Keep Octopuses Wild, Not Farmed.
Aotearoa is on the cusp of a devastating, new form of animal suffering – octopus farming. These underwater factory farms will cause unimaginable harm to the octopuses captive inside.
Petition of Animals Aotearoa: Ban octopus farming
Request
That the House of Representatives prohibit octopus farming in New Zealand, including breeding, raising, and experimentation on cephalopods in captivity for the purpose of aquaculture, and importation of farmed cephalopod products.
Reason
Octopus farming is in the experimental research phase in New Zealand. We believe the harms and associated risks from cephalopod aquaculture are extensive. Cephalopods like octopuses are highly intelligent, inquisitive creatures who feel pain, distress, and other emotions. In our view, farming them would cause severe suffering and poses significant ethical, environmental, and welfare concerns.
Octopuses are sentient wonders. With three hearts, blue blood, and minds that dream, they navigate their ocean world with intelligence that rivals our own. They solve puzzles, navigate elaborate mazes, use tools, recognise individual humans, and even decorate their dens with shells.
Until recently, their complex biological needs prevented octopuses from being farmed. But thanks to government-funded experiments and the University of Auckland, Aotearoa is on the cusp of a new, devastating form of factory farming – octopus farming. Also known as cephalopod aquaculture, this industry would not only hurt the octopuses captive in the farms, but risks harming marine ecosystems.
Octopus farming has to be stopped before it starts.
Octopuses are wild, undomesticated animals that are incompatible with being raised in captivity. Octopuses have a full range of emotions and need high levels of cognitive stimulation. The research is clear that they would suffer severely in the industrial, high-density conditions of aquaculture.
Most octopus species are solitary. Octopus tetricus, the species studied for exploitation in New Zealand, shows complex social behaviours. This includes complex needs for individual space and autonomy. As shown in a failed pilot farm in Australia, this deprivation leads to high mortality and territorial conflict.
Farmed octopuses will die a horrible death. Due to their unique physiology, it is impossible to slaughter octopuses without significant suffering. Common slaughter practices for octopuses are highly cruel, including live freezing and clubbing them to death.
Octopuses deserve to live free, protected in the ocean – not farmed.
The risks of octopus farming go beyond animal welfare. Like other forms of aquaculture, octopus farming could damage marine ecosystems and wild populations through pollution, diseases, waste discharge, and changes to local water conditions.
Tell me more about the risks of octopus farming.
We have a unique opportunity. In Aotearoa New Zealand, octopus farming is still confined to the laboratory, which means we have a chance to prevent it.
I’m on board. How can I help?
Octopus Farming FAQs
Yes. Currently, the only known operational farm in the western hemisphere is in Mexico. The facility catches wild pregnant females from the surrounding ecosystem, and hatches the mother octopus’s eggs onsite. This farm has a reported mortality of 52%. You can read more about this farm. Legislation has now been introduced in Mexico to ban octopus farming.
Elsewhere, plans to build a large commercial octopus farm in the Canary Islands have been halted due to opposition from scientists, environmentalists and animal welfare organisations.
Yes, opposition to octopus farming is growing worldwide.
- Mexico, home to the only operational octopus farm in the Western Hemisphere, has introduced a legislative bill to ban all cephalopod (the group that includes octopuses and squid) farming nationwide. The bill proposes reforms to the General Law of Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture that would prohibit the breeding or growing stages of any cephalopod species in Mexican territory.
- Nationwide legislation has also been introduced in Chile, which would preemptively ban octopus farming in the country.
- The U.S. states of Washington and California have already banned octopus farming. Seven more U.S. states are pursuing legislation against octopus farming, including Hawaii and New York.
Octopus farming risks harming wild octopus populations in several ways.
- Research shows that aquaculture increases demand for wild-caught aquatic animals.
- Octopuses are notorious escape artists, and we love them for it. It’s also true that the risk of octopuses escaping from farms poses a risk to local habitats and wild populations. They have a high potential of transmitting on-farm diseases. Escaping risks not only disease transmission but also ecological imbalance, compounding biodiversity threats.
Octopus farming poses public health risks, as farmed aquatic animals are vectors of multiple pathogens and zoonotic diseases, including the Vibrio pathogens associated with cholera.
Large-scale aquatic farms are a breeding ground for pathogenic bacteria and risk increasing antibiotic resistance.
You can read more about health risks.
Yes. The species being studied in this region for exploitation is Octopus tetricus, a species native to Aotearoa. It is also known as the Common Sydney Octopus and the Gloomy Octopus.
This extraordinary species is nocturnal and known for its ability to use jets of water to throw objects like shells and seaweed, including at other octopuses.
Octopus farming raises significant environmental concerns due to the production and discharge of effluents into surrounding ecosystems. Even where mitigation measures are claimed (e.g. effluent dispersal or filtration), studies show that nutrient loading (nitrogen, phosphorus) can disrupt coastal ecosystems, drive algal blooms, and harm biodiversity. Relying on ocean currents to “dilute” waste does not eliminate the environmental burden but simply displaces it.
Octopuses are carnivorous, picky eaters. It can take multiple kilograms of wild fish or other aquatic animals to produce one kilogram of farmed octopus.
You can read more about the threat of carnivorous aquaculture.
Octopuses are physically fragile, with complex nervous systems. They have nine brains, and a distributed nervous system, making it difficult to render them unconscious. This leads to slow, painful deaths. In 2025, Compassion in World Farming released investigation footage of the slaughter of octopuses (please take care if you choose to watch it). The footage shows octopuses being forcibly submerged in icy water – taking up to ten minutes to die. It also shows the octopuses struggling to escape. This method, which causes prolonged agony, is likely to be used in the world’s first proposed commercial octopus farm in Spain.
A 2021 London School of Economics review of 300 scientific studies concluded that high-welfare farming of octopuses is not possible.
Top image credit: Phoenix White (CC BY-NC)
Ending the suffering of farmed animals.
Kia mutu ai te whakataumaha i ngā kararehe pāmu.
Animals Aotearoa Registered Charity
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