Octo-Aquaculture: A Contemporary Oceanic Controversy
Aquaculture and Octopuses | Keila D’Alia
“Oswald in the Blue” by Suroma Nag
“That’s the most incredible thing—to be followed by an octopus.” [1]
These are familiar words for the many of us who have watched “My Octopus Teacher”, the Oscar-winning documentary that follows naturalist and filmmaker Craig Foster during the year he spent freediving every day in the Great African Seaforest. He is not alone. The shots of clear teal waters and towering kelp stipes provide only a backdrop, albeit an otherworldly one, to the real focal point: a rust-coloured female common octopus, Octopus vulgaris, with which Foster comes to form a relationship.
She is introduced in the documentary as an artist. There is much to see in this corner of the South African kelp forest, but the eclectic collection of shells she holds to her body as armour looks too alien to ignore. She quickly ejects herself across the sandy bottom, revealing the cephalopod beneath. The structure falls to the sand, and Foster is hooked. Throughout the following year, the two gain familiarity with each other, even touching on some occasions. The naturalist becomes privy to the daily happenings of the octopus’s life. He sees her evade predators successfully, once by sticking onto the back of an attacking pyjama shark and in another attack by losing an arm. Foster almost seems to dread finding her nesting, as it signals that the end of her fierce, curious life is near. When the inevitable finally happens, it is not just Foster who feels a deep sense of loss, but all of us who have followed their journey.
“My Octopus Teacher” is guilty of what Jeffrey Good (a marine science PhD candidate based at Auckland’s Leigh Marine Laboratory) calls anthropomorphism–the attribution of human qualities to a non-human entity. I had the opportunity to spend time at the Leigh campus on a few occasions, including a quick visit during the 2023 NIWA Joint Graduate Spring School, and a weeklong stay in the summer for a marine science skills course. The research foci of Jeff and
his advisor, Stefan Spreitzenbarth, are to “find solutions to the challenges facing octopus aquaculture, complete the octopus life history pipeline, [and] inform future aquaculture efforts with husbandry/care” [2]. Talking to Jeff and Stefan provided insight into what makes these foci so controversial, even with strict animal ethics guidelines including the eventual release of their adult octopuses back to the initial catching site.
Jeff explains that despite appearing to do so in popular documentaries like “My Octopus Teacher”, animals simply do not feel emotions and think as humans do. Stefan’s experiences with one particular octopus were intriguing; during some walks past its tank, it appeared to wave at him. But was this interaction really the affectionate greeting many would consider proof of octopuses being too cognitively complex for aquaculture? As of February, Stefan didn’t seem convinced that this was an eight-legged friend saying “Hi”. He reminded us marine students that animals prioritise food and are constantly trying to answer the question, “Can I eat that?” This may have been a case of the octopus simply trying to make sense of Stefan.
Anthropomorphism undoubtedly contributes to the bad reputation of octopus farming, an industry in the early stages of establishment. Although specialised fisheries already exist, industrial octopus farms such as those proposed by Spanish fishing company Nueva Pescanova are still in the works. Let’s delve deeper into the global outrage this has caused and explore the cases for and against octopus aquaculture.
FOR:
Continued benefit of ecosystem services
There are approximately 300 species of octopuses, and all are complex semelparous organisms, meaning that they only reproduce once before dying [2]. While cephalopods are generally solitary organisms, octopuses’ social tolerance may differ by species or due to other variables [3-4]. As ecosystem engineers, they “modify, maintain, and/or create habitat...[and by modulating resources], have the potential to indirectly interact with other organisms” [5].
The unsustainable removal of octopuses from their habitats can potentially result in a cascade of disrupted biological interactions (e.g. predator- prey and competitive interactions, changes in marine food webs [6]) that result in ecosystem decline, which in the long term would prevent humans from fully utilising ecosystem services. These services (Table 1) include provisioning (e.g. food supply), regulation and maintenance (e.g. nutrient recycling), and culture (e.g. recreation) [7]. The yearly cost to artificially provide these services without natural ecosystems is estimated to be US$16-54 trillion [8].
Table 1: A NIWA diagram displaying numerous examples of ecosystem services [9].
The case for octopus farms is strengthened by the ambiguity of their harvest. Many caught octopuses on the market today are recorded as undocumented or poorly documented bycatch [2]. Even capture fisheries inconsistently record species composition [10]. Mistakes in identification are common due to limited understanding of octopus taxonomy by commercial fisheries [10]. A regulated aquaculture system would help to prevent the complications which accompany harvesting that does not note quantity or species composition.
Despite the strong evidence that favours fishing for octopuses at low rates, the capture fishing industry should not be relied upon to prioritise sustainability over short-term profit. Due to “overfishing, pollution, poor management and other factors,” the percentage of sustainably managed fisheries is constantly in flux [11]. A future increase of aquatic food consumption (excluding algae) is unavoidable; it has been increasing at an average rate of 3.0% since 1961, despite a population growth rate of only 1.6% [11]. Though global exploitation of capture fisheries has plateaued since 1990, aquaculture has filled the gap to meet this rise in demand (Figure 1) [11]. With a growing population, a global increase in the consumption of aquatic foods, and already having reached the upper limit of what we can take from capture fisheries, it is clear that aquaculture will supply the majority of future aquatic food. The era of aquaculture is already here, with global production weighing 122.6 tonnes in 2020 [11].
Filling the gap left by capture fisheries
Figure 1: The 2022 Food and Agriculture Organization report shows that aquaculture is filling in the aquatic food demand gap that capture fisheries cannot provide [11].
