Australian supermarket chain Woolworths is once again facing a shareholder resolution tied to its sourcing of seafood products.
The company faced a world-first shareholder resolution in 2024 spearheaded by environmental groups that called for the company to stop sourcing any salmon farmed in Macquarie Harbor, Tasmania, in order to protect the endangered Maugean skate. Led by online investment platform Sustainable Investment Exchange (SIX), the resolution ultimately failed after Woolworths’ shareholders rejected the movement, citing a lack of a scientific link between salmon farming and declining populations of the skate.
SIX is once again organizing a shareholder resolution that calls for the retailer to develop a nature-risk disclosure policy, which would notify all customers and shareholders when a product adversely affects the environment. It also calls for a plan to cease selling salmon farmed in Macquarie Harbor.
The targeted action against Woolworths is spearheaded by Neighbors of Fish Farming, (NOFF), an environmental group that has heavily criticized the Tasmanian salmon-farming industry, claiming it greenwashes its products.
According to NOFF, the action includes three resolutions to Woolworths by SIX and a group of 115 shareholders.
The action centers around Macquarie Harbor and the Maugean skate, an endangered species that is endemic to the harbor. The population of the skate has dropped by 50 percent over the past seven years – with some studies finding there could be as few as 40 adult skates left, while another study by the University of Tasmania found the population could be recovering.
NOFF and other environmental groups have continued to assert fish farming in Macquarie harbor is pushing the skate to extinction.
The latest push against Woolworths comes as the Tasmanian salmon-farming industry has faced unprecedented mortalities caused by a bacteria called Rickettsia-like organisms (RLO). Salmon Tasmania said the scale of the mortalities in the country is the worst the region has ever seen.
“To say it’s been devastating and exhausting for our farmers and scientists is an understatement,” Salmon Tasmania CEO Luke Martin said in a release. “Our industry prides itself on raising healthy fish, but just like all animals and primary producers, salmon are not immune to the vagaries of our natural environment.”
Adjacent to the mortalities, a video taken by the Bob Brown Foundation – another opponent of salmon farming in Tasmania – led to RSPCA Australia fully withdrawing its certification of Huon Aquaculture after it showed mistreatment of salmon.
Amid the mortalities and public attention, NOFF Campaigner Jess Coughlan said the shareholder resolution has more of a chance now compared to a year ago.
"After the positive response from shareholders at last year's AGM [annual general meeting], followed by a summer of mass mortalities and the industry's unsustainable practices, we are confident the shareholder support for these resolutions will be impossible to ignore at this year's AGM,” Coughlan said.
