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Euronews
13-08-2025
- Business
- Euronews
Spain mulls octopus farming to meet soaring demand as wild stocks fall
At a humming factory in the Spanish town of O Carballino, workers sling dozens of limp octopuses into a metal cauldron, wincing as strings of slime splatter their aprons. Nearby, others slice tentacles and pack them into vacuum-sealed bags destined for restaurants and retailers across Europe, Asia and the United States. It is part of a growing global appetite for an animal that's become increasingly scarce in its native waters. Though O Carballino proudly calls itself Spain's octopus capital, complete with a towering bronze octopus statue, streets lined with the pulperias that offer them up to diners and an annual octopus festival that draws tens of thousands, the century-old factory hasn't sourced a single animal from local waters in 10 years. 'Here in Galicia, octopus has become really, really variable and scarce,' said Carlos Arcos, export manager of Frigorificos Arcos SL. 'If you're industrialising a process like we do, you need to guarantee your customers regularity of supply.' Today, 100 per cent of the company's octopus comes from Mauritania and Morocco. While octopus numbers fluctuate naturally from year to year, scientists and fishers say Spain's long-term trend is downward, and surging international demand is only tightening the squeeze. That's prompted some companies to explore farming the animals in tanks to ensure a long-term supply - a prospect that's drawn pushback from animal welfare groups. Pressure forces closure of Spain's octopus fishery This summer, that pressure reached a breaking point. Spain's octopus fishery closed for three months, an unusually long pause meant to give it time to recover. 'The population has only just come back, but once the season opens, we'll destroy it all in two weeks,' said Juan Martínez, a fisherman of more than four decades. Beside him, hundreds of octopus traps sat idle, stacked along the dock in his home port of Cangas. 'This used to be a sustainable industry, but now we've broken an entire ecosystem.' Octopus populations in Galicia also depend heavily on nutrient-rich upwelling — deep ocean water rising to the surface and bringing food for octopuses, said Ángel González, a research professor at the Spanish National Research Council. While upwelling naturally fluctuates, climate change is altering wind patterns, ocean stratification and nutrient delivery, making those cycles less predictable and, in some years, less productive. 'When that weakens due to changing oceanographic and atmospheric conditions, numbers drop regardless of fishing.' In response to growing demand and shrinking wild stocks, some companies in Spain are attempting to farm octopus in captivity. It is a move they say could ease pressure on the oceans. Grupo Profand is developing a research hatchery in Galicia focused on overcoming the biological challenges of breeding octopus. Meanwhile, seafood giant Nueva Pescanova is pursuing a full-scale industrial farm that would raise up to a million octopuses a year for slaughter. Grupo Profand did not respond to an interview request. A spokesperson for Nueva Pescanova declined to comment. Animal welfare groups say octopus farming is 'torture' Animal welfare groups have condemned the proposed project as inhumane, citing plans to kill octopuses by submerging them in ice slurry and to confine the often-cannibalistic animals at high densities. They also warn it would pollute nearby waters with discharged waste, worsen overfishing of the wild fish used for feed and inflict suffering on one of the ocean's most complex creatures. 'Farming wild animals is cruel, but especially with octopuses, given their solitary nature and extremely high intelligence,' said Helena Constela, head of communications at Seaspiracy, a group that advocates against industrial fishing. Keeping them confined together in tanks, she said, is 'basically torture in slow motion.' Michael Sealey, senior policy advisor at Oceana Europe, said aquaculture should focus on species with lower environmental costs, such as oysters and mussels, which require no fish feed. 'We recognise that aquaculture has a role to play in feeding the world,' said Michael Sealey, senior policy advisor at Oceana Europe. 'But we need to prioritise low-impact farming, not systems that rely on feeding wild fish to carnivorous species.' Widespread concerns have already prompted action in the United States. Washington became the first state to ban octopus farming in 2024, followed by California, which also outlawed the sale of farmed octopus. Lawmakers in more than half a dozen other states have proposed similar bans, and a bipartisan federal bill to prohibit both farming and imports of farmed octopus is under consideration in Congress. Though no commercial farms currently operate in the US but these preemptive measures reflect mounting unease over projects moving ahead in Europe, Asia and parts of Central and South America. The unease is fuelled in part by the 2020 Oscar-winning documentary 'My Octopus Teacher,' which showcased the animals' intelligence and emotional complexity to millions on Netflix. What are the arguments in favour of farming? 'They have a real brain. They're able to do things other animals cannot,' said González of the Spanish National Research Council. 'But please, don't cross the line. It's an animal, it's an invertebrate. We can't extrapolate these kinds of things. Personality is linked to persons.' González, who is working with Grupo Profand on their research hatchery, believes farming could help restore wild stocks by raising juvenile octopuses in captivity for release back into the sea. It is an approach animal welfare groups argue could pave the way for industrial-scale farming. Javier Ojeda, national aquaculture representative at APROMAR, Spain's aquaculture business association, said aquatic animals can play a key role in food security and may be more efficient to raise than livestock. 'Octopuses grow extremely fast and efficiently. They're not fighting gravity and they don't spend energy heating their bodies," he said. He acknowledged welfare concerns but argued they should not block scientific progress. 'Farming octopus is something that cannot be stopped,' said Ojeda. 'We've been eating them for a long time. Now we need to try to find best practices.'
