A shareholder resolution targeting Australian retail chain Coles that sought to stop the chain from selling Atlantic salmon farmed in Tasmania’s Macquarie Harbor has failed.
The shareholder resolution was led by the online investment platform Sustainable Investment Exchange (SIX), alongside Environment Tasmania, Neighbours of Fish Farming (NOFF), Ēko, Ethinvest, Ethical Investment Advisers, and Tasethical. It follows an earlier shareholder resolution brought against Australian supermarket chain Woolworths, which also pushed the company to change its Atlantic salmon sourcing.
“Like Woolworths, Coles and its shareholders are on notice. They cannot claim ignorance of the impact their sourcing of Tasmanian farmed Atlantic salmon is having on an extremely rare species under threat of extinction,” NOFF President Peter George said in a release.
At the center of both shareholder resolutions is the Maugean skate, an endangered species that lives exclusively in Macquarie Harbor. A study by the University of Tasmania found its population totals have been decreasing over the last decade, and environmental groups have blamed the decline on Atlantic salmon farming in the region.
A more recent study by the university found signs that the population has increased for the first time in nearly a decade, with “at least one recruitment event in the last three years,” but emphasized populations are still at very low levels.
NGOs have pushed for government intervention in Macquarie Harbor, with NOFF launching protests targeting Australian Minister for the Environment and Water Tanya Plibersek claiming her decisions have pushed the skate toward extinction.
Environmental groups claim the latest effort to use shareholder resolutions to push companies toward action are another sign of growing opposition to salmon farming in Macquarie Harbor.
“Not one but two high votes at the big supermarkets’ AGMs show that shareholders are losing patience with companies failing to act on nature-related risks,” Living Oceans Society Sustainable Seafood Campaign Director Kelly Roebuck said. “Tasmanians have had to go as far as becoming shareholders and traveling interstate to this AGM to get a message to the board: Don’t be associated with the potential extinction of a unique Australian animal.”
Despite the push, Coles' shareholders ultimately shot down the resolution to amend its constitution to allow shareholders to question how the board of directors exercises its legal power – the first step needed to then pass subsequent resolutions to change salmon sourcing.
Based on the meeting results, the resolution failed with over 90 percent of votes cast on the poll opposing the change.
As NGOs push for salmon farming to be banned from Macquarie Harbor, the Australian government is investing money to improve water quality in the area, the Australia Broadcasting Company reported.
The federal government announced AUD 28 million (USD 18 million, EUR 17 million) in funding to improve water quality. Australia Prime Minister Anthony Albanese reiterated the government’s commitment to aquaculture is sound, and that AUD 21 million (USD 13 million, EUR 12 million) of the funding will go toward scaling up oxygenation in the harbor to offset the effects of human activities.
"The Tasmanian salmon industry is the backbone of many regional communities and it's essential we support the thousands of jobs it creates right across the state," Albanese said.
NOFF called the move a handout to the salmon industry and ignores the science behind the Maugean skate’s decline.
“It’s a cynical effort to buy votes in a vulnerable electorate with a Federal election looming before the middle of next year,” NOFF Vice President Lisa Litjens said. “The industry’s moguls will be delighted that they have conned the government into supporting a fossil fuel heavy oxygenation experiment more likely to improve the health of caged salmon than protect the Maugean skate.”
