Supermarkets Defend Salmon Supplies With Skate on Skids

Coles and Woolworths have defended the ongoing sale of salmon from a harbour where fish farming is threatening an ancient species. The supermarkets have adopted a wait-and-see approach as authorities work to save Tasmania’s Maugean skate from extinction. Salmon farming has contributed to a severe lack of dissolved oxygen in Macquarie Harbour—the only place on earth where the ancient skate still exists. Current interventions include a captive breeding program to boost the remaining population of fewer than 1000 fish, and efforts to artificially pump oxygen into the harbour’s depths. Federal conservation advice for the skate had urged a reduction in farmed salmon loads before last summer, but that didn’t happen....