Founded in 1974, the Hawaii Ocean and Technology Park in Kailua Kona serves as a hub for some of the most exciting projects in green aquaculture and the use of seawater to generate electricity. Tucked away in one corner of the facility and marked by several large tanks pumped full of ocean water sits the Kanaloa Octopus Farm. The farm is the country’s first and only for-profit initiative working on a way to breed octopus in captivity.

“The visit was awesome,” says travel blogger Patrick Catterson, who traveled to the Kanaloa Octopus Farm during a tour in March 2019. According to Catterson, the farm offers daily tours for around $30 per person, where you can learn all about octopus as well as the company’s mission to find a sustainable way to rear them for the seafood market. At the end of the tour, he says, visitors are offered a chance to interact with the octopus under supervision.

Jake Conroy, founder of the research program, has a bachelor’s degree in marine biology from Hawaii Pacific University. He founded the Kanaloa Octopus Farm in 2015, after quitting his previous job at the Anuenue Fisheries Research Center in Honolulu. “Octopus are fascinating animals, and almost all aquariums have them — and that’s just the ornamentals,” Conroy said in an interview with the Hawaii Tribune-Herald. “I would love to be able to supply the markets with sustainable sources and hopefully move up to a scale to provide octopus for eating.”

Conroy claims they’ve had some success: The initiative crossed its first hurdle in 2016, when they managed to mate a male and female octopus in captivity, outside of their natural habitat, according to the Tribune-Herald article. For now, Conroy says that his team will be breeding these creatures for aquariums only. The plan, however, is to eventually scale up production and become an exclusive supplier of farmed octopus for gourmet restaurants across the region. Conroy did not respond to requests for comment.

“My concerns are for the individual octopus, that they are viewed as commodities, when they are, in fact, intelligent animals who have been confined to a life devoid of any meaning.”

As intelligent and fascinating as octopus tend to be, some experts challenge whether they should be farmed in the first place, says Jennifer Jacquet, an environmental studies professor at New York University who recently co-authored a study on the environmental impact of octopus farms.

“My concerns are for the individual octopus under mass production, that they are viewed as mere commodities when they are, in fact, sentient, intelligent, curious animals who have been confined to a life devoid of any meaning or exploration,” she says.

Others share Jacquet’s concerns. Studies evaluating the species’ unusual intelligence have been conducted since 1995. The most significant was a recent study from 2015, in which scientists managed to decode the creature’s full genome sequence for the first time, opening up lines for more research into how various genes played a crucial role in the development of the octopus’ complex nervous system.

Structurally speaking, the nervous system of the octopus is completely different from that of mammals. Its brain wraps around its esophagus like a doughnut, instead of resting in the cranium like most invertebrates. Octopus brains also boast complex features like lobes and folds and a strong ability to retain visual and tactile memory. About two-thirds of its neurons, however, reside not in its brain but in its tentacles, giving the octopus the power to perform basic cognitive functions wholly independent of the brain. While mammal brains are geared toward social interaction, the brain of the octopus is designed to excel at predation: behaviors like locating and capturing prey, as well as evading predators through camouflage.

According to Conroy, octopus aquaculture has the potential to reduce the burden on wild populations, thereby cutting down on overfishing. Jacquet says she’s skeptical: Since the octopus is a carnivore, the animal has a high protein requirement that serves only to encumber the aquaculture industry if farmed on a large scale.

“We are still fishing more and more for wild fish — but the worst part is that many of the aquatic animals we farm are eating a lot of wild fish as feed,” Jacquet says. “We have to fish to feed farmed fish. We have created an aquaculture system that exacerbates overfishing, rather than alleviates it.”

Moreover, these are wild octopus that have been removed from their natural habitat in the ocean and forced to live and breed in captivity. Past research suggests this may not be a good idea. The octopus does not handle small spaces well, and keeping them in tanks increases the risk of parasitic infection and causes them severe duress, which can later lead to immunological problems. The European Union (EU) saw fit to introduce regulations in 2010 to safeguard research octopuses for this very reason.

In her bestselling book The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration Into the Wonder of Consciousness, Sy Montgomery, an award-winning author and naturalist, conveys her strong fascination for these creatures:

Here is an animal with venom like a snake, a beak like a parrot, and ink like an old-fashioned pen. It can weigh as much as a man and stretch as long as a car, yet it can pour its baggy, boneless body through an opening the size of an orange. It can change color and shape. It can taste with its skin. Most fascinating of all, I had read that octopuses are smart.

Montgomery describes how studying octopuses gave her a unique perspective of empathy and consciousness. “They’re so different from us, but what held my attention and totally mesmerized me was, that despite our differences, it’s possible to have a meeting of the minds with someone like this,” she told National Geographic.

Seafood startups may not share her sentiments. With the rise in demand for gourmet seafood, more and more companies across the world are investing in octopus aquaculture. Mayab Mollusks, a small business based in Sisal, Mexico, is the first commercial octopus farm in the world. Meanwhile, Nippon Suisan Kaisha (Nissui), a marine resources and seafood company based in Japan, where octopus has long been popular, has promised to provide market-ready farmed octopuses by 2020.

Many of these companies claim to be working in the interest of sustainability, trying to preserve wild populations and making aquaculture more sustainable, but they lack research to back their claims. Given that the primary markets for octopus are mostly food secure, Jacquet wonders — and given how incredible these animals are — would it really be so terrible if we just didn’t eat them?