NUEVA PESCANOVA OFFICIALLY ABANDONS PLANS FOR WORLD’S FIRST COMMERCIAL OCTOPUS FARM

According to La Voz Canaria, Nueva Pescanova communicated its withdrawal from the concession at the Esfinge dock in Las Palmas via a letter to the Port Authority. Among the reasons cited by the group for this decision are the “significant extension of administrative deadlines” and uncertainty regarding the “completion of environmental and sectoral procedures.”

At the end of 2024, plans for Nueva Pescanova, set to farm up to 1 million octopuses annually, grew stagnant and investments were rescinded, as encouraged by targeted outreach and advocacy from Aquatic Life Institute‘s (ALI) and the global support of over 190 members of the Aquatic Animal Alliance (AAA). Following a 2022 letter to the environmental agency of the Canary Islands, highlighting all the concerns regarding the farm proposal, signed by over 130 members of the AAA and prominent scientists, in addition to a 2023 ALI report commissioned by Avaaz, which uncovered potential pathogens from octopus farming that could contaminate the surrounding environment and create public safety concerns, the Government of the Canary Islands was prompted to request a more comprehensive and rigorous environmental impact assessment, halting progress on the farm.  In uncovering these grave threats to the environment and public safety that are caused by industrialized octopus farming, it is clear that other efforts to develop octopus farms worldwide will face similar challenges.

The reproduction of octopuses in captivity has been a long-standing challenge for aquaculture, and despite Nueva Pescanova investing over 50 million in this practice, as advocacy organizations have long-warned, the practice is proven to not to be sustainable or ethical.

“Nueva Pescanova’s decision to abandon the pursuit of the Las Palmas commercial octopus farming project is a watershed moment in the global effort to ensure this practice, which has negative implications for animal welfare, the environment, and public health, is never established,” said Tessa Gonzalez, Director of Research and Impact at Aquatic Life Institute. “Innovation has an important role to play in improving food systems; however, it cannot resolve every challenge involving ethics, governance, and animal welfare. Sometimes, the most responsible innovation is restraint, and today’s decision reminds us that progress is measured not only by what we choose to build, but also by what we choose not to.”

This news is preceded by legislation worldwide that bans octopus farming and the sale of products from industrial octopus farms, including a federal bill in the United States that is underway, as well as laws in Washington state and California. Legislative proposals to ban octopus farming have also been introduced at the federal level and in more states such as Hawai’i, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Massachusetts and Connecticut, and countries such as Chile, Spain, and Mexico.

This withdrawal is a rare, pivotal example of a high-risk, intensive farming industry being stopped before it became commercially established, reinforcing the value of precautionary action before markets become entrenched.

The environmental, welfare, and public health implications of octopus farming are manifold. These carnivorous animals require diets rich in marine ingredients, exacerbating the pressure on already declining wild fish populations and undermining global sustainable development goals. The overuse of antibiotics in aquaculture has been linked to the emergence of multidrug-resistant bacteria, with potential spill-over effects into human populations. As widely documented, octopuses are highly intelligent and complex animals recognised as sentient by both the Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness (2012) and the New York Declaration on Animal Consciousness (2024). Conditions of intensive farming and extreme confinement are inherently unsuitable for their well-being, leading to stress, aggression, and unnatural behaviours such as cannibalism. Furthermore, there are no approved humane slaughter methods for these animals. For additional research and information, please refer to ALI’s campaign page.

About Aquatic Life Institute

Aquatic Life Institute is an international non-profit organisation that works on advancing aquatic animal welfare in both aquaculture and wild capture fisheries globally. They work with certifiers, non-profits, academic institutions, industry stakeholders, governments, and the public to improve the welfare of aquatic animals. Founded by the ALI, the Aquatic Animal Alliance is a coalition of more than 190 advocacy organisations across 75 countries dedicated to improving the welfare of aquatic animals within the global food system.