This month we’re calling for help to shut down plans to build the world’s first octopus farm in Gran Canaria.

We’re asking people to email the Port Authority of Las Palmas, calling on them to officially close down Nueva Pescanova’s planning file to build the farm. This is because the company ran out of time to submit a detailed environmental impact assessment.

Global outcry

It’s been five years since the Spanish seafood company Nueva Pescanova submitted plans to farm these intelligent, naturally solitary animals in underwater tanks.

The proposals sparked global outcry from the public, scientists and policymakers. We warned that farming octopuses in intensive conditions would be cruel, likely leading to stress, aggression and even cannibalism.
What’s more, there is no scientifically approved, humane way to slaughter octopuses. Our undercover footage shows how these octopuses would suffer slow, agonising deaths.

Environmental threats

Octopus farms also pose a serious threat to the environment, marine life, and food security. As carnivores, they would need to be fed thousands of tonnes of wild-caught fish, depleting our already overfished oceans, and impacting local livelihoods in vulnerable coastal communities.

These concerns were enough for the Canary Islands government to ask Nueva Pescanova for a detailed Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). However, the company never provided the required full EIA and as a result, the legal deadline for the port concession has now expired, according to Spanish law.

time to close the file

That’s why we’re calling on the Port Authority of Las Palmas to officially close this file and prevent the seafood company from obtaining a port license.

With an email, you can help us stop this proposal - and make sure this cruel, unsustainable project doesn’t go any further.

Spanish port urged to shut down octopus farm project