octopus tagged posts

The Bafta-winning Netflix documentary My Octopus Teacher focuses on a film-maker who befriends an octopus. But the unsung star of the show is actually the kelp forest off the coast of Cape Town that he dives in – one of the world’s richest ecosystems.

The makers of the documentary are part of a campaign to preserve the underwater forest. BBC Africa Correspondent Andrew Harding went to meet them.

Plans to create octopus farms in coastal waters round the world have been denounced by an international group of researchers. They say the move is ethically inexcusable and environmentally dangerous, and have called on private companies, academic institutions and governments to block funding for these ventures.

The researchers say that farming octopuses would require the catching of vast amounts of fish and shellfish to feed them, putting further pressure on the planet’s already threatened marine livestock.

The group, led by Professor Jennifer Jacquet of New York University, argues that octopuses are highly intelligent, curious creatures. Farming them intensively would probably cause large numbers of deaths from stress...