Octopus Farming
“They’re a liquid creature. They really move with this grace that shouldn’t be possible with a solid. They seem to be part of the sea itself, but they’re so exquisitely attuned to the medium in which they move. And they can change in an instant—not just color, but shape. They register, it seems, everything. And the intelligence that they must show—they’ll often show you that there’s a shark, by their behavior, that you don’t notice at all.”
— Sy Montgomery
Chelsea Bennice
To behold an octopus in all her glorious strangeness, her preternatural wonder, her indelible singularity, is an enchantment at first encounter. What makes these individuals so singular with their elation-bringing and exhilarating magic that gives us a frisson of excitement, a kind of rapturous attentiveness to another world? Why do we connect so emotionally to them, these impressive escape artists, negotiators of tools, brilliant problem-solvers, tricksters of camouflage, dreamers? Octopuses, with their staggering intelligence, are the only invertebrate species to make the list of the Cambridge Declaration of Consciousness. The way they float through the water, poetically, romantically, thrillingly, moves us to the depths of our soul. As British naturalist, Michael McCarthy, writes, “The natural world is not separate from us, it is part of us. It is as much a part of us as our capacity for language; we are bonded to it still; however hard it may be to perceive the union in the tumult of modern urban life. Yet the union can be found, the union of ourselves and nature, in the joy which nature can spark and fire in us.”
Francisco Atencio
And alarmingly, Nueva Pescanova, the global seafood company, in a tale of rapaciousness, hubris, and crass exploitation, has plans to start the first industrial commercial farming of up to one million mostly solitary and sentient octopuses a year, imprisoning them in tanks along a dock in the Canary Islands, at the Port of Las Palmas on Gran Canaria island, in yet another monstrous example of the possible extermination of another species.
Because of the danger of octopus farming perhaps becoming a reality, and not just in one area but setting a precedent for other countries as well, brings with it not only the massacre of millions of octopuses, but also the terrifying prospect of far-reaching calamitous ethical, environmental, and ecological catastrophes associated with concentrated aquaculture. And octopuses are carnivores, who consume four times their body weight, requiring constantly feeding them other animals, which can lead to the destruction of related wild species and the decimation of ecosystems.
But, alas, looming ahead is a tale of unnatural horrors, rapaciousness, hubris, and the crass exploitation of yet another species by the predatory, multinational seafood company, Nueva Pescanova, in the Canary Islands, Spain, at the Port of Las Palmas on Gran Canaria island, with plans to start the first industrial commercial farming, its physical property, of up to a million sentient and mostly solitary octopus a year, imprisoning them in tanks along a dock. Because of the danger of octopus farming perhaps becoming a reality, and not just in one area but setting a precedent for other countries as well, brings with it not only the massacre of millions of octopuses, but also the terrifying prospect of far-reaching calamitous environmental consequences. Because octopuses are carnivores, who consume four times their body weight, industrial farming requires constantly feeding them other animals, which can lead to the destruction of related wild species and the decimation of ecosystems
The Horrors To Come in the Canary Islands
By Richard Darwin
With an international value of over $2.7 billion, more than 377,000 tons of wild octopus are caught annually for human consumption all over the world, including in Asia, Latin America, and the Mediterranean. Global demand for octopus’ meat is rising, while, as numerous studies confirm, wild octopuses’ numbers are in decline due to heavy fishing and environmental degradation. Historically, these amazing animals have, for a multitude of reasons, been considered unfarmable. According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, the "captive breeding of octopuses has proven to be extremely difficult.
Female octopus have but one clutch of eggs and then die. Once they fry hatch and rapidly grow, they soon need much more tank space to thrive than would be commercially viable in an intensive farming operation. Moreover, with the ability to squeeze through the tiniest of gaps, as multiple documented anecdotal accounts attest, octopuses possess great prowess as escape artists. These are solitary individuals habituated to the dark and, when confined within the vicinity of other octopuses, they tend to become aggressive toward one another and often self-harm.
Moby Dick
At the heart of our campaign, we are creating a powerful seven-minute film, a multilayered animation documentary short, with an award-winning filmmaker from the social change filmmaking world, which will vividly portray the tragedy of octopus captivity—the whispering of unnatural horrors—through octopus eyes, to reveal a glimpse beyond the floating arms of extraordinary brain waves, both of the idea of freedom—a kind of transcendence, like an act of deliverance, a daring and enthralling spirit—and imprisonment, a dark and deadly place, a purgatory, giving shape and expression to fleeting sensations and emotions of these soulful cephalopods.
Sy Montgomery, the renowned "octopus whisperer,” the octopus bard herself, is narrating the film. As is our custom, we will hold a live online event, presenting the film, with an accompanying conversation of octopus luminaries, including Sy Montgomery.
Emily White
Alongside the film, we’re curating an art exhibit that simulates an underwater room, an octopus gallery of various mediums—paintings, sculptures, and interactive installations. A floating octopus will be guiding us through this pelagic wonder of watery dens of octopus. The exhibit will feature works from artists around the world, an homage to the soul of the octopus, and a resounding argument against their exploitation, suffering, and death.
We will also be approaching the campaign from a legal angle vis-à-vis the disclosure of documents. This historic undertaking is only possible when we unite in vision and purpose—to end the tyranny of industrial octopus farming before it begins.
We can’t wait to bring this stirring film to life and to share its odyssey with you.
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“An advocacy of freedom in inseparable from an effort to attain it, for freedom is not a goal but a direction, and it comes into being through the very act of resistance.” Ai Weiwei
An Homage to Octopuses
