Nicole Baker Loke
ABOUT Nicole
Nicole Baker Loke is a former North Pacific groundfish fisheries observer (2010-2015) and the founder of Net Your Problem LLC. Net Your Problem collects fishing gear from fishermen and sends it to recyclers who turn it into the raw material needed to manufacture plastic products. Net Your Problem has been actively establishing programs to dispose of waste in remote fishing communities since 2017 and currently operates in Alaska, Washington, Maine and California. Projects are in development for other ports on all the US coasts. Over 971,000 lbs of fishing gear has been recycled so far, from individual fishing vessels and by partnering with Native Tribes and community groups.
Nicole has given presentations for many different audiences, including at industry meetings, inter-governmental meetings (the Arctic Council), for waste management practitioners, to entire communities and to other entrepreneurs. She has done over 30 interviews, both in print, podcast, Instagram TV and live radio to talk about her work, and has been mentioned in articles by Forbes, Geekwire, National Fishermen and Fishermen's News. In April 2020, Net Your Problem completed a Maritime Accelerator program, and pitched to a virtual audience of 250 maritime professionals and investors. In 2021, Net Your Problem was selected to participate in the Alliance to End Plastic Waste Accelerator Program. Nicole currently serves as the co-chair of the Cordage Institute Life Cycle Management Committee, is a member of the IMAREST Plastics Special Interest Group, and the Global Industry Alliance of the FAO~IMO GloLitter project. Nicole also received the Alaska Sea Life Center Ocean Leadership award for Sustainability in 2021, and is a finalist in the Rare Solution Search competition for solutions to plastic pollution that rely on behaviour change.