Hawaii’s Octopus Farm Temporarily Halted

Late last year, The Every Animal Project published an investigation into Kanaloa Octopus Farm on the Big Island of Hawaii, which captures wild Hawaiian day octopuses, entrapping them in tiny, isolated tanks and subjecting them to breeding experiments under the guise of “conservation.” Last week, the Hawaii Division of Aquatic Resources issued a cease and desist letter to Kanaloa for operating without required permits. 

Owner Jake Conroy has reportedly claimed that these octopuses were not captured in West Hawaii waters—in direct conflict with what EAP was told on my tour: that Kanaloa pays someone to capture octopuses off-shore. 

EAP’s October 2022 investigation revealed that, funding itself through petting zoo-like tours and state support, the facility has attempted to breed hundreds of these octopuses, a process that’s always fatal—but as of 2022, babies had only survived up to 13 days. Despite Kanaloa’s public claims that it isn’t interested in farming, government records show plans for supplying octopus and squid to the restaurant industry. 

For now, the octopus program has been temporarily shut down, and Kanaloa is shifting to bobtail squids, a species it is already profiting off of through breeding and selling (and for which there is insufficient data for Kanaloa to claim they are doing so in the name of conservation).

Said Every Animal Project founder and investigator Laura Lee Cascada, “Hawaii has taken a crucial step in citing Kanaloa, which greenwashes itself as a conservation program while confining sentient, intelligent octopuses in barren, tiny tanks and subjecting them to fatal breeding experiments. Kanaloa’s true goals, revealed by government records, are to profit off the creation of an octopus farming industry, and the state must now take permanent action to stop this assault on Hawaii’s wildlife.”