Jerry Fraser: The Fisherman's Perspective

Jerry Fraser was a fisherman for 7+years, and now works at National Fisherman magazine, an industry trade magazine. The magazine covers a lot of science, but is primarily focused on the viability of the fisheries -- and that includes both fish and people, policy and science.

Jerry's role on this panel is to be a contrarian. He's telling us about regular folks -- what the fishermen think, and what he thinks.

He is skeptical about climate change. It's happening, he acknowledges, but he doesn't know whether it's a fluctuation or a trend. I don't know whether it's been resolved as fact, even though it seems like it's been resolved in the minds of a lot of people in this room. We're always going to live in a changing, fluctuating climate; I'm not convinced we know what it is, where on a bumpy line we fall.

He says that science loses its credibility when it moves toward advocacy. The fishing industry will respect you more if you play the data straight: don't venture too far from fact. (So how does that square with the idea of offering solutions when you offer problems, like Justin Kenney just suggested?)

Be wary of the media. It's not easy for guys to get stories straight. You need to make sure we get it -- we may run away with what you're trying to say.

Jerry chides Peter for calling Senator Inhofe stupid. If you come off as opinionated and dismissive, people aren't going to listen to you.

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them change. People act in their own self-interest, but sometimes they can't even be bothered to go to a meeting that will affect them next year. Forget about them taking action for something that might or might not happen for 200 years. I know you guys think there's a sense of urgency here, but be patient. People change slowly.