Species Use Database

Octopus
Octopus spp.

Used for Food and feed in Atlantic - northwest, Atlantic - southeast, Indian Ocean - western, Pacific - southeast and Pacific - southwest

A. Species

Scientific name: Octopus spp.

Common name(s): Octopus

Global IUCN Red List Threat Status:


B. Location of use

Geographic location(s):

  • Atlantic - northwest
  • Atlantic - southeast
  • Indian Ocean - western
  • Pacific - southeast
  • Pacific - southwest

Country/Region:


C. Scale of assessment

Scale of assessment: Global

Name/Details of location: Global


D. Timescale of use

Start Year: 1950

End Year: 2016


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) and Largescale commercial exploitation for trade

Is this use legal or illegal?: Legal under national law


F. Information about the Users

Which stakeholder(s) does the record primarily focus on?: Local people


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 sustainable

Brief summary on why the use has been assessed/judged to be sustainable or unsustainable: Sustainable fishing techniques

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

Brief summary on why the use has been assessed/judged to be sustainable or unsustainable: it represents a source of income, employment and subsistence for local communities

Has an assessment (or judgement) of sustainability of the use of the target species from a social perspective been recorded?: No, sustainability not determined

Brief summary on why the use has been assessed/judged to be sustainable or unsustainable: Indications that benefits of species used are gender-balanced (e.g., employment and income-generating opportunities for women)

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

"To remain sustainable in the future, improvements in the manage- ment of octopus fisheries will be required. A large proportion of total catch still goes unreported, and there is an urgent need for incentives to promote fishers’ participation in surveillance and stock monitoring, enforced access rights through individual and region-specific quotas, and robust spatial management plans" (p.186) " There is a need for more temporal fishery closures and protection of key habitats and life cycle stages to protect new recruits to the octopus population." (p.186)


Record source

Information about the record source: scientific_pub

Date of publication/issue/production: 2023-01-01T00:00:00+0000

Source Reference(s):

Willer, D.F., Aldridge, D.C., Gough, C. and Kincaid, K., 2023. Small-scale octopus fishery operations enable environmentally and socioeconomically sustainable sourcing of nutrients under climate change. Nature Food, 4(2), pp.179-189. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-022-00687-5

Date of record entry: 2023-05-22