Let’s Meet England’s Super-Intelligent Octopus!
The Octopus (the plural is octopuses or octopi) is one of the world’s most fascinating creatures. Similar to when one marine biologist wrote ‘When God created the seahorse, he may have had one too many’, this is a similar story.
Found in southern and western waters, these ‘intelligent aliens’ are like no other creature on earth. They have eight arms, three hearts and can see with their skin.
Using black ink to inject prey (mostly crabs), they have such good memories that one stranded octopus even returned the next day to thank holiday makers for putting him back in the water and saving his life!
Brilliant Brains and Astonishing Memory
The common octopus found off England’s shores has an incredibly complex brain. Its brain-to-body ratio tops most sea creatures, sometimes even beating that of dogs. Octopuses use this brainpower to solve puzzles, open jars, and escape enclosures.
An octopus’s brain is split into parts, with two-thirds of its neurons in the arms, not the head. This means its arms think for themselves, reacting to touch and taste without waiting for orders from the brain.
They are related to squid (common around all our waters) and cuttlefish (the dried-up shells are often used to amuse budgies). Octopuses are masters at changing both colour and texture to perfectly match their environment.
All thanks to millions of tiny pigment cells called chromatophores. When danger lurks or it’s time for a meal, they vanish in plain sight. Nature’s own optical illusionists.
When it’s time to move, octopuses waste no time. By shooting a jet of water from their bodies, they zoom across the sea like rocket-powered creatures. It’s not just fast but incredibly efficient, allowing them to escape predators or chase down prey.
It’s very sad that intelligent octopuses end up in aquariums (from which they often escape). But researchers have learned to their cost not to upset them.
One did not like a female volunteer and would shoot salt water at her when she visited. She left and months later returned. The octopus took one look at her, and squirted water at her again.
One (very unkind) experiment involved cutting off one of the octopus’s arms. The arm crawled off on its own and then seized a food item which it tried to pass to where the mouth would be, if the arm had still been connected to the body.
Campaigning for Sentience Laws
There’s a push for UK laws to recognise octopuses as sentient, feeling creatures. Campaigners want octopuses listed with other animals protected by higher welfare rules, including how they’re caught, kept, and used in research.
Some courtrooms and policy groups in the UK have started to listen, and supporters are hopeful for better laws soon.
A Bid to Stop Them Being Eaten Alive
Despite their intelligence, octopuses are still caught and eaten in many places, including the UK. Campaigns urge shops and restaurants to stop selling live octopus, stating that it is deeply cruel to kill such sentient beings in that way.
Animal welfare advocates push for humane treatment, and public support for these efforts keeps growing.
Boycott Tourism Aquariums
More people are refusing to visit tourist sites that keep octopuses in tanks. These animals are curious and need space to explore. Many get bored or stressed in small glass tanks. Activists urge families to avoid such aquariums and instead support rescue centres, which work for animal welfare and conservation, not profit.
Unique Courtships and Birth
Courtship for octopuses is anything but normal. Males use a special arm to hand off sperm packets to females. Some males die soon after mating. Females, after guarding their eggs, stop eating and die soon after hatching.
It’s a short, one-off adult life, but it means every octopus you see is either very young or ready for the next step in their lifecycle.
Beach Cleans Help Octopus Habitats
Octopuses need clean, safe rocky shores and sea beds. Rubbish, especially plastics, blocks their dens and harms their food supply. Local volunteers run regular beach cleans, collecting plastics, nets, and scrap from the shore. These events are a great way to help, have fun, and meet new people.
Fighting Ghost Fishing Gear
Lost fishing gear, called ghost gear, is deadly for octopuses. Nets and pots left at sea trap and kill animals long after they’ve been abandoned. Conservation charities run schemes to fish out this gear, saving hundreds of animals each year. Read our post on preventing ghost fishing waste.
How to Help Our Octopus Friends
Crustacean Compassion is asking for the law to be changed, to stop the sale of live crustaceans (and to ban untrained people from killing them in home kitchens).
Although not crustaceans, the charity includes cephalopods (octopus, squid/calamari and cuttlefish) in their wish for all creatures to be classed as ‘sentient beings’ (a recognition that all creatures can feel pain).
Compassion in World Farming has a free report to download (in several languages) on reasons why factory farming of octopuses should never be allowed to happen. These include being solitary by nature, being highly carnivorous (they would eat each other), little being known of welfare needs and no present welfare legislation.
Their fragile skeletons could also be easily damaged in tanks. In the US, Washington State has become the first place worldwide to place a ban on octopus farming.
Make Or Buy Vegan Calamari (squid)
Avoid seaweed for thyroid/iodine issues. Read food safety for people & pets (many human foods like garlic are unsafe near animals).
- Vegan Calamari with garlic aioli (A Pinch of Parsley) uses hearts of palm. If used, choose the multi-stemmed variety for sustainability or instead just sub with canned artichokes (local and more sustainable).
- Vegan Calamari with jalapeno ketchup (The Happy Pear) is a very simple recipe using an air-fryer, made with aubergines, white miso, oat milk, seaweed and salt, in a garlic turmeric coating.
- Revo Foods (Austria) has become the first company on earth to make a top quality ‘vegan octopus’ using fungi protein.
- Look in stores for Nature’s Charm Calamari, a tinned food made with mushrooms, capers, seaweed and salt. Or Happiee! Breaded Vegan Calamari or Squidiee Rings!
