A word from the director

Peter Baker

My connection to the sea started as a boy in Portland, Oregon. My father was a commercial fisherman, first for crab in the Bering Sea, then for shrimp off the Oregon Coast, and finally as a crawdad trapper in the Columbia River. Some of my earliest memories were visiting him in Newport, Oregon when he was just in from shrimp trips. I remember pulling crawdad pots onto his skiff just off Sauvie Island. It taught me a respect for the sea and the people who work on it.

As I got older, I was drawn to public service and the conservation movement. In 2002, I switched my focus from forest interests at the Sierra Club, to working on marine fisheries issues with the Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fishermen’s Association. After five years at “the Hook,” I moved to the Pew Environment Group where I manage our New England fisheries campaigns. When I moved to Pew, we founded the Herring Alliance with other environmental and public interest organizations.

The Herring Alliance formed in 2007 with a mission to protect and restore marine wildlife populations and ecosystems in the northeastern U.S. by reforming the Atlantic herring fishery.

Last fall, we called on our fishery managers to play it safe with the future of Atlantic herring when setting limits on herring catch for the next three years.  Our message to the National Marine Fisheries Service was simple: Don’t take the bait by surrendering to industry pressure and ignoring the recommendations of scientific advisors.  It’s not just a good idea, it’s the law. In the end, NMFS reduced allowable catch levels based on the best available science. This decision to safeguard a natural resource like Atlantic herring seems logical to me, especially considering their important ecological role as prey for many other species. What do you think?

Currently, our regional fishery council (NEFMC) is working on a new amendment to the Atlantic Herring Fishery Management Plan. This update, called Amendment 5, aims to improve monitoring, reduce bycatch, establish criteria for midwater trawl access to groundfish closed areas, and address overlap with the Atlantic mackerel fishery.

The Council will take a decisive vote at its September 28-30 meeting in Newport, Rhode Island.  This will be a critical and important opportunity for the public (that means all of us!) to weigh in on the issue by writing or calling our fishery managers and local representatives or showing up in person to urge the Council to support healthy ecosystems.

You will find problem and solution case studies on this blog in the coming weeks leading up to September’s Council meeting. Keep returning to learn more about the management fixes needed for the industrial herring fleet from a variety of viewpoints. And let us know your thoughts by voicing your opinion in the comments.

Peter Baker is the manager of the Pew Environment Group’s New England Fisheries Campaigns and director of the Herring Alliance.

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