In Mixed Catch, NF Senior Editor Linc Bedrosian spotlights a wide range of commercial fishing-related news items from coast to coast.
Saturday, 05 May 2012
NOAA has long championed science as the foundation upon which the health of our nation's fish stocks must be based. But last week, it appeared that NOAA believed that a little magic would be helpful to help motivate employees at an upcoming leadership training session.
According to the Washington Post, NOAA had placed a $5,000 solicitation on the FedBizOpps.gov website on Wednesday. It sought someone who would create a "unique model of translating magic and principals of the psychology of magic, magic tool, techniques and experiences into a method of teaching leadership," during a one-day session for 45 employees, part of three-day conference for mid-level managers in June at NOAA's Silver Spring, Md., headquarters.
But news media criticism prompted NOAA to withdraw the ad on Thursday, the paper says. Critics panned the idea of hiring a magician for the training session just weeks after hiring of a mind reader for a 2010 conference came to symbolize a General Services Administration spending scandal that caused heads there to roll.
Now industry members chafing under the groundfish sector management program might say they understand NOAA's fascination with magic tricks. They believe the agency would like to make the region's small-boat fishermen disappear.
The Post notes that the $3,200 the GSA spent to hire a mind reader/motivational speaker was among the transgressions in an $823,0000 spending scandal for a 2010 conference in Las Vegas that cost the GSA its director and more than a dozen managers.
No doubt the GSA enjoyed performing magic tricks, too —it liked to make taxpayer dollars disappear. But the problem with magic tricks is that eventually, somebody pulls back the curtain and figures out what's really happening.
Callifornia crabbing: Here's a fun video shot on the decks of the Majestik while catching Dungeness crab off the coast of northern California.
Over 500 lots of seafood processing equipment formerly owned by Adak Seafood will be sold at auction on Tuesday, June 18, starting at 10 a.m. Hawaiian-Aleutian Daylight Time at the Hilton Garden Inn in Anchorage Alaska.
The equipment is located in a recently updated 250,000 square foot state-of-the-art processing facility in Adak, Alaska. Farmington Hills, Mich.-based Hilco Industrial, which conducts 75 machinery and equipment auctions in a wide range of industries annually, will conduct the auction.
Adak Seafood opened originally as Ada Fisheries in Anchorage in 1986. The facility, updated in 2005, is located on the island of Adak, the southernmost city in Alaska near the western end of the Aleutian Islands. The facility processed cod primarily, as well as halibut, blackcod, crab and pollock, Hilco says.
Alaska fisherman and commercial fisheries activist Kevin Adams was elected chairman at the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute board of directors meeting on May 9 in Anchorage.
The governor-appointed board consists of seven members: five seafood processors and two industry representatives actively engaged in commercial fishing. Adams was appointed to fill a harvester seat by Gov. Frank Murkowski in 2004.
With 38 years of fishing experience in Bristol Bay, Adams has long been an active member in the Alaska fishing industry, ASMI says. He has worked for both the Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation and the Bering Sea Fisherman's Association, and represents Alaska fishermen on numerous boards.
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