Email: pbaker@pewtrusts.org

Address:
Massachusetts

Peter Baker joined the Pew Environment Group in 2007 as manager of the Northeast Fisheries Program. He leads the campaign to establish science-based annual catch limits, strong monitoring programs and accountability in fisheries such as groundfish (cod, haddock, flounder), Atlantic herring, and other small schooling species that serve as food for larger fish and marine mammals. His work with elected officials, decision makers, the public, the media and the fishing industry has helped him understand the diverse constituencies that desire sustainable stocks and guide the campaign’s policy work.

Before joining Pew, Baker was campaign director of the Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fishermen’s Association. His responsibilities included campaign design and implementation, educating government officials, media relations and public speaking. In his five-year tenure, he developed the first fishery in New England to work under firm catch limits with the Georges Bank Hook Sector, a fishermen-run, community-based harvesting coop. He also led initiatives that created the Purse Seine/Fixed Gear Only Area in the Gulf of Maine for the Atlantic herring fishery, and defeated efforts to change the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act to allow allocation of fish quotas to short-side processors.

Earlier, Baker held positions with the Sierra Club in North Carolina and Vermont and was its organizer for the Environmental Public Education Campaign. He was also press secretary for Sam Neill’s congressional race, managed Peter Clavelle’s campaign for mayor of Burlington, Vermont, and was field director for the Citizen Labor and Electricity Coalition.