Commercial octopus farming, currently in developmental stages on multiple continents, would have a negative ripple effect on sustainability and animal welfare, concludes a team of researchers in a newly published analysis.
Commercial octopus farming, currently in developmental stages on multiple continents, would have a negative ripple effect on sustainability and animal welfare, concludes a team of researchers in a newly published analysis.
“We are all living during the rapid domestication of aquatic species and research is almost entirely around the question of which aquatic animals we can farm, rather than which animals we should farm,” says Jennifer Jacquet, an assistant professor in New York University’s Department of Environmental Studies and the lead author of the work, which appears in the journal Issues in Science and Technology. “Universities and companies are investing time and money into farming octopus, which we believe is a big mistake. Mass producing octopus would repeat many of the same mistakes we made on land in terms of high environmental and animal welfare impacts, and be in some ways worse because we have to feed octopus other animals.”
The analysis, which notes that nearly 190 countries currently farm approximately 550 aquatic species, is co-authored with Peter Godfrey-Smith of the University of Sydney, Becca Franks, a visiting assistant professor in NYU's Department of Environmental Studies, and Walter Sanchez-Suarez, a postdoctoral researcher from Spain working at the University of Sussex.
Spain, along with Mexico, Japan, and China are increasing scientific efforts to build the knowledge to scale-up commercial octopus farming. For instance, Nissui, a seafood company based in Japan, is advancing octopus farming and predicting a fully farmed market-ready octopus by 2020.
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