Consumers to stop buying farmed Atlantic salmon – shareholders demand supermarkets stop sourcing from Macquarie Harbour

Protests outside Woolworths stores in most Australian capital cities reached thousands of consumers today as campaigners called on the supermarket to stop stocking industrial Atlantic salmon from Tasmania's remote Macquarie Harbour.

The Bob Brown Foundation is coordinating these actions with NGOs across Australia, part of a campaign to protect Macquarie Harbour's Maugean skate, which is threatened with extinction primarily because of industrial salmon farming.

Hundreds of pedestrians in central Sydney were greeted by banners, drummers, music and speeches outside Woolworths' CBD store opposite the Town Hall. A similar protest was held outside Woolworths in Sandy Bay, Hobart. Many learned for the first time about the impact of  industrial salmon farms, and signed petitions calling on Woolworths to stop stocking salmon from Macquarie Harbour.

"Shoppers were shocked that they had no idea where their salmon was coming from, the devastation it was causing in Tasmanian waterways, or that it was linked to an extinction event" said NOFF Campaigner Coughlan. "Many pledged to stop buying industrially farmed salmon."

Ms Coughlan, from Tasmanian community-based group Neighbours of Fish Farming, was in Sydney for the protest and will represent the group at the supermarket's AGM on 31 October, where, in a world first to prevent an extinction, more than 120 Woolworths shareholders have lodged a resolution calling for the supermarket to stop sourcing farmed Atlantic salmon from the waterway before May next year.

The combined action is being led by activist trading platform, SIX-Invest, in collaboration with Living Oceans Society, Environment Tasmania, Eko and NOFF.

Scientists say there's an urgent need to remove Atlantic salmon feedlots from the waterway because of the threat of extinction to the Maugean skate, which exists only in Macquarie Harbour. Only a small percentage of Woolworths' Own Brand farmed Atlantic salmon is sourced from Macquarie Harbour, and Macquarie Harbour produces only a small percentage of Tasmania's total salmon output.

Scientists, including those on the Commonwealth's independent Threatened Species Committee, hold the operations of the multinationals Tassal, Huon Aquaculture and Petuna primarily responsible for driving the Maugean skate towards extinction because of declining oxygen levels in the Harbour. The committee is considering whether to upgrade this survivor of the Age of Dinosaurs, from "endangered" to "critically endangered".

The campaign allies will adopt the same approach at the Coles AGM on 11 November where a similar motion will be put to shareholders.