Chapter 10
Tuna Fishing and the Way of Life
July 5th, 1984 -- Morning Garden
How do you feel when you look at the ocean? Sometimes it rains and more often the winds blow. Do you have any questions that you would like to ask me? Did you learn how to do things, how to put your bait on the line? Not yet? Did you want to come or did someone tell you to come? Is this is your first time here? The days are long, but you will learn how to go beyond the tiredness.
It takes two or two and one-half hours to go to Provincetown where the fishing grounds are. That means fishing begins at five o'clock in the morning. To get there you have to leave at 3:00 a.m. or even 2:00 a.m. You have to be the first boats there and get ready for the tuna guests. That's courtesy. You are ready for everything. The tuna is already here, but not many fishermen are catching them yet. We have to think about that with our common sense. Why are they here, but cannot be caught?
Patterns of Life Within the Ocean
Sand eels migrate and move according to the season. These sand eels, hordes of them, are coming up from the south. The water temperature is still cold, and the lower you go, the colder it gets, although the temperature stays a little warmer on the surface. The sand eels are beginning to gather; the fish are going after these sand eels, but they are not concentrated yet. They are in the area, but they haven't made their home here yet. These sand eels will settle down when the water temperature goes up.
As the summer goes on, the temperature goes up. Then, they will gather in one area, somewhat like a plateau where the depth is only between seventy to about one hundred and twenty feet. Other depths are 200 or 300 feet and are too deep, too cold. The larger fish know where these tiny sand eels are and they all concentrate in the general area to feed upon them. The whales and tuna stay in the deeper area, but in the morning they come up to eat. One can honestly say it is their breakfast time. That breakfast place is where we are now going out and waiting.
Herring, mackerel and cod are smaller fish which tuna also feed upon. They all come around where the temperature is warm and where there is an abundant amount of sand eels. That is the area we are going to. The tuna, when they come in and out of the feeding area, have a certain approach where they tend to go in and out. That is where we want to place our boats. That is usually on the edge of the area, a ledge. Tuna do not like rough things, just like anything normal. So where there is a cliff, the tuna don't want to come there. Rather, they will come where there is a slope. They prefer a gradual slope and come in and out that way.
First you have to study the charts and see what kind of terrain there is, and then you have to go there and try it out. I spent a lot of time investigating this, scientifically and also intuitively. That is one reason why the New Hope has been catching lots of tuna, more than many other boats. Also the boats around New Hope have been able to catch a good number of tuna. For this reason, even people who are not Moonies try to fish close to the New Hope.
You have to know substantially about these things. You have to have an in-depth perception. You might say, "Well, the ocean is the same everywhere and the fish come here and go there and its a matter of sheer chance." Not so. Not at all. Chance is not involved. Tuna have a manner of doing things, they have habits. We have to understand about their habits. The smaller fish gather together where there is plenty of food, where there is shelter and they can hide and protect themselves.
These small fish move around by schools. You will see some schools that are miles wide and long, and hundreds of feet deep. The tide comes in and out and these schools move around with it. Sometimes the currents are very strong, while other times the currents are weak. The smaller fish go in very large schools for protection, and they are looking for places where they can hide, such as the very big rocks. There are many places like this in certain areas of the ocean and we have to study these kind of things if we are going to catch the kind of fish we want.
For example, we might want to catch striped bass. Sometimes the schools of very small fish are moving too fast because the currents and tides are pulling them, so the fish in front cannot slow down even if they want to. Instead of being able to hide behind a rock, they collide into it. This leaves them somewhat knocked out, dizzy, just like a man would be if he did the same thing to his head. This is where the striped bass hang around. When the small fish hit the rock and swim slowly about in a dazed manner, they are easier to prey upon. You can find striped bass in places like this. You have to think like the striped bass and then figure out the logical place where they will be.
Tuna fishing is the same. You reason everything out; you have to think everything through. Don't just go somewhere and throw your gear into the ocean and just hope the tuna will somehow get hooked. The small fish go with the currents. There are places along the ledge where the currents slow down. This is where the small fish go and where the larger fish come after them to feed. You have to look at the charts and find these places where there is a drop-off and the depths change sharply.
