SPAIN ENVIRONMENT – Untangling the mysteries of the octopus
A team of scientists in Spain is aiming to explain the mysteries shrouding the largely unknown life cycle of octopuses, and their research could pave the way for sustainable farming of the cephalopods that are a common feature on dinner tables across the country.
Biologists working with the Institute of Marine Research (CSIC) recently released 22 octopuses into the waters of the Cíes Islands in the northwestern city of Vigo, Galicia, a diverse and unique habitat that was declared a natural park in 1980.
DELVING INTO THE UNKNOWN
“We aim to observe what the migrations of these animals are, what they do and what their interactions are within their own ecosystem in the Cíes Islands,” Angel Gonzalez, Scientific Researcher at CSIC, tells Efe.
“We chose the Cíes because it is a natural laboratory, and is really gorgeous from the perspective of the culture of these animals, not only the common octopus, but also cuttlefish and squid, and it is a pristine ecosystem (…) so it’s a fantastic space to know what is going on with the ecology of these animals,” Gonzalez says.