A. Species

Scientific name: Octopus vulgaris

Common name(s): Common Octopus, Polvo-comum

Global IUCN Red List Threat Status: Least Concern

B. Location of use

Geographic location(s):

• Sardegna

Country/Region: Italy

C. Scale of assessment

Scale of assessment: Sub-national / Sub-region / Sub-State

Name/Details of location: Sardinia

D. Timescale of use

Start Year: 2013

End Year: 2020

E. Information about the use

How is the wild species sourced?: Wild species sourced from its natural habitat

Type of use: Extractive

Practice of use: Targeted fishing harvesting/exploiting or collecting wild aquatic resources

Lethal or non-lethal: Lethal

Does this use involve take/extraction of: The whole entire organism

Purpose(s) of end use: Food and feed

Motivation of use: Basic subsistence, Income generation from trade (individual/household/community), Largescale commercial exploitation for trade and Traditional/Cultural/Spiritual

Is this use legal or illegal?: Some use is legal and some is illegal

F. Information about the Users

Which stakeholder(s) does the record primarily focus on?: Local people and National / local private sector

G. Information about the sustainability of use

Is there evidence that the use is having an impact on the target species?: Wild species sourced from its natural habitat

Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from an ecological perspective been recorded?: Yes, considered unsustainable

Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from an economic perspective been recorded?: Yes, considered unsustainable

Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from a social perspective been recorded?: Yes, considered unsustainable

Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from a human health perspective been recorded?: not recorded

Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from an animal health/welfare perspective been recorded?: not recorded

Recommendations provided in the record to maintain or enhance the sustainability of the use of the target species

Authors state: Octopus fishery in Italy depends on the successful implementation of management measures to fight illegal fishing, improving control and enforcement of rules and regulations, and increasing the minimum landings sizes - which are below optimum. The definition and implementation of a national regulation would be very beneficial. Improvement of the existing regulations, when present, is highly desirable. A minimum requirement could be an increase in the minimum landing size, which would avoid the landings of a relatively large fraction of the mature population, besides avoiding captures of immature animals. Authors conclude: "The future economic viability of the octopus fishery is highly dependent on improving sustainability and markets for the octopus fishery, e.g., seeking to increase the added-value of the product. Labelling initiatives, such as ecolabels and certifications of origin, can be important to add value to octopus fisheries. The introduction of routine stock assessment (and a formal definition of the stocks) is probably the highest priority at present, while routine monitoring of the size composition and maturity state of landed octopus could allow redistribution of fishing effort to account for variation in the timing of the life cycle."

Record source

Information about the record source: scientific_pub

Date of publication/issue/production: 2021-01-01T00:00:00+0000

Source Reference(s):

Date of record entry: 2022-12-08

Records from the same source material: