Common Octopus
Octopus vulgaris
Photo: albert kok · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikimedia Commons
Keep or release?
Where are you fishing?
Size limits, seasons and female rules are set by each state. Pick yours to get a verdict.
TIDE covers New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland rules, plus federal protections everywhere.
Verifying against GBIF…
Conservation status
IUCN Red ListLeast Concern. Most octopus fisheries are not formally assessed, so the category reflects a wide distribution rather than detailed stock monitoring.
What Least Concern means
Assessed as widespread and abundant. This describes the global population, not fishing pressure or legal protection.
On your plate
Common Seafood
Eaten widely around the Mediterranean and East Asia. Octopus also raises a welfare question that most seafood does not, because of how much evidence there is for its cognition.
Regional fishing status
Mostly caught in pot, trap and small-scale fisheries with little formal assessment. Proposals for commercial octopus farming have met organised scientific opposition.
If you buy it
- Pot and trap caught octopus has far lower habitat impact than trawled.
- Washington State banned octopus farming in 2024, and further bans have followed — farmed octopus remains contested on welfare grounds.
Conservation status and seafood sustainability are two different questions. A species can be Least Concern globally and still be overfished, protected or unsustainable where you are.
Habitat
Rocky reefs, crevices and seagrass from the shallows to 200 m
Range
Temperate and tropical waters of the Atlantic and Mediterranean
Size
Arm span up to 1 m, weight up to 10 kg
Diet
Crabs, clams, lobsters and fish
Lifespan
1–2 years
Group
cephalopod
An octopus has three hearts and blue, copper-based blood.
Two-thirds of its roughly 500 million neurons are in its arms, which can solve problems semi-independently of the brain.
It changes colour and skin texture in milliseconds to match its surroundings — despite being colourblind.
Octopuses reproduce once and then die; a female stops eating while guarding her eggs.
Cook this species