The city’s newest initiative adds another string to the bow of Cannes’ proactive measures to ensure a sustainable marine environment.
Octopuses belong in the sea, not on a dinner plate, according to David Lisnard. Since taking office in 2014, the mayor of Cannes has deployed numerous pioneering actions to preserve the sea and its marine biodiversity. Now he alerts to the gradual decline of a key species in Mediterranean waters: the octopus, essential to marine balance. The city has therefore launched an awareness campaign dedicated to its protection.
Warming and acidification of waters, overfishing, the capture of juveniles, and the rise in poaching present the biggest dangers to octopuses. Yet this friendly and intelligent cephalopod plays an important role in the balance of the marine food chain and contributes in particular to the regulation of certain invasive species, such as the blue crab.
Courtesy and © Mairie de Cannes
Females are particularly vulnerable during their reproductive period from May through September while protecting their eggs. “Respecting the octopus’s sensitive periods helps promote the natural renewal of species and sustainably safeguard our coastline,” Lisnard says.
Carried out in partnership with the Cannes-based association Anges de Poulpes (Angels of Octopuses) and rolled out in early June 2026, the initiative is being promoted through the installation of large billboards near beaches, ports, and urban locations. In parallel, the association’s sixty committed volunteers carry out numerous awareness-raising activities, including workshops and social media campaigns aimed at the general public and schoolchildren in order to highlight the issues surrounding the preservation of the octopus in the Mediterranean.
The aim is not to ban octopus fishing, but to encourage responsible practices that preserve the balance of the Mediterranean. The sea is a space of freedom that must remain compatible with the protection of the marine environment and its biodiversity.”
— David Lisnard, Mayor of Cannes
A Proactive Policy in Favour of Mediterranean Protection
This initiative is fully in keeping with the City of Cannes’ long-standing policy to protect its coastline and seabed. Key measures include a pioneering 2019 “Cruise Charter” requiring low-sulphur fuel and the avoidance of Posidonia seagrass beds, and a 2026 limit of one large cruise ship per day in the Bay of Cannes. Mayor Lisnard has also been pressing the State to extend environmental policing powers for coastal mayors beyond the current 300-metre limit.
Offshore, a motorised-vessel exclusion zone of over 43,000 m² south of the Île Sainte-Marguerite hosts an underwater ecomuseum designed by Jason deCaires Taylor and simultaneously represents one of France’s largest Posidonia restoration projects. Further measures include waste-collection nets in coastal valleys, 105 fish nurseries in Cannes’ ports, and ongoing public awareness campaigns focusing on marine and environmental protection.
Video via ARTE on YouTube
This commitment to environmental protection is also proof of Lisnard’s successfully implemented long-term vision to shed Cannes’ image as merely a film festival backdrop and a year-round playground for the wealthy, positioning the city instead as a serious player in ecology and technology. The octopuses, and the Cannois, thank him for it.
PHOTO CREDITS
- Lead image by Serena Repice Lentini on Unsplash, licenced under the Unsplash License
- All other images and video as credited
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