You have to perceive whether the bottom is a sandy, muddy or rocky bottom. There are different types of worms and small creatures. You have to study about that as well. Some live where there is seaweed and others where it is rocky or sandy. If you are going for the smaller fish, you have to understand what the bottom is like. The weight on the tackle is important in rocky areas. If you just throw the hook down there, it will get snagged. Sometimes you might get your gear back, but most often you have to cut your line.
To prevent that, you place your weight about ten feet below your hook and bait. Then, you have to imagine what your tackle will look like down there and be able to feel your weight when it hits the bottom. You have to have some sensitivity about that. And you have to consider the current pulling your hook and bait. If it isn't much, then it won't be ten feet above the weight. It will be more like five feet or just two feet. So, you have to be conscious how your bait will hang on the line and be able to judge from that how high from the bottom it actually is.
In Alaska, where there is halibut, I put my thoughts about this into practice and it worked very well. When I am out tuna fishing, I am always thinking like this, how to do things and what to do next. My mind is never idle. When I went fishing for halibut in Alaska I caught twice as much as the others. They wondered how I did it, but I didn't tell them. However, there isn't much to it. You just have to think, and when your assumption is right, you will catch the fish you are going after. You have to know the habits of the fish, the tendency of the fish and the terrain. The rest is logical reasoning. You think to yourself, "This is so and this must be it." You then try it out and you discover, "that must be it." That is how it works. In the ocean, there are different fish at different layers of the water. Fish live along the bottom and then a few feet above that, and then still above that there are other fish. At different layers and water temperatures, there are different types of fish. Fish are very sensitive. They want to live in the environment which suits them best. They don't live in unfavorable environments like man does. Generally, the differences in depth of water determine the difference in temperature. It tends to get colder as it gets deeper. The difference is only a little, but this difference means quite a bit to fish. Remember, the fish will also go where there is feed. Each different species of fish preys upon fish smaller than themselves. They never prey upon fish that are larger.
Someone may assume that whales and tuna are big fish, so they must be in deeper waters. But don't just assume that. Think of where they would feed. The smaller fish are up in the higher levels. Even if the tuna like to be down deep, they must come up to feed. And sure enough, they do. That's where we catch tuna the most. If you only drop your bait in the deepest waters, you will never catch them. The temperature of the water, the type of feed and the environment, especially where they can be protected, all determine where the fish are going to be. And also, fish spend some of their time playing and resting; that is where the water is still and calm. After they feed, they go to play. The afternoon and early evening are the times when they usually play around.
You have to think about the currents. The small fish don't want to feed in the fast moving currents. Even the large fish find it difficult to feed and swim in strong currents. A lot of this is learned through experience. However, you have to have some idea of things before you also experience them. On the other hand, even if you know the basic theory of something, you don't really know it until you experience it. Think about the moon. There are different phases to the moon. According to what it shows you, quarter moon, half moon or full moon, the tide changes. Every day of the month is not the same. Sometimes the tide moves more strongly. At high tide, the water moves faster. Look at the water mark. You can tell if it is the high tide of the month or the low tide of the month.
It means this. When you know it is high tide, but the water mark is still higher than that, you know that it is the low tide of the month. Do you follow? There is a six hour interval between the high tide and low tide. There is high tide, then mid-tide and then low tide. From low tide it goes back to mid-tide and then high tide. The cycle moves like this and it covers twenty-four hours, two high tides and two low tides.
When you are tuna fishing, you have to consider the tides. You have to think, "What kind of tide is it now, high or low? Is the tide going out or coming in?" You have to ask, "If the tide is going out, what is the tendency of the fish? If it is coming in, what do the fish most likely do?" You have to put all this information together in your mind. And then, you must go out and experience it.