Winnipeg Free Press
13-08-2025
- Business
- Winnipeg Free Press
As octopuses dwindle in Spanish waters, suppliers look to imports and farming despite concerns
GALICIA, Spain (AP) — At a humming factory in the Spanish town of O Carballino, workers sling dozens of limp octopuses into a metal cauldron, wincing as strings of slime splatter their aprons. Nearby, others slice tentacles and pack them into vacuum-sealed bags destined for restaurants and retailers across Europe, Asia and the United States — part of a growing global appetite for an animal that's become increasingly scarce in its native waters. Though O Carballino proudly calls itself Spain's octopus capital — complete with a towering bronze octopus statue, streets lined with the pulperias that offer them up to diners and an annual octopus festival that draws tens of thousands — the century-old factory hasn't sourced a single animal from local waters in 10 years. 'Here in Galicia, octopus has become really, really variable and scarce,' said Carlos Arcos, export manager of Frigorificos Arcos SL. 'If you're industrializing a process like we do, you need to guarantee your customers regularity of supply.' Today, 100% of the company's octopus comes from Mauritania and Morocco. While octopus numbers fluctuate naturally from year to year, scientists and fishers say Spain's long-term trend is downward and surging international demand is only tightening the squeeze. That's prompted some companies to explore farming the animals in tanks to ensure a long-term supply — a prospect that's drawn pushback from animal welfare groups. Pressure forces closure of Spain's octopus fishery This summer, that pressure reached a breaking point. Spain's octopus fishery closed for three months — an unusually long pause meant to give it time to recover. 'The population has only just come back, but once the season opens, we'll destroy it all in two weeks,' said Juan Martínez, a fisherman of more than four decades. Beside him, hundreds of octopus traps sat idle, stacked along the dock in his home port of Cangas. 'This used to be a sustainable industry, but now we've broken an entire ecosystem.' Octopus populations in Galicia also depend heavily on nutrient-rich upwelling — deep ocean water rising to the surface and bringing food for octopuses — said Ángel González, a research professor at the Spanish National Research Council. While upwelling naturally fluctuates, climate change is altering wind patterns, ocean stratification and nutrient delivery, making those cycles less predictable and, in some years, less productive. 'When that weakens due to changing oceanographic and atmospheric conditions, numbers drop regardless of fishing.' In response to growing demand and shrinking wild stocks, some companies in Spain are attempting to farm octopus in captivity — a move they say could ease pressure on the oceans. Grupo Profand is developing a research hatchery in Galicia focused on overcoming the biological challenges of breeding octopus. Meanwhile, seafood giant Nueva Pescanova is pursuing a full-scale industrial farm that would raise up to a million octopuses a year for slaughter. Grupo Profand did not respond to an interview request. A spokesperson for Nueva Pescanova declined to comment. Animal welfare groups say octopus shouldn't be farmed Animal welfare groups have condemned the proposed project as inhumane, citing plans to kill octopuses by submerging them in ice slurry and to confine the often-cannibalistic animals at high densities. They also warn it would pollute nearby waters with discharged waste, worsen overfishing of wild fish used for feed and inflict suffering on one of the ocean's most complex creatures. 'Farming wild animals is cruel, but especially with octopuses given their solitary nature and extremely high intelligence,' said Helena Constela, head of communications at Seaspiracy, a group that advocates against industrial fishing. Keeping them confined together in tanks, she said, is 'basically torture in slow motion.' Michael Sealey, senior policy advisor at Oceana Europe, said aquaculture should focus on species with lower environmental costs, such as oysters and mussels, which require no fish feed. 'We recognize that aquaculture has a role to play in feeding the world,' said Michael Sealey, senior policy advisor at Oceana Europe. 'But we need to prioritize low-impact farming — not systems that rely on feeding wild fish to carnivorous species.' Widespread concerns have already prompted action in the United States. Washington became the first state to ban octopus farming in 2024, followed by California, which also outlawed the sale of farmed octopus. Lawmakers in more than half a dozen other states have proposed similar bans, and a bipartisan federal bill to prohibit both farming and imports of farmed octopus is under consideration in Congress. Though no commercial farms currently operate in the U.S., these preemptive measures reflect mounting unease over projects moving ahead in Europe, Asia and parts of Central and South America — unease fueled in part by the 2020 Oscar-winning documentary 'My Octopus Teacher,' which showcased the animals' intelligence and emotional complexity to millions on Netflix. The arguments in favor of farming 'They have a real brain. They're able to do things other animals cannot,' said González of the Spanish National Research Council. 