Demand for octopus as a food delicacy around the world has surged tenfold since 1950 - but they’re usually caught in the wild, and have never been bred in captivity for farming purposes before.
Speaking to the BBC, Professor Peter Tse, a neurologist at Dartmouth University, said ice slurry killing was “a slow death”, adding: “It would be very cruel and should not be allowed.”
Leaked documents of the blueprints for the farm, produced by Spanish multinational Nueva Pescanova, suggest each communal tank will contain around 1000 octopuses in a two-storey building in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria.
But as well as being very intelligent, octopuses are famously solitary and antisocial creatures.
Dr Jonathan Birch, associate professor at London School of Economics’ Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science, said:: “Large numbers of octopuses should never be kept together in close proximity. Doing this leads to stress, conflict and high mortality.”
He said Nueva Pescanova’s leaked estimate of a 10-15 per cent mortality rate in tanks “should not be acceptable for any kind of farming”.
In 2020, Oscar-winning documentary My Octopus Teacher brought global attention to the advanced intelligence of octopuses.
They’ve been known to use seashells for protection, steal food from traps set by fishermen, escape from aquariums and even decorate their homes.
In 2021, the UK Government recognised the creatures as “sentient beings” in animal welfare legislation.
A spokesman for the Spanish seafood firm said: “The levels of welfare requirements for the production of octopus or any other animal in our farming farms guarantee the correct handling of the animals.
“The slaughter, likewise, involves proper handling that avoids any pain or suffering to the animal.”
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