On Thursday, the Las Palmas Port Authority accepted Nueva Pescanova’s decision to abandon plans to build the world’s first commercial octopus farm on its land, a controversial project which, by a quirk of the calendar, has thus been shelved on International Octopus Day.
At the end of the Port Authority’s board meeting, its chair, Beatriz Calzada, pointed out that the organisation itself had already announced this summer, in August, that it was abandoning the project, which had sparked protests from various animal welfare and environmental groups.
Opponents of the farm put forward various reasons, centring on three main grounds for opposition: the high cognitive ability of octopuses, the cruelty allegedly associated with the rearing and slaughter methods, and the facility’s impact on the marine environment, due to the large volume of fish required for feed.
Las Palmas: Port land is being made available for new businesses
Calzada pointed out that, following Nueva Pescanova’s withdrawal from the initial concession for the land at the Port of La Luz where the facility was to be built, that land is now available and presents an opportunity for other companies to develop their businesses.
In 2007, the forum *The Octopus News Magazine Online* decided to establish an International Octopus Day to raise awareness of these cephalopods. The date chosen is based on a play on words: 8 for the number of the animal’s limbs and October because of the similarity between the names in English (October/octopus).
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