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    Octopuses are clever. Their fans aren't happy with a plan to farm them for food

    Octopuses are seen as smart and solitary. A seafood company plans to farm them commercially. Octopus garden? Sure. Octopus farm? No way, say the animal's advocates
    by Bill Chappell Feb 07, 2024 5 minutes
    A Spanish seafood company says its octopus farm would benefit animals in the wild, citing growing demand for octopus meat. Here, an octopus is seen at the Get Fish market in Sydney, Australia, last December.

    Octopuses are capable of sophisticated tasks, from solving puzzles to decorating their dens to remembering people's faces. So when a company in Spain announced that it wanted to commercially farm octopuses to harvest them for seafood, the plan sparked an uproar.

    "I was appalled," Sy Montgomery, author of the bestselling book The Soul of an Octopus, told NPR.

    Seafood company Nueva Pescanova plans to build the farm on 52,691 square meters (around 567,000 square feet) along a dock in the Canary Islands, at the Port of Las Palmas on Gran Canaria island. The facility would keep octopuses in tanks.

    The company unveiled the plan several years ago. Despite opposition, its permit requests are currently pending.

    Company says the farm would help meet rising demand

    "The octopus aquaculture project is a pioneering scientific milestone in the world," the company said in a statement to NPR, saying it wants to help conserve

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