Spanish Company Scraps World's First Octopus Farm

Plans to build the world's first commercial octopus farm in Spain's Canary Islands have been abandoned after the seafood company Nueva Pescanova withdrew its application, citing commercial and regulatory obstacles, Euractiv reported.

First announced in 2019, the project would have produced up to one million octopuses a year in land-based tanks. It drew widespread criticism from scientists and animal welfare organizations, which argued that octopuses are highly intelligent, largely solitary animals that are poorly suited to intensive farming.

Environmental groups welcomed the decision as a major victory and renewed calls for governments to prohibit the farming of carnivorous marine species, arguing that such operations require large quantities of wild-caught fish for feed.

The European Union nevertheless continues to promote sustainable aquaculture to reduce its dependence on imported seafood, which accounts for roughly 60 percent of seafood consumed across the bloc.

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