Located between the waters of the Pacific Ocean and Kona Airport, On the largest of the Hawaiian Islands, froth and gurgle dozens of 190 liter water tanks. each one house a octopus alone caught in the marine environment and each has a pair of floating plastic toys.
Located on the grounds of the Hawaii Corporation Natural Energy Laboratory, the Kanaloa Octopus Farm bills itself as a research institute designed to assist. Discover the secrets of the octopus’ reproductive cycle. Rancher Jacob Conroy and his team believe this could help protect this species from overfishing by providing humanity with stable stocks of these captive-bred cephalopods.
“Right now, almost every octopus you see, whether you see it here today, in an aquarium, or even on your plate, has been wild-caught,” says Carmelle Joyner, the farm’s biologist and tour guide.
“There is no method of raising octopuses in captivity.. That means we’re removing them all from our oceans and reefs… If we can figure out how to grow them here, we hope our system can be applied elsewhere.”
However, although the establishment of an industrial farming system for octopus (a delicacy of Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese and Mexican cuisines) was welcomed by many high-end cuisine enthusiasts, Conroy’s farm also Strong criticism from those who claim that keeping octopuses in captivity is cruelty.
Inviting visitors to tame invertebrates and also boasting a gift shop filled with octopus-inspired jewelry and Christmas decorations, the farm has become ground zero for a growing social movement demanding better treatment for these playful inhabitants of the sea.
Very intelligent and sensitive animals
As the scientific evidence for octopus intelligence and awareness grows, octopus advocates view the farm as a horror show, where wild octopuses are captured and imprisoned in sterile tanks where they spend the rest of their lives. poked and chased by the fingers and hands of noisy tourists.
“Octopuses are playful, resourceful and curious.. They have long-term memories, use tools, and change the color of their skin to camouflage themselves and communicate at the same time. They learn through observation. And most importantly, they have the ability to experience boredom,” says Debbie Metzler, PETA Foundation Director of Captive Animal Welfare.
“Still, the Kanaloa octopus farm confines them to these incredibly small and dreary tanks, where they are used only for public interaction. This is exploitation. Not protection.”
Conservationists say extensive octopus farming is endangering other species they feed on
It is a debate similar to the one that arose during the treatment of force-fed calves and geese for foie gras.
Conservationists are also concerned that widespread octopus farming is endangering other species of marine life. these animals require large quantities of freshly caught live fish and crustaceans.it also generates large amounts of waste that spills back into the ocean and damages nearby coral reefs and habitats.
“I think now is the time to ask: Why are we doing this?” said Jennifer Jacquet, professor of environmental studies at New York University. she says. “Feeding the hungry? Is it absolutely necessary?”
Conroy did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Recently, a reporter and photographer from The Times visited the Kanaloa farm with about two dozen tourists from around the world.
Most of the open-air tanks were occupied by solitary diurnal octopuses caught offshore in the previous days, weeks and months.
Some were locked in small plastic cave-like chambers at the bottom of their tanks, hiding from the screams of excited tourists. Others crawled along the inside walls of their cages, watching their audience, ignoring the two or three plastic bath toys floating on the surface.
A project in Spain
Despite the attempts of entrepreneurs like Conroy and Other companies such as Nueva Pescanova in Spain, a successful commercially operating octopus farm does not yet exist. No one has yet figured out how to complete the life cycle of the octopus to make it a commercially viable species, namely ensuring that breeding adults mate, lay eggs, and have offspring that become breeding adults.
Still, the possibility that the Conroy facility or others could one day breed octopuses in captivity worries animal welfare advocates and conservationists.
“A luxury item”said Jacquet. “It will be bred to feed a saturated market that has too much money to buy luxury items. To me, octopus farm is extremist without respect for non-human life.”
In 2021, researchers from the Marine Biology Laboratory in Woodshole, Massachusetts (USA) successfully completed the life cycle of the pygmy zebra octopus. Still, Robyn Crook, an octopus biologist at San Francisco State University, explains that the eggs and paralarvae of zebra pygmy octopuses are very different from the species commercial farms hope to market.
“Octopuses have two slightly different reproductive universes,” he explained. Some, such as the dwarf zebra octopus, produce relatively few large, “pea-sized” eggs.
But others, like the diurnal octopus or octopus blueand the common octopus or octopus vulgarisThey produce hundreds of thousands of very small eggs.
A difficult captive breeding
Crook noted that these animals are commercially desirable because of their high performance. what if no one has figured out how to keep these little cubs alive for a long time.
Channeloa Octopus Farm biologist Joyner Baby trying to determine what the paralarvae ate, as it’s the “missing piece of the puzzle”. So far, they have only been able to keep the paralarvae alive for 13 days after hatching.
“When these babies hatch, they’re about half the size of a grain of rice. They’re very, very small, and they’re also very picky,” he said. “They really just like to eat live foods that are smaller than they are. And unfortunately, we haven’t figured that out yet.”
But that’s not the only problem avid octopus breeders face. And this they are antisocial and “aggressive, so if you put the two in a tank they will kill each other.”said Jacquet. “This will ruin the product.”
They also need live foods such as fish, crabs and oysters to survive. “Octopuses are very picky,” said Peter Tse, a neurobiologist at Dartmouth University who studies octopus intelligence. “They only want to eat the creatures they killed”.
And finally, there is a pollution problem. Octopuses produce high levels of nitrogen and phosphorus as waste. This polluted water is then pumped into the ocean “and to a sensitive place like Hawaii,” Jacquet said, which could cause damage.
The most problematic question is whether it is acceptable to keep highly intelligent beings locked up in tanks for their entire lives.
But the most troubling thing, according to the researchers, is the ethical question of whether it’s acceptable to keep highly intelligent creatures in sterile tanks for their entire lives.
Crook noted There are no laws protecting octopuses and other cephalopods in the United States, such as squid and cuttlefish; they are not animals [sensibles] by the federal government.
Two years ago, a legal team filed a petition with the National Institutes of Health requesting that cephalopods be classified as animals. [sensibles]. And while Canada, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand all have laws protecting octopuses, they remain unprotected in the United States.
“There needs to be a lot more regulation of what humans do with intelligent creatures.. Whether for research, food production or entertainment. “We need to have a broad discussion about this,” said Kathy Hessler, director of the Animal Law Education Initiative at the George Washington University School of Law.
Both Hessler and Crook said the current lack of legal protection leaves octopuses like those in Kanaloa vulnerable to inhumane treatment and abuse.
“Very little is known about veterinary treatment of octopuses,” said Crook. “Very little about pain relief and nothing about painless culling. All these things that we’ve seen huge advances in fish farming over the last 20 years have not been proven for cephalopods.”
From the photographs Kanaloa has seen, he sees little evidence that these animals receive the stimulation and richness their intelligence requires. “Looks like a tourist destination to me.“, I said.
Reference article: https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2022-12-20/is-farm-breeding-octopus-an-act-of-cruelty
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Contact details of the environment department: [email protected]