A world-first shareholder resolution spearheaded by environmental groups has failed to push Australian supermarket chain Woolworths to change its Atlantic salmon sourcing.
The resolution, led by online investment platform Sustainable Investment Exchange (SIX), called on the company to move away from sourcing Atlantic salmon from Macquarie Harbour, Tasmania. Environmental groups including Neighbors of Fish Farming (NOFF), Bob Brown Foundation, Environment Tasmania, and Living Oceans Society all criticized salmon farming in the harbor and claimed fish farms in the area were affecting the endangered Maugean skate.
The Maugean skate lives exclusively in Macquarie Harbour, and a recent study by the University of Tasmania found its population totals had dwindled over the past decade, putting the species at risk of extinction. 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 3 years,” but emphasized populations are still at very low levels.
NGOs have laid the blame for the skate’s population declines on the Atlantic salmon-farming industry. The groups claim impacts of salmon farming have been a major contributor to the decreased population.
“While the Woolworths board are making decisions from their boardroom, our communities are witnessing firsthand the destruction of our waterways and risk of extinction for the Maugean skate,” Jess Coughlan, who works with NOFF, said in a release.
The recent shareholder resolution was an attempt by NOFF and SIX to push Woolworths to shift its sourcing as part of an overall effort to reduce salmon farming in Macquarie Harbour.
“While Woolworths' executives meet regularly with foreign-owned salmon companies, they have resisted discussions with local community organisations like ours,” Coughlan said. “We have had no choice but to become shareholders in order to get the attention of the board.”
In an address to the company’s board of directors, Coughlan said Woolworths could shift its sourcing away at “no cost to the company” and that doing so would only take a simple shift in procurement.
“Only a small percentage of Woolworths Own Brand Salmon and Ocean Trout is sourced from Macquarie Harbour and would only require a simple shift in procurement making the reputational risk to Woolworths far outweighing the relatively small amount of change that this resolution is asking for,” Coughlan said.
Despite the effort, Woolworths' shareholders largely rejected the push, NOFF President Peter George said. Woolworths Board Chair Scott Perkins said the board opposed the resolution because the science on whether salmon farming has any impact on the Maugean skate is unclear.
“This was not unexpected,” he said. “However, Woolworths, other retailers, and their shareholders are now on notice that they cannot deny knowledge of what their supply chains are doing – driving a 60-million-year-old animal toward extinction because of industrial salmon farm practices.”
The push to take action at the shareholder level follows up NOFF and other NGOs targeting Australian officials with protests over salmon farming in Tasmania. NGOs also circulated a petition that has received 60,000 signatures, calling on Woolworths to stop buying salmon from Macquarie Harbour.
