Octopus farming in the U.S. would be banned under a new bill in Congress

A controversial plan to commercially farm octopus for meat has led to a U.S. bill that would ban the practice, along with any imports linked to it. Bipartisan legislation to ban octopus farming was introduced in Congress on Friday, after NPR reported on the issue. "Octopuses are among the most intelligent creatures in the oceans. And they belong at sea, not suffering on a factory farm," Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-Rhode Island, a co-author of the bill, said in a statement to NPR. The legislation comes as scientists and animal advocates express outrage over a plan by a large seafood company in Spain to farm octopuses on an unprecedented scale to harvest them for seafood. Whitehouse became aware of the company's plan through the NPR story, according to the senator’s office. There are no current reports of plans for an industrial octopus farm in the U.S. But Whitehouse said he and the bill's other co-author, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, decided to act preemptively, to "prevent U.S. ...