Octopus: Common

Common Octopus

Tako, Madako

Common octopus is a benthic species that inhabits zones occurring from the coastline to the outer edge of the continental shelf. The common octopus has a vast range and is found in offshore waters across much of the globe. It dwells in numerous distinct habitats, including atop rocky substrate, amongst coral reefs, and along grassy beds. Octopus fisheries occur in many countries throughout the world. Octopus used by the U.S sushi industry is sourced primarily from North Africa, Vietnam, and Spain by the Japanese octopus preparation industry.

Common Octopus is a naturally resilient organism, with high fecundity, low age at maturity, a relatively short lifespan, and rapid growth rate. Its migratory behavior and spawning spikes do impart a certain level of vulnerability, but when properly managed and exploited, the common octopus should be able to withstand a substantial amount of directed fishing pressure.

The Moroccan stocks receive a stock status ranking of “moderate.” Stocks are fully exploited with unknown stock abundance and fishing mortality rates.

The Vietnamese fishery also has unknown stock abundance and fishing mortality. This lack of data combined with heavy exploitation of the stock and decreasing trends in landings results in the Vietnamese stock receiving a stock status
ranking of “poor.”

The Mauritanian stock is overfished with decreasing biomass, and overfishing is likely to be occurring; therefore, the stock is deemed to be “critical.”

Aside from Vietnam, bycatch seems to be fairly uniform between fisheries employing like gear.

No bycatch mitigation measures are in place in the Mediterranean and North African octopus fisheries.

In the Vietnamese fishery, fishermen retain and use all non-target species (50-70% of all Vietnamese trawlers’ catches), which can be considered byproducts instead of bycatch. This practice is thought to play a part in the continuing degradation of many Vietnamese fish stocks threatened with
extinction.

As is the case in many other fisheries, the O. vulgaris trawl fisheries damage the benthos by relying on a gear type that can result in severe habitat disruption. The trawl fisheries in Morocco and Mauritania occur in rocky areas, which are known to be particularly vulnerable to bottom trawling. The Vietnamese trawl fisheries are slightly less damaging because the fisheries occur in muddy, sandy bottom areas which are known to be more resilient to bottom trawling than rocky areas. That being said, bottom trawling still impacts all organisms that dwell in these areas – not just the high-value O. vulgaris. The exact amount of damage done by the Spanish inshore pot fishery is unknown, but it is thought to be much less than the fisheries employing weighted trawl nets. The long-term effects of removing substantial quantities of O. vulgaris remain unexplored in all major octopus fisheries.

Management in the O. vulgaris fisheries is an emerging phenomenon that is evolving at different
rates in different areas.

The Moroccan O. vulgaris stock has historically been
overexploited, and crashed from 2001-2004. Morocco has recently taken some measures to increase the health of the stock, but it is too soon to determine the effectiveness of these measures.

Mauritania is undergoing a similar crisis to that faced by Morocco during its O. vulgaris crash, but whether it will prompt similar protective actions remains unknown. It seems unlikely considering that Mauritania recently signed a fisheries partnership agreement with the EU, allowing them to further exploit the octopus resource.

Vietnamese fisheries are heavily exploited, and need to overcome a great deal of obstacles such as a lack of technology, unidentified fishing grounds, high amounts of trash fish landings, and inadequate port infrastructure. Vietnam does not currently have the ability to address these issues.

Given this information, the Moroccan, Mauritian, and Vietnamese management regimes are ranked as “critical.”

Where is this Octopus from?

Contaminant levels do not warrant a consumption advisory.

No.