Peter Thomas

Dr. Peter Thomas is the International and Policy Program Director of the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission, where he is instrumental in marine mammal conservation efforts in regions as disparate as the Arctic and the tropical rivers of southeast Asia and species as diverse as the vaquita, the southern right whale, and the Pacific walrus. Peter has extensive marine mammal research and international environmental policy experience. In the 1970s he began a pioneering study of southern right whale mother-infant behavior at Peninsula Valdes, Argentina, earning a Ph.D. in Animal Behavior (1987) from the University of California, Davis. Peter was a member of the first research team (LGL Ltd., 1980-1984) to study the impact of seismic exploration on bowhead whale behavior in the Canadian Beaufort Sea. As Assistant to the Director of the Minnesota Zoological Gardens (1987-1991) he led a husbandry and conservation review of the Zoo's marine mammal program and was project manager for the construction of a major coral reef exhibit. Peter was awarded a AAAS Science and Diplomacy Fellowship to join the State Department (1991-1992) and as Senior Conservation Officer there (1993-2001), he managed U.S. policy and international negotiations on the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). He worked on the founding of the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI) and the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force and was the first ICRI Global Coordinator. In 1999, Peter was posted to Paris as a U.S. Advisor to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (1999-2001) to represent the United States in biodiversity, biotechnology, food safety, and climate change negotiations. As Chief of the Division of Management Authority at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (2002-2008) he was the lead U.S. official for CITES, managing international wildlife trade policy negotiations and overseeing all permitting for imports and exports of wildlife into and out of the United States. He was instrumental in the CITES decision to list bigleaf mahogany and led the Endangered Species Act review of penguin species. Peter is a sailor and rows competitively in eights and fours for Rock Creek Rowing Club.