In abstract
A invoice that might make California the primary state to ban business octopus farming continues to be alive within the Legislature. Animal rights activists say the observe is inhumane.
Amid the ocean of payments that California lawmakers waded via Thursday, one they rescued marks a key step ahead to ban business octopus farming in California.
If Meeting Invoice 3162 passes the total Senate earlier than the tip of this month and Gov. Gavin Newsom indicators it, California may very well be the primary state to ban each the observe of octopus farming and the sale of the farmed creature — despite the fact that it hasn’t began.
Octopus farming experiments nonetheless, are underway in Spain, Mexico and China. One Spanish firm, Nueva Pescanova, plans to open a farm within the Canary Islands.
After listening to about these plans, activist organizations Animal Authorized Protection Fund and Social Compassion in Laws introduced the concept of a preemptive ban to the West Coast. They are saying that octopuses are clever beings that may’t be killed humanely, and likewise argue that farming them would exacerbate local weather and sustainability points.
“Particularly before the industry gets started, that’s the best time to be doing this kind of legislation,” Assemblymember Steve Bennett instructed CalMatters.
Bennett, a Democrat from Oxnard, and Assemblymember Laura Friedmana Democrat from Burbank, co-authored the invoice, which handed the Meeting by a vote of 51-10 in April. There isn’t any recorded opposition to the invoice up to now. The California Restaurant Affiliation instructed CalMatters it doesn’t have a place on the invoice.
The Washington state legislature was the primary to go a invoice banning the observe of octopus farming earlier this 12 months, but it surely doesn’t ban farmed octopus gross sales. Different states on the Pacific Coast — Oregon and Hawaii — are at the moment their very own laws.
“Now is the time to take a stand on not having commercial industrial octopus farming in the state, but also not supporting its production elsewhere by banning the sale of it within the state,” mentioned Judie Mancuso, CEO of Animal Authorized Protection Fund.
The problem has additionally reached Congress. Final month, Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat, and Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican, launched bipartisan laws to ban the observe of octopus farming and any imports.
“We believe that if a number of jurisdictions outside of Spain say ‘no,’ maybe that will influence the Spanish government to not put out the red carpet for this company and allow them to do it,” mentioned Nick Sackett, director of legislative affairs at Social Compassion in Laws.
Octopuses are very smart creatures, mentioned Jennifer Hauge, senior legislative affairs supervisor at Animal Authorized Protection Fund, making it extra harmful and inhumane to carry them in the kind of captivity used for farming.
“There would be a high likelihood of aggressive activity and potentially escape,” she mentioned. “Also, there are no known humane methods of slaughtering octopus at present.”
Moreover, as a result of octopuses require a eating regimen of 3 times their weight in fish to outlive, farming might disrupt ecosystems by placing pressure on wild fish populations.
“That’s on its face unsustainable,” Sackett mentioned.
“Particularly before the industry gets started, that’s the best time to be doing this kind of legislation.”
assemblymember steve bennett, co-author of a proposed ban on octopus farming
Activists have raised environmental issues, resembling a excessive danger of nitrogen and phosphorus runoff and different air pollution.
“You would imagine the same kind of risk that you have with all aquaculture,” Sackett mentioned. “There’s pollution, there’s disease, if any of these farmed fish with disease escape or are accidentally released, they cause havoc on the wild ecosystems.”
Hauge predicts that states on the East Coast will introduce their very own laws in subsequent 12 months’s legislative classes.
“This is not a flash in the pan,” she mentioned. “Californians would be leading at the beginning of the trend, but hopefully this will be a wave that continues.”
