In O Carballino, a Spanish town proudly dubbed the ‘octopus capital’, a curious paradox unfolds.
Despite its towering bronze octopus statue, streets lined with traditional ‘pulperias’, and an annual festival drawing thousands, the century-old octopus factory at its heart hasn’t sourced a single animal from local waters in a decade.
Inside the humming factory, workers prepare dozens of octopuses for vacuum-sealed bags, destined for restaurants and retailers across Europe, Asia, and the United States.
This thriving global appetite, however, contrasts sharply with the mollusc’s increasing scarcity in its native waters.
Carlos Arcos, export manager of Frigorificos Arcos SL, explains the challenge: “Here in Galicia, octopus has become really, really variable and scarce.”
He adds, “If you’re industrialising a process like we do, you need to guarantee your customers regularity of supply.” This necessity has led to a complete shift in sourcing, with 100 per cent of the company’s octopus now imported from Mauritania and Morocco.
While octopus numbers fluctuate naturally from year to year, scientists and fishers say Spain’s long-term trend is downward and surging international demand is only tightening the squeeze.
That’s prompted some companies to explore farming the animals in tanks to ensure a long-term supply — a prospect that’s drawn pushback from animal welfare groups.
This summer, that pressure reached a breaking point. Spain’s octopus fishery closed for three months — an unusually long pause meant to give it time to recover.
“The population has only just come back, but once the season opens, we’ll destroy it all in two weeks,” said Juan Martínez, a fisherman of more than four decades.
Beside him, hundreds of octopus traps sat idle, stacked along the dock in his home port of Cangas. “This used to be a sustainable industry, but now we’ve broken an entire ecosystem.”
Octopus populations in Galicia also depend heavily on nutrient-rich upwelling — deep ocean water rising to the surface and bringing food for octopuses — said Ángel González, a research professor at the Spanish National Research Council.
While upwelling naturally fluctuates, climate change is altering wind patterns, ocean stratification and nutrient delivery, making those cycles less predictable and, in some years, less productive. “When that weakens due to changing oceanographic and atmospheric conditions, numbers drop regardless of fishing.”
In response to growing demand and shrinking wild stocks, some companies in Spain are attempting to farm octopus in captivity — a move they say could ease pressure on the oceans.