'But please — don't cross the line. It's an animal, it's an invertebrate. We can't extrapolate these kinds of things. Personality is linked to persons.' González, who is working with Grupo Profand on their research hatchery, believes farming could help restore wild stocks by raising juvenile octopuses in captivity for release back into the sea — an approach animal welfare groups argue could pave the way for industrial-scale farming. Javier Ojeda, national aquaculture representative at APROMAR, Spain's aquaculture business association, said aquatic animals can play a key role in food security and may be more efficient to raise than livestock. 'Octopuses grow extremely fast and efficiently — they're not fighting gravity and they don't spend energy heating their bodies,' he said. He acknowledged welfare concerns but argued they should not block scientific progress. Wednesdays What's next in arts, life and pop culture. 'Farming octopus is something that cannot be stopped,' said Ojeda. 'We've been eating them for a long time. Now we need to try to find best practices.' ___ Follow Annika Hammerschlag on Instagram @ahammergram. ___ The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP's environmental coverage, visit
The Guardian
11-08-2025
- Climate
- The Guardian
Southern Europe swelters under deadly heatwave as temperatures pass 40C
Deadly heat of up to 42C is searing southern Europe, as scientists warn of a 'molotov cocktail' of climatic conditions that is fuelling vast wildfires across the Mediterranean. Météo-France placed more than half the country under heatwave warnings on Monday morning, with 12 out of 96 administrative units on the mainland under the highest red alert, while Spain's Aemet warned of 'extreme danger' in Zaragoza and the Basque Country as it issued yellow and orange warnings for almost all the rest of the country. Both weather agencies forecast temperatures above 40C over the coming days and called for vigilance amid forecasts of 'a very intense, even exceptional' heatwave in parts of the continent. The high temperatures have alarmed experts as firefighters struggle to contain destructive wildfires. In France, which brought its biggest fire since 1949 under control on Sunday, authorities reported that one person had died in the blaze, while 20 firefighters and five civilians had been injured. In Italy, where temperatures of 40C are expected to hit Florence on Wednesday, tourist trails were closed on Mount Vesuvius on Sunday as firefighters fought a blaze on the slopes of the volcano. In Spain, fires that broke out in León and Zamora on Sunday forced more than 1,000 people to flee their homes, while large fires continued to burn in Galicia. Cristina Santín Nuño, a fire scientist at the Spanish National Research Council, said the large number of blazes was 'to be expected' after a wet spring that helped plants grow was followed by extreme heat, strong winds and long periods without rain. 'If we add to this the relatively easy possibility that a spark can ignite a fire somewhere … we have all the ingredients for the 'molotov cocktail' we're seeing right now,' she said. French forecasters said heat records were likely to be broken on Monday and Tuesday as temperatures pass 42C in the south-west. Temperatures hit a record high of 41.4C in the village of Tourbes, near Béziers, at the weekend. In Spain, temperatures on Monday were expected to rise further in the Ebro basin, the southern and eastern thirds of the Iberian peninsula, and the eastern Cantabrian Sea. They were forecast to fall in the north-west, particularly in Galicia. The weather agency said it expected heat of 37-39C across the interior of the Iberian peninsula on Monday, with maximum temperatures above 40C in the interior of the Basque Country and highs that could reach above 42C in the lower Guadalquivir. Jesús Santiago Notario del Pino, a soil scientist at the University of La Laguna, said conditions of 'extreme and prolonged heat' had primed the large number of fires across the country by drying out fuel. He added: 'Areas in the centre and north-west, theoretically less prone to severe fires – compared with the Mediterranean coast, for example – are burning. This is striking to me.' Sign up to This is Europe The most pressing stories and debates for Europeans – from identity to economics to the environment after newsletter promotion The world has warmed by about 1.4C because of fossil fuel pollution, which forms a heat-trapping blanket around the Earth, and the destruction of nature, which sucks carbon dioxide from the air. In Europe, which has warmed nearly twice as fast as the global average, a warm and dry air mass hanging over much of the Iberian peninsula and France has coincided with high levels of summer sunshine that have pushed temperatures even higher. In addition to the risk to humans from flames and smoke, the wildfires in Spain have also threatened Las Médulas world heritage site in El Bierzo. 'Personally, today is a sad day for me,' said Santín Nuño, who is from El Bierzo. 'Las Médulas has burned there, a beautiful spot with centuries-old chestnut trees and a Unesco world heritage site.' She added: 'In Spain, we're facing a new reality of forest fires because our landscapes have changed a lot in recent decades – there's more vegetation susceptible to burning – and now, climate change is creating more opportunities for these landscapes to burn more widely, intensely, and dangerously.'
