Today, the project in the Canary Islands has been delayed. It is still awaiting environmental approvals, and it is now unclear when, or if, the first octopus farm is expected to begin operations.

While the farm is stuck, the debate around the project is very much on fire: should octopuses – intelligent, solitary animals with complex needs – be farmed at all?

The octopus problem

For Elena Lara, senior research and policy advisor at the animal welfare organisation Compassion in World Farming, the problem begins with the animal itself.

“They have cognitive abilities, they are intelligent. They interact a lot with the environment in the wild,” Lara told me.

There is strong scientific evidence that octopuses are sentient animals – meaning they may be able to experience a broad range of feelings, from pain and boredom to joy and pleasure.

But that's not even the strongest argument against caging an octopus. The more pressing issue, Lara says, is that octopuses appear to be – perhaps even more so than some of the other animals we farm – fundamentally unsuited to intensive farming conditions.

“Octopuses are solitary and territorial animals. They are not social animals,” Lara explained. “If you are planning to put this very solitary animal in a crowded tank with other octopuses, it's going to cause a lot of stress.”

That would have severe consequences: “This huge stress is what can lead them to cannibalism or very violent situations.”

Best way to kill an octopus

Then there is the issue of how farmed octopuses would die.

Nueva Pescanova's proposed farm planned to use ice slurry, placing live octopuses in ice-water tanks to lower their body temperature until death.

Animal welfare organisations argue that this method will result in prolonged pain and suffering, as octopuses may remain conscious for several minutes before losing consciousness.

There are currently no internationally recognised and scientifically validated methods for the humane slaughter of octopuses. Alternative methods, such as electrical stunning, have been discussed, but Lara says none have yet been validated as humane for octopuses.

“If you don't have a humane slaughter method in practice, you should not be thinking of killing millions of animals per year,” she said.

Who needs this anyway?

Around 350,000 to 370,000 tonnes of wild octopus are caught globally each year, according to data from the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

The biggest markets are in Asia – South Korea, Japan, and China – and southern Europe. In Spain, Italy, Greece, and Portugal, octopus is part of traditional Mediterranean cuisine and considered a delicacy.

Lessons learned

Feed is also a concern. Octopuses are carnivores. Farming them means feeding one marine predator with other marine animals.

Salmon farming – another carnivore – has long struggled with its reliance on wild-caught fish in feed. To farm one kilo of salmon, for example, it takes three kilos of wild fish. For octopuses, “the fish-in-fish-out ratio is worse,” Lara pointed out.

Nueva Pescanova's proposed farm is designed to produce around 3,000 tonnes of octopus a year – roughly one million animals. Compassion in World Farming estimates that feeding them could require around 28,000 tonnes of wild-caught fish annually. In short: one tonne of octopus meat could cost nine tonnes of wild fish.

And it's stuck

In May 2021, Nueva Pescanova applied to the Port Authority of Las Palmas for permission to build the farm. According to Compassion in World Farming, five years later, it still has not provided the detailed environmental impact assessment requested by the authorities.

When contacted by The European Correspondent, Nueva Pescanova declined to elaborate on the project's future.

The Port Authority of Las Palmas told us it hadn't received any official communication regarding the project and that, “for all intents and purposes,” it was currently on hold.

But a delay in Gran Canaria does not necessarily mean the end of octopus farming ambitions. There are already “fattening” or “ranching” methods that involve capturing wild octopuses and feeding them until they reach a more profitable size, Lara pointed out.

Ban it before it hatches

Octopus farming is not yet an established industry. That means governments still have to decide whether it should become one.

The EU currently has no legislation that specifically applies to octopus farming. As invertebrates – cold-blooded animals without a backbone – they aren't covered by any EU animal welfare protections. It does, however, seem to violate the EU's guidelines for strategic aquaculture, which are to encourage more sustainable feed.

For now, it's up to individual countries to deal with. In Spain, which is currently the closest to an actual farm, local animal welfare organisations are working on a bill to ban it.

There is, however, a long way to go: according to a 2024 Compassion in World Farming report, public authorities in the country have invested over €9 million into research over recent decades, including with EU funding.