Late yesterday, the California legislature passed bill AB-3162, banning octopus farming and the sale of farmed octopuses or octopus meat. This landmark legislation follows Washington State's similar ban on octopus farming, passed in March 2024. Once signed into law by the Governor, California will be the first state to prohibit both the farming and sale of farmed octopus products.

This law is another signal to companies and entrepreneurs that octopus farming is a bad investment. While no large-scale octopus farms exist yet, global interest in breeding and mass-producing octopus meat as a luxury seafood is growing. However, significant concerns about water pollution, overfishing, greenhouse gas emissions, disease, and animal suffering highlight the risks associated with octopus farming.

Octopuses are intelligent, inquisitive, and solitary creatures that would suffer in crowded, confined tanks. They risk injury and death from crashing into tank walls, improper handling, and aggression from other octopuses. Currently, there are no humane methods for slaughtering octopuses, which would lead to slow and painful deaths. Additionally, as carnivores, octopus farming would also require the killing of millions of wild fish just to feed them, creating exponentially more animal suffering and further straining wild fish populations.

Seafood company Nueva Pescanova has been attempting to establish the world’s first large-scale octopus farm in the Canary Islands, but the project has been plagued by controversy and setbacks. The Spanish government environmental assessment identified serious concerns, including the company’s plan to discharge wastewater into the ocean without specifying the contaminants or quantities involved, posing a threat to local water quality. The proposed farm would also be highly energy-intensive, requiring large amounts of seawater to be pumped into the facility and thereby generating greenhouse gas emissions.

The farm's plans also raised significant animal welfare concerns for both the octopuses inside the farm and neighboring wildlife. The farm plans to cram 10 to 15 octopuses into each cubic meter (~35 cubic feet), an intensely stressful environment for these naturally solitary animals. Additionally, the farm intends to slaughter the octopuses by putting them in an ice slurry, a slow and painful death by freezing. Moreover, there were no plans for disease control, posing a threat of contagion to wild octopus populations. The farm's operations could also harm other marine species, including dolphins, whales, and bottom-dwelling creatures.

With California and Washington leading the way, there is growing momentum to ban octopus farming across the United States. In late July, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse introduced the OCTOPUS Act in Congress, aiming to prohibit octopus farming nationwide and ban the import of farmed octopus meat from future farms abroad such as Nueva Pescanova. As awareness grows about the ethical and environmental impacts of octopus farming, these state-level victories bring hope for a future where the exploitation of these intelligent creatures is universally rejected.

CIWF continues to advocate for compassionate and sustainable food choices, ensuring a better future for animals, people, and the planet.