There are fish who eat when the tide is coming in, so when the tide starts to move in, you cast your bait and you can catch a lot. On the other hand, when the tide is moving out, you can even see the fish and yet, no matter how much you cast your bait they do not even touch it. Fish tend to feed at certain times of the day. They feed according to the tides, currents and also the time of the day. This is true of land animals. Did you ever watch the rabbit? There is a certain time the rabbit feeds. There is a very good reason for when they come out to eat. The rabbit does not want to eat in the middle of the day when the hawk is able to spot him clearly. The whole animal kingdom operates like this. They move about at the best times for their protection. For example, the tiger feeds at night. They do this when the small animals are sleeping. They travel up to 100 miles in their excursions. Elephants feed early in the morning when it is not too hot; the rest of the day they look for shade under the trees or they go to the watering hole. This kind of pattern is less and less predictable when it comes to lower animals. The small fish will feed at any time, but the larger fish have a distinct time when they come to feed in full force. Don't over emphasize that fishing is simple. Don't think you can go out anywhere, anytime and just throw out the bait. Don't think it just comes by luck. There is a whole lot more to catching fish than that. You have to study in detail. Then of course, after all that, there is some small element of luck.
Putting Theory into Practice, Practice into Life
I don't expect you to memorize this from one end to the other. You think you understand everything now, but when you get out there in your boat, you won't remember the first thing. However, teaching you in lectures is necessary. Even though you have never put this into practice yet, it is like a seed planted in your mind. By next year, you will begin to realize things and say to yourself, "Oh, what Father said has real meaning; I'm going to put it into practice."
It is like martial arts. The first thing you learn is basic form. However, when you are involved in fighting, you forget all about those forms. You just try to do whatever you can. Later, much later, as you keep using it, you come back to those forms and even use them naturally when you are sparring or fighting. How do you eventually learn anything? Through the practice of it. This is how you learn martial arts. It is not so much the lessons that teach you, but having to fight. In fighting you learn to put together all the lessons. And the one who becomes a champion is the one who challenges to fight again and again, even if he has to fight for twenty-four hours at a time. That kind of commitment eventually makes him the best in his class. It is not the big guy who wins, but the guy who has the most determination and trains the hardest.
It is the same with fishing. The message for us here is that we have to work hard and experience all the aspects of fishing, even twenty- four hours a day. For at least three years, you should fish in these grounds and you explore these areas much more than anyone else. When you become familiar with all these things, you catch more fish in two or three hours than all the others who come and fish the entire day. You must become an expert like this. You just have to start trying things and find out for yourself what works and what doesn't. There is some distance between Provincetown and Gloucester. Also, the fish behave in a different way according to the different tides, currents, depths of water and terrain below. You have to know all about these things.
You have to study about other kinds of fish besides tuna. You have to study the fluke and flounder. In other areas we could catch a lot around twenty feet deep, but in these waters you can't find them at twenty feet at all. So, we have to look for them, perhaps in fifteen feet of water or even less. The New Hope is a large boat and it is hard to get into shallow areas. The captain is always worried when I tell him to go anywhere near ten feet of water.
The One Hope can go into that depth of water easily. In that sense, it is an all round fishing boat. I designed that boat with the greatest fishing ability in mind. It can truly go fast and it can fit into almost every fishing situation. Some people think the boat is not economical, but if you know where to fish, you can get there quickly and get home quickly. If you don't study and know where you are going, you have to travel all over the place and still not find the fish. In that case, the boat is not so economical. However, if you study and know exactly what kind of fish you want and exactly how you are going to get it, another kind of boat which is slower is less economical. You waste time. You might save on some gas, but you waste the whole day and come back with nothing. What is so economical about that?
The New Hope is a slow boat. You cannot fish eight hours and then come back. It takes time to go out and come back. Actually, you don't get a full eight hours of fishing unless you go out very early and come back very late, and that is what we usually do on the New Hope. The One Hope is much faster; it is much better than the New Hope for all kinds of fishing. You have to show that this is the case. I have confidence in you and know that you can do it.
You have to study and then apply the principles which you find. The one who tries the most and also studies the most is the winner. Study the high tide, low tide and mid tide. These are three typical times which you have to try and discover what kind of results you can get. According to the depth and terrain, you go out and fish. You think, "Oh, this is the area where the fish are." And then, when you go out, you catch nothing. Don't just run away. Fish there all day and see what happens at different times of the tide. You have to consider all the factors when you are out fishing.
