The Kanaloa Octopus Farm has grown from an intriguing aquaculture startup to a uniquely popular Hawaii island tourist attraction in a little over seven years.

But the Kailua-Kona concern — which fell under a national media spotlight in December that suggested the operation and its methods were cruel to the octopuses — was ordered to discontinue its activities last week after the state Division of Aquatic Resources declared it was operating without required permits.

A cease-and-desist letter sent to the octopus farm said it needs a special activity permit to work with day octopuses, a regulated species, under 1 pound and an aquarium permit for any animals it possesses that were caught in West Hawaii waters.

Jacob Conroy, the farm’s owner, said Friday that he doesn’t believe he’s in violation of the law because the farm doesn’t have any day octopuses under 1 pound and no animals originating from West Hawaii waters.

But Conroy said his farm, at the state’s Hawaii Ocean Science &Technology Park on the makai side of Kona International Airport, would comply with the state’s order in order to apply for the permits.

“We agree with DAR, and we want to do everything that is asked of us,” he said.

Conroy said he would discontinue the day octopus breeding program for now and switch to the Hawaiian bobtail squid, an unregulated species.

It’s not clear whether the tours will be suspended. He said he was still talking to DAR on Friday afternoon about whether that step will be necessary.

The tours — which run three times a day at $60 per adult ($40 for children) and up to 35 people at a time — allow folks to touch the octopuses, learn their biology and find out about the research being conducted there.

On Friday the person who answered the phone at the farm said there was still space available for the afternoon tour. Online, reservations were still being accepted for weeks ahead.

The tours have become highly popular. In 2020, Pacific Business News ranked Kanaloa Octopus Farm in the state’s top five fasted-growing companies in the philanthropy and nonprofit category.

The tours, Conroy said, pay for the farm’s research, which aims to close the reproductive life cycle of the octopus and enable reproduction in captivity — something that’s never been done before.

When Conroy started his “farm” in 2015, producing octopus for eating was a goal, according to news reports. But the main focus now, he said, is conservation and learning how to replenish the population if octopuses were to be threatened and decline.

“Everyone thinks we’re raising them for food, but we’re not,” he said. “I’m passionate about pushing our message: It’s that aquaculture is Plan B for conservation and overfishing.”

The Los Angeles Times ran a story in December about the Kanaloa Octopus Farm, quoting conservationists and animal rights activists who said keeping highly intelligent octopuses in 100-gallon tanks for public display is cruel and suggests exploitation rather than conservation.

Conroy said he disagrees.

“We differ in ideology,” he said. “I think it’s cruel to allow an organism not to be conserved. They shouldn’t be off the table for conservation efforts.”

Conroy said the story’s description of his operation was wrong. The octopuses, which are caught by bait fisherman and donated to the facility, do not stay in a small tank the whole of their lives, which last about a year. He said the animals are rotated out weekly and allowed to spend time in one of three 2,000-liter tanks.

Conroy said his contact with the Division of Aquatics previously indicated that what he was doing at the farm was legal and above board. Then the L.A. Times story came out, he said, and now things are illegal.

Inga Gibson, a marine consultant and policy director with Pono Advocacy LLC, said she has been urging DAR for more than five months to take action against Kanaloa Octopus Farm because it needs to operate by the same rules everyone else has to follow.

But DAR chose to look the other way, she said.

“The octopus farm has been illegal for years,” she said. “This whole thing highlights the incompetence and ineptitude of DAR and its ability to properly investigate” anyone who breaks its rules.

Gibson said Conroy may have been getting special treatment because he a former DAR employee.

Asked about this, DAR responded that Conroy was employed by the Research Corp. of the University of Hawaii and worked in DAR’s sea urchin hatchery approximately eight years ago.

“His past employment with RCUH has no influence on how the Kanaloa business is being treated by DAR,” spokesman Dan Dennison said in an email.

Gibson, who has taken several tours of the Kanaloa farm, said she harbors doubt about the authenticity of the research and suspects the facility is nothing more than a glorified petting zoo.

“Instead of helping populations of octopus, they are hindering these animals from repopulating,” she said.

Gibson, who was not quoted in the Los Angeles Times story, said the science indicates that the octopus is a highly sentient animal and known to be resourceful and inquisitive.

“There’s a broad consensus opposing the farming of octopus,” she said.

State Rep. Nicole Lowen, a Democrat who represents Kailua-Kona, said she would urge DAR to take action against Kanaloa if the law isn’t being followed.

Lowen also said she would urge the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority to reassess whether the octopus farm is meeting the mission of NELHA, which runs the technology park.

The mission, according to the agency’s website, “is to develop and diversify the Hawaii economy by providing resources and facilities for energy and ocean-­related research, education, and commercial activities in an environmentally sound and culturally sensitive manner.”