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?
