Tuesday 28 March 2023

Octopuses

 

Octopuses

All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons


I was horrified to learn that plans have been made to create an octopus farm in Spain.

Octopuses are incredibly intelligent animals, capable of using tools and dealing with problems in a multitude of ways. They are largely solitary and territorial, the females meeting a male once only to mate.

Once they have laid their eggs, they cease feeding, devoting themselves to the care of their young. When the youngsters are independent and the last one has swum away, the mother octopus dies.

Sy Montgomery’s book, ‘The Soul of an Octopus’, provides a fascinating insight into creatures with complex habits. The prospect of corralling these amazing invertebrates into pens is abhorrent.

Where is man’s humanity? Are we now so degraded that we cannot see beyond our own greed?

12 comments:

  1. I may have a different view if I liked eating octopus but yes, you are quite right. Let the octopi live their lives. They don't need to become like bred salmon, coloured by chemicals.

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  2. One wonders if there is anything people would not commercialise.

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  3. I feel just the same about octopus farms. Another recommended book about these amazing creatures is: 'Other Minds' by Peter Godfrey-Smith.
    Cheers, Gail.

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  4. I assume they might be farmed for eating? I can't think of any other reason and I think it is a bad idea.

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  5. I think they are destined for the restaurant trade.

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  6. Oh, that's just horrible! I fear for humanity sometimes :-( xxx

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  7. Octopus is ...scrub that... WAS one of the few seafoods i enjoyed to eat until I saw one being caught and killed by repeated bashing on rocks. Never again and I was given to understand before I left Greece (where they are almost a staple food) that there is increasing sympathy/respect for them. There is a long way to go however. If humans want to eat them (and we are predators after all) we need to find ways to protect and enhance the ecosystems they thrive in to increase their populations and ensure that every single one lives its best life before meeting a more humane end than the one I witnessed. A friend of ours used to feed one daily at one of her favourite dive spots. I'd hate to think of someone exploiting that trust.

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  8. Agreed. Animals were put on this planet for our use, not our abuse.

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  9. Hi Janice - I have to read Peter's book 'Other Minds' ... I noted the comments etc when he brought his ideas to our attention. I wish we didn't need to do these things ... cheers Hilary

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