A must for your fish library

Don Giles, the former CEO of Icicle Seafoods, has published a memoir of his career in the fish business. "Fish Tales: My Unplanned Journey Through the Alaskan Seafood Industry" follows a Texas college kid who starts out unloading crab on a Seward dock and ends up running one of Alaska's great salmon processors. It's a remarkably candid insider account of the stressful life of a seafood executive, with the story extending through the bittersweet sale of Icicle in 2007. In telling his own story, Giles describes monumental changes in the industry such as the advent of individual fishing quotas for halibut and sablefish. Buy the book at Amazon.

'Billion-Dollar Fish'

A new book is coming out this spring titled "Billion-Dollar Fish: The Untold Story of Alaska Pollock."

The author, Kevin M. Bailey, formerly was a senior scientist with the National Marine Fisheries Service.

The publisher is the University of Chicago Press.

From the book description:

Bailey delves into the science, politics, and economics surrounding Alaska pollock in the Bering Sea, detailing the development of the fishery, the various political machinations that have led to its current management, and, perhaps most important, its impending demise.

And what did Santa bring you?

Although he surely didn't deserve them, Deckboss received numerous fine Christmas gifts this year, not the least of which is the "National Audubon Society Field Guide to Fishes."