Yahoo
27-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Earthworm DNA may challenge everything we know about evolution
If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, BGR may receive an affiliate commission. When Charles Darwin first proposed how evolution works in 1859, it seemed plausible. Tiny changes stack up over time, eventually leading a species to become something entirely different. Aside from the evidence we have already that this might not be the case, as the fossil records just didn't back it up, many, including Darwin himself, wrote it off as the records being broken and lost. But what if that wasn't the case at all? What if evolution works in a completely different way? Instead of waiting on tiny changes to stack up overtime, what if things stayed mostly the same for a while, but then suddenly something big happened and massive changes appeared? That may be exactly how it works, new research shows, as scientists studying earthworm DNA say that it completely contradicts Darwin's explanation for how evolution works. Today's Top Deals Best deals: Tech, laptops, TVs, and more sales Best Ring Video Doorbell deals Memorial Day security camera deals: Reolink's unbeatable sale has prices from $29.98 This new research was led by researchers at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and Pompeu Fabra University (UPF). The researchers shared their findings in a new paper published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution. These findings suggest that evolution may work with fast changes that ultimately lead to complete upheaval in how an organism is designed. The unlikely source of this new evidence is actually earthworm DNA. The researchers sequenced high-quality genomes of several different earthworm species for the first time ever. They then compared these genomes to those of leeches and even bristle worms. By digging deep, they were able to look back in the genome more than 200 million years. That's an unprecedented look at evolution at a scale previously reserved for studying the human genome. By looking at worm DNA, the researchers were able to get a glimpse at the evolution of life on our planet, as 200 million years ago would have been exactly when worms and other vertebrates like them ventured onto land for the first time. But instead of evidence of slow, tiny changes, the researchers discovered a massive 'upheaval' in the genome's history. This new evidence suggests that it isn't a broken record that's keeping us from fully understanding how evolution works. Instead, it's the theory itself that is holding us back. What's especially notable about the breakdown of the worm genome is that the changes seen within it 200 million years ago should have led to extinction if the changes were that chaotic. However, instead of leading to the species' demise, the worms adapted and even thrived. Of course, not every species will evolve the same way. Just because it works this way in worms doesn't mean it works that way in humans or other mammals. Each species' unique traits could play a part in the success or failure of their evolutionary journey. This could explain why other species of humans have died out, leaving only modern humans. But this is just the beginning. To truly understand how evolution works as a whole, we're going to need to dig even deeper. This new research might not have given us the complete answer, but it set us on the right path. More Top Deals Amazon gift card deals, offers & coupons 2025: Get $2,000+ free See the
Sky News
17-04-2025
- Politics
- Sky News
Who is the 'world's coolest dictator' Nayib Bukele?
👉 Listen to Sky News Daily on your podcast app 👈 El Salvador's president Nayib Bukele was welcomed into the White House by President Donald Trump earlier this week. The pair have recently become close allies after Mr Trump began sending Venezuelan migrants to a prison in El Salvador. On this Sky News Daily, host Niall Paterson finds out who the self-proclaimed "world's coolest dictator" actually is. He speaks to chief correspondent Stuart Ramsay about what impact Mr Bukele has had on El Salvador's gang problem and if he has transformed the country into a business and tourism haven. He also hears from Dr Ainhoa Montoya, author and senior researcher at the Spanish National Research Council, and founding director of the Centre for Latin American and Caribbean Studies at the University of London. She explains how Mr Bukele secured his position of power and uses social media as a propaganda tool.
