Spain: Fuss over the world’s first octopus farm – ‘They will be tortured to death’ – Newsbomb – News

Spain: The plan to build the world’s first octopus farm has raised scientists’ concerns about the welfare of “intelligent” creatures that feel pain and pleasure, say scientists.

the Octopus farm in the Canary Islands Spain will round up about a million octopuses a year for food, shove them up and torture them to death for the food, according to classified documents recently seen by the BBC. Some scientists have called the proposed glacier-water slaughter method “cruel,” as the Spanish multinational behind the plans denies the octopuses will suffer.

Octopuses caught with lines and traps are considered a “delicacy” in many parts of the world, especially in the Mediterranean, Asia and Latin America, and experts have been searching for decades for the secret of their reproduction in captivity. It is difficult for the larvae to eat only live food and they need a carefully controlled environment to develop, but Nueva Pescanova announced in 2019 that He made a scientific discovery.

The prospect of intensive octopus farming has already led to a backlash: Lawmakers in the US state of Washington have proposed banning the practice before it even begins. Nueva Pescanova’s plans reveal that the octopuses, which are solitary animals accustomed to darkness, will be kept in tanks with other octopuses, sometimes under constant light. Creatures – of the common octopus family – It will be stacked in about 1,000 shared tanks In a two-story building in the port of Las Palmas on Gran Canaria.

According to the documents, they would be killed in vats of water at -3 degrees Celsius. There are currently no relevant rules because octopuses have never been commercially farmed before. However, studies have shown that this method of slaughtering fish using ‘ice core’ It causes a slow and exhausting death.

the World Organization for Animal Health He says it “impairs fish welfare” and recommends the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) – the leading aquaculture certification program – to ban the method, Unless you startle the fish beforehand. Some major supermarkets have already banned the sale of ice-killed fish, including Tesco and Morrisons.

Professor Peter Chi, a neuroscientist at Dartmouth University, told the BBC that Killing them with ice equals a slow death… It would be very cruel and should not be allowed, ”adding that octopuses are “as smart as cats.” To supply international markets such as the United States, South Korea and Japan, Nueva Pescanova aspires to produce 3,000 tons of octopuses annually. This is equivalent to about a million animals, where they live About 10-15 octopuses per cubic meter of the tank, according to campaign group Compassion in World Farming (CiWF), which has studied the plans.

Creatures that feel “pain and pleasure”

Jonathan Birch, an associate professor at the London School of Economics, has led a review of more than 300 scientific studies that he says show that octopuses They feel pain and pleasure. This has led to them being recognized as ‘sentient beings’ in the UK’s Animal Welfare (Consciousness) Act 2022. Professor Birch and colleagues believe that raising octopuses in welfare conditions is ‘impossible’ and killing them in slushy ice ‘would not be the way’. Acceptable killing.

“Large numbers of octopuses should never be kept together in close proximity. Something like that leads to Tension, conflict and high mortality“A mortality rate of 10-15% should not be acceptable for any type of culture,” Nueva Pescanova told the BBC: “Welfare requirements levels for the production of octopus or any other animal in our facilities. Ensuring proper handling of animals. Slaughter included. Also proper handling that prevents any pain or suffering to the animal…”

In the wild, octopuses are fierce and agile hunters. Nueva Pescanova suggests feeding the animals industrially produced dry feed, derived from the “discards and by-products” of fish already caught. The tanks will be filled with sea water They will be of different sizes for different stages of an octopus’s life. The initial brood of 100 octopuses — 70 males and 30 females — will be taken from a research facility, the Pescanova Biomarine Center, in Galicia, northern Spain. The plans indicate that the company has achieved a level of “domestication” in the species and that They do not “show significant signs of cannibalism or competition for food.”

Animal rights activists are calling on the Canary Islands authorities to block the construction of the farm, which they said would “cause unnecessary suffering to these intelligent and wonderful creatures”. The European Union has Strict regulations to ensure animal welfare On all European farms, but, unfortunately, invertebrates – such as octopuses – are not covered by these laws. Environmentalists also worry about the sewage the farm will produce, which will be piped back into the sea. Octopuses produce nitrogen and phosphate as waste. The water entering and leaving the plant will be filtered It has no impact on the environment.”Nueva Pescanova said.

on 350,000 tons of octopus are caught every year More than 10 times the number caught in 1950 – pressure on the population. “Aquaculture is the answer to ensuring sustainable yields,” Nueva Pescanova stated. However, conservationists believe that breeding them would lower the price, potentially creating new markets.