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STAFF REPORTER THE regional ministry for Agriculture and Fisheries is considering starting octopus farming next year, using both common varieties and a species that is found mostly in Balearic waters, the “Octopus vulgaris”.

The move has been prompted by a meeting in Palma yesterday of Spain's Marine Farming Board, “Jacumar” which reported on new developments in the industry. Cultivating sea creatures is not new to the Balearics as projects are already up and running to restore the Mediterranean crab population, and to farm sea bass and mussels. Ministry researchers in octopus farming will operate from the Marine Investigation Centre in Andratx . Their efforts will concentrate on guaranteeing the survival of the octopus lavae in tanks, the most delicate moment of the reproductive cycle that has not yet met with success in Spain.