When Mexican biologist Carlos Rosas dips his hand into the water of a large open-topped tank and brings it to the surface, there is a tiny purple baby octopus, no bigger than a tennis ball, in his palm. It squirms and slithers before slipping from his hand back into the tank, the only home it has ever known.
This octopus, along with about 250 others, lives in captivity as part of a community project in Sisal, a fishing community in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, that started 15 years ago as a women's collective.
After much trial and error, Rosas' team found success with a food made from fish waste - like heads - that would otherwise be tossed back into the sea. The farm's formula has attracted international attention. Spanish company Nueva Pescanova, which plans to open the world's first commercial octopus farm next year, wants to test the food, and even send its own fish waste to Sisal to have it made into food, Rosas said.Nueva Pescanova, in a statement shared with Reuters, said a food for farmed octopus was being developed based on the UNAM model, which it described as "a circular economy solution.
There is pressure to push forward with commercial farming as global demand grows and the market is expected to reach 688,382 tons by 2025, according to Renub Research. That's a nearly 64% increase compared to the 420,000 tons produced in 2018, data from the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership shows.
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