Cephalopods

Cephalopod means ‘head-footed’ and refers to the way in which the arms and tentacles of these creatures sprout directly from the head. The arrangement strikes many people as repulsive. Others find beauty, or at least fascination, in the extraordinary forms which an animal such as the octopus can assume. The convolutions of their tentacles, the ‘wondrous curls’ to which Athenaeus referred, are a frequent theme in classical art. Their excellence as food was also acknowledged by classical authors. These traditions have persisted in the Mediterranean area in a way which is only matched in Japan. (A study by the F.A.O. of the intensity of the exploitation of estimated cephalopod resources in the fifteen fishing areas of the world showed that it is only in the Mediterranean and the northwest Pacific that a level of about 50 per cent is attained, most areas recording less than 10 percent.)