S9. E8: Laura Lee Cascada: The Only US Octopus Farm has been Temporarily Shut Down
“But what the tour guide told us, was that eventually, as they grew, they now have their own octopus catchers. They called them the octopus whisperers, and they said that these people know exactly where the octopuses are going to be and when, so they know how to go get them and bring them back to the facility.”
– Laura Lee Cascada
In October of last year, Laura Lee Cascada published an investigation into the Kanaloa Octopus Farm on the Big Island in Hawaii. The Kanaloa Octopus Farm was capturing wild Hawaiian Day octopuses and keeping them in these tiny, isolated tanks while also conducting breeding experiments, under the guise of conservation.
What made it even more bizarre was that they were also a tourist attraction. People could pay to come to the octopus farm and see and touch and pet the octopuses in these tiny tanks. So, it was like an octopus petting zoo/breeding farm.
What they were really doing was trying to figure out how to breed these octopuses, which is really difficult to do in captivity. But it's the first step to US octopus factory farming.
In January, they received a cease and desist letter because they did not have the required permits for the above. So, for the moment, their octopus program is temporarily shut down. We need to keep it shut down and we need to ban octopus farming in this country before it really starts.
The world’s first octopus factory farm is set to open in the Canary Islands this year, adding to the very long list of cruel and abusive industries across the planet. Let’s not let that happen here.
I asked Laura to talk about her investigation and what all this really means for octopuses and for the future of farming them for food.
Please listen and share.
In gratitude,
Elizabeth Novogratz
Learn More About Laura Lee Cascada
Learn More About Every Animal Project
Articles on Kanaloa Octopus Farm:
Octopus farm accused of offering ‘petting zoo’ experience shuts down after cease-and-desist
Kanaloa Octopus Farm in West Hawaiʻi receives cease and desist letter from state
Hawaii orders facility to stop capturing and keeping octopuses
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