South Coast lawmaker makes multi-limbed argument against octopus farming
A South Coast lawmaker is pushing a bill that would ban the commercial farming of octopus for food, citing ethical concerns about the treatment of what he says are one of the ocean's most intelligent creatures.
Testifying on his bill before the Joint Committee on Agriculture on Tuesday, Rep. Christopher Hendricks, D-11th Bristol, described octopi as having a 'level of sentience and awareness that is exceptional in the animal kingdom.'
'Octopus display problem-solving ability, short and long-term memory, play behaviors, even signs of individual personality. Their capacity for suffering is now widely acknowledged by the scientific communities,' he said.
Hendricks emphasized that the bill specifically targets commercial aquaculture of octopi for human consumption, which he said involves 'raising them in really confined, barren tanks, commercial tanks, for food production.'
'As a Portuguese-American from New Bedford, I have no interest in banning octopus consumption throughout the commonwealth,' he clarified.
Instead, the bill targets only the farming and sale of farm-raised octopi, and does not affect the consumption or sale of octopi caught in the wild.
Framing the proposal as a preventative measure, he emphasized that no octopus farms currently exist in the state. 'Let's nip this in the bud,' he urged.
Rep. James Arena-DeRosa, 8th Middlesex, who also sits on the panel, said advocates have been active around this issue.
'And you're absolutely right, that it's not an industry yet, so we're not hurting anybody, as far as we know,' Arena-DeRosa said.
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