Islanders urged to eat more octopuses as populations seem to increase in Guernsey waters

  • ITV Channel reporter Kate Prout visits the fishermen claiming octopus populations are having an 'ink-credible' rise

Fishermen in Guernsey are encouraging islanders to eat more octopus due to a surplus of them appearing in our waters.

Numbers have soared recently which has reduced catches of crab, scallops, and lobster.

However, no one appears to know the exact reason why the eight-legged molluscs.

There are suggestions the populations began rising last month, possibly due to warmer waters and plentiful food sources.

While more octopuses are being caught by fishermen, they say it's difficult to make a profit on the eight-legged creatures. Credit: ITV Channel

Richard Keen, a Guernsey fisherman, says: "The fishermen are not getting any return for what octopus they do catch.

"We hardly saw any octopus until about a month ago and now every day that we go diving, we see octopuses.

"You see them on every menu in the Mediterranean [and] in top restaurants in London, but I don't know how to cook it successfully and nobody particularly does."

Guernsey chef Matt Livingstone has tried putting Octopus on the menu but says that islanders are not particularly interested. Credit: ITV Channel

Fish is always on the menu in Matt Livingstone's kitchen.

He has tried octopus recipes in the past but says customers just don't seem that interested and are keener on crustaceans.

He explains: "We need to help the fishermen out as well, because obviously the numbers grow and grow and we're going to have to do something about it.

"It's a waste. So I think it's down to the chefs, ourselves, customers, and suppliers, and everyone in general to get together and work out a plan to see how we can get over that obstacle."

Jessi Jennings, Nature Commission CEO, says: "The difficulty we've got is that we don't have the evidence base to be able to say, yes, it's definitely happening.

"Are these populations being focused on because [fishermen's] food source is being removed from the area or are [octopus] populations actually increasing?

"When fishermen are asking about octopus or any other species, we would encourage them to report them."

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