Informed natural resource management in a changing world
A commercialised aquaculture industry would expedite the sourcing of octopuses, more easily allowing testing that researches the combined effects of climate change on ecosystems. As of today, these studies on cephalopods are limited [12] and produce conflicting results. Research examining octopus expansion across major oceanic regions since 1960 suggests that cephalopod abundance rises in environments with warmer temperatures and smaller populations of fish (where they have declined due to overfishing) [13]. Another study, specifically on early stage Octopus vulgaris, found a 29.9% decrease in survival rate and a 17.8% increase in smaller premature paralarvae after a warming event of 3°C [14]. The ecological and economic consequences of processes such as concurrent deoxygenation, acidification, eutrophication, and population decline of neighbouring species [12-13] are simply not researched enough to provide informed natural resource management. Due to their life history complexity, raising octopuses in a laboratory environment has not yet been widely accomplished (hence Good and Spreitzenbarth’s research at the Leigh Marine Lab). Eventually, the same processes that will result in large-scale octopus production will provide scientists with the specimens to carry out necessary testing.
AGAINST:
Undeniable cruelty
Why bother discussing faults in judgement due to anthropomorphism or benefits of mass production when the behavioural and cognitive complexity of octopuses [15] makes them too sophisticated to ethically farm? As sentient individuals, they “appear capable of experiencing pain and suffering” and “conscious experience” [15]. As curious creatures, the bland farm environments they would be kept in would result in poor well-being, given their requirements for intellectual stimulation and diverse environments [15]. The commercial farming of octopuses, organisms that retain long-term memory, know how to navigate their habitats, and can open jars [15], would be a grave injustice. To borrow a question from Craig Foster, “If she dreams, what does she dream about?” How would the dreams of an octopus thriving in technicolour kelp forests differ from those of an octopus surviving in a tank?
As novel as octopus farming may seem, it comes with the standard drawbacks of current aquaculture. The quality (and therefore quantity) of farmed octopuses cannot be guaranteed, as they would likely have lower rates of immunity, higher rates of stress and injury, increased disease transmission, and different traits to those captured from the wild [15]. And while aquaculture may prevent some types of ecosystemic damage, it will still contribute to nutrient pollution, the takeover of natural habitat, and the proliferation of disease and unwanted traits from octopuses that escape into the wild [15].
You don’t have to scour the internet to find international anger over Nueva Pescanova’s plans. Search #stopoctopusfarming on Instagram, and you’ll find ample content to help you procrastinate your assignments. Yet, this content does not reflect the current efforts to research what humane experimentation and killing of cephalopods might look like [12]. Whether you view octopus farming as an opportunity for food security or an ethical mess, there is no denying the headway that the aquaculture industry has made, and the role it will play in our future.
Counterproductivity
[1] P. Ehrlich and J. Reed, Netflix. My Octopus Teacher. (Sep. 7, 2020). Accessed: Dec. 20-21, 2023. [Online Video].
[2] J. Good. (2023). A Day in the Life of an Octopus Farmer (Potential for Octopus Aquaculture in NZ) [PowerPoint slides].
[3] R. Hanlon and J. Messenger, “Cephalopod behaviour,” Trends in Ecology and Evolution, vol. 12, no. 2, Feb. 1997, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0169-5347(97)82690-0.
[4] K. Finn et al., “Octopus bimaculoides Activity Depends on Who Their Neighbor is,” SSRN, Mar. 2021, doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3802027.
[5] A. Altieri. (2015). “Ecosystem Engineers,” Oxford Bibliographies Online in Ecology, doi: 10.1093/OBO/9780199830060-0134.
[6] S. Thrust. (2023). Marine socio-ecological systems [PowerPoint slides].
[7] E. Buonocore, U. Grande, P. Franzese, and G. Russo, “Trends and Evolution in the Concept of Marine Ecosystem Services: An Overview,” Jul. 2023, doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/w13152060 .
[8] R. Costanza et al., “The value of the world’s ecosystem services and natural capital,” Nature, vol. 387, May 1997. [Online].
[9] D. Lohrer. “Mapping the ecosystem service potential of our coasts.” NIWA. https://niwa.co.nz/coasts-and-estuaries/research-projects/mapping-the-ecosystem-service-potential-of-our-coasts (accessed Mar. 1, 2024).
[10] J. Martino, M. Steer, and Z. Doubleday, “Supporting the sustainable development of Australia’s octopus fishery: First assessment of an artisanal fishery,” Elsevier, vol. 241, Sep. 2021, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fishres.2021.105999.
[11] Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, “The State of World Fisheries and Agriculture 2022: Towards Blue Transformation,” fao.org. https://www.fao.org/3/cc0461en/online/cc0461en.html (accessed Apr. 1, 2024).
[12] C. O’Brien, K. Roumbedakis, and I. Winkelmann, “The Current State of Cephalopod Science and Perspectives on the Most Critical Challenges Ahead from Three Early Career Researchers,” Frontiers, vol. 9, 2018, doi: https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2018.00700.
[13] Z. Doubleday et al., “Global proliferation of cephalopods,” Current Biology, vol. 26, no. 10, May 2016, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2016.04.002.
[14] T. Repolho et al., “Developmental and physiological challenges of octopus (Octopus vulgaris) early life stages under ocean warming,” Journal of Comparative Physiology, vol. 184, pp. 55-64, Oct. 2013.
[15] J. Jacquet, B. Franks, P. Godfrey-Smith, and W. Sánchez-Suárez, “The Case Against Octopus Farming,” Issues in Science and Technology, vol. 35, no. 2, pp. 37, 40-44, 2019. [Online].
Keila is a fourth-year student pursuing a BSc/BGlobalSt in Marine Science and Global Environment and Sustainable Development. She is interested in the sustainable management of fisheries and aquaculture and loves spending time in the ocean.