Photo by Serena Repice Lentini
August 20, 2024Animal Law & Policy Program, FacultyProfessor Stilt co-authors letter in support of US Octopus Act
On August 15, the journal Science published a letter authored by 100 scientists, academics, and experts calling for congressional support of the “Opposing the Cultivation and Trade of Octopus Produced through Unethical Strategies (OCTOPUS) Act.” The OCTOPUS Act is a federal bill that would prohibit commercial octopus farming in the US and the importation of farmed octopus products. Senators Sheldon Whitehouse and Lisa Murkowski introduced the bipartisan bill as S. 4810 on July 25.
Led by Jennifer Jacquet, Becca Franks, Peter Godfrey-Smith, and Walter Sanchez-Suarez, the Science letter’s authors also include the Brooks McCormick Jr. Animal Law & Policy Program’s Faculty Director, Professor Kristen Stilt, and two of its alumni fellows, Cleo Verkuijl and Jan Dutkiewicz. The letter highlights how octopuses have complex nervous systems, exhibit advanced behaviors such as problem-solving and play, and require dynamic, enriched environments that cannot be replicated in commercial aquaculture conditions, making them unsuitable for farming. The letter also emphasizes the ecological and ethical concerns surrounding the commercial farming of octopuses and other carnivorous aquatic species, which disrupts marine ecosystems and increases pressure on wild fish populations by requiring large quantities of marine animals for feed. The letter further calls attention to the commercial octopus farming prohibition the State of Washington enacted earlier this year and similar legislation under consideration in California and Hawaii.
As the letter details, “[t]he main drivers for an octopus market are increasing exotic meat demand and rising disposable income rather than a need to address food insecurity.” Because “[s]atisfying luxury markets does not justify the substantial threats that octopus farms would pose to animal welfare and marine ecosystems,” Professor Stilt and the letter’s other authors call for congressional support of the OCTOPUS Act. Enactment of the legislation would prohibit octopus farming domestically and reduce the spread of the emerging industry abroad, sparing countless of these remarkable individuals from commercial confinement and helping to preserve the balance of marine ecosystems.