Eurogroup for Animals and Compassion in World Farming are calling for the world’s first commercial octopus farm to be scrapped, after plans obtained for its development revealed the animal cruelty and environmental consequences it would cause.

The plans, submitted to the General Directorate of Fishing of the Government of the Canary Islands by the company Nueva Pescanova, and uncovered by Eurogroup for Animals, have raised serious concerns, which are outlined in this case study.

We are calling on the EU to ban octopus farming, and restrict the use of public funds to support octopus farming developments, or any other new industrial animal-based farming in the light of significant and growing scientific evidence that it is killing our planet.

The Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) sets the right foundational objectives for the management of fisheries and fish populations in the EU’s waters. Yet, to date, it still ignores fish welfare.

Since Article 13 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) requires that fishery policy “pay full regard to the welfare requirements of animals” and the current CFP only provides for the conservation of all marine biological resources and the management of fisheries activities, future fisheries policy should explicitly provide for animal welfare.

The sentience of decapod crustaceans and cephalopod molluscs and their ability to feel pain is well established and widely recognised. Wild capture and farming of these animals for food is going on without welfare standards. There is an urgent need to establish science based standards for the transport, slaughter and farming of decapod crustaceans, and for the prohibition of the farming of cephalopod molluscs before the sector emerges.

Every year, somewhere around one trillion (1,000,000,000,000) wild fish are captured, with a significant majority being killed for food. Even with this conservative estimate, this far outnumbers any animal farmed for food, and yet despite scientific evidence that fish are sentient – public concern and consumer awareness about fish and their welfare is far behind that of other farmed animals. This report looks at the various hazards faced by wild fish throughout the process of capture, through to handling and death, and proposes measures and strategies to reduce unnecessary suffering.