The striped bass is an extremely difficult fish to catch. I had an experience last year for three hours in the middle of the night when they were in a frenzy. At that time, you can't think of going in for any previous appointment or plan. Just forget about anything else except catching them because when they are eating, when they are biting, that is your opportunity. However, if you planned poorly, you might run out of bait. What will you do then? You cannot run into the store at three o'clock in the morning.
Well, this is what happened to us and we had to find a place at 3:00 a.m. last year. We had to look for bait. Someone had to go and do that. They had to knock on the door above the bait shop where the owner lived. Since the owner was a pro fisherman himself, he understood why we had to do that. But what if you don't have a place to go to and get more bait? I had already caught a lot of striped bass that day. Most people would have given up at that time and said, "It's been a good day and we caught more than anybody else, so let's go in." However, I didn't do that and after we got more bait around 4:00 a.m., we kept fishing and I caught still more striped bass.
Setting a record is very important. It is important for yourself and it is meaningful for the people in that area. When you set a record for striped bass in some area, people recognize you for what you've done. They respect you. What happens when they respect you? Well, they come to you and discuss where to catch a lot of striped bass. They want to know where you fish too, but you don't have to say as much. They may take you to their best spots, and you can then take them to one of yours. If you can set a record with one fish, you can gain tens of years of fishing experience in just one year by sharing with other fishermen like that. However, if you don't have any kind of record, they will never tell you much of anything. For example, I have an unusual story about fishing in Alaska last year. One man had led us to some far out retreat where there is some very good fishing. I asked him, "Who is the best halibut fisherman out here?" He and some of the other men there pointed to one fellow and said, "This guy is called Red. He caught a 400 pound halibut last year. He is the best fishermen in this area."
Then I replied, "Oh, that's a lie." I said it so seriously that I really agitated the man named Red, and he got so angry that he took me to the best spot on that first day, just to prove that he knew where the good fishing was! I also proved that this man knew a good fishing spot, because I caught a 100 pound halibut on the very first day. After that, I gave him full credit and this put him on cloud nine.
At the same time, I showed him a better way of fishing for the halibut and this really impressed the other fisherman. With my method I caught twice as many as the others did. It had to do with time. I was able to work much quicker and save more time than the others. I didn't reel in the line like the other man, but pulled it in just like a tuna line. And then, when I put the line back out, it went out much faster than the reel as well. By sheer mathematics I caught more halibut.
At the end of the day, they asked me about my method. I tried to explain it to them, but they didn't believe it right away. When I argued with them, they were impressed. They had already tried fishing like that, but the line always snagged on them. I had studied that too, but I had found a way to do it so that the line wouldn't snag. I showed that technique to them and they agreed that I had brought a much better result than they had.
This is why you have to study things. You have to assume something and then try it. That's what keeps you going. Assume something and then prove it. That's what makes you men and women. There are many different kinds of fish, but each fish has different habits. You have to come to know these habits. You have to research and study. Don't just sit there. Study, practice, make effort. You have to put in a lot of time and give a lot of effort. It is like this for everything.
Witnessing is like that. You have to put in a lot of time. That is the first thing. At first, you might not get much result. So then, you have to study what you are saying and who you are talking to. Apply this principle and put in a concentrated effort towards accomplishing your goal. Don't you see that this is just a basic principle that prevails throughout your life? It isn't just for fishing that you learn these things this summer. Once you learn this principle down to your bone, you will never forget it. What you learn here can go with you into anything, anywhere. If you learn something by doing it, you never forget. What about the person who doesn't want to study, research and give serious effort to something? We cannot have much hope for him. You have to remember that what begins small now has a big difference later in your life. If you pick up these habits now in your young years, later on in your life you will become somebody. However, if you keep on living without investing yourself in this way, studying and applying the things you learn, in thirty years time, you will be nothing.
I have lived in an intense way all the time. There is nothing that doesn't interest me. Fishing is just one area for me. I am not just a fisherman am I? Yet, I became one of the best fisherman around. This is because I apply the same principle to everything in life.
Become Worthy to Inherit from the Best
Another thing for you to remember is to get hold of the top person. Get hold of the top fisherman. Don't worry so much with the mediocre ones. You have to have a sufficient interest in fishing in order to approach the best person in your area. Even if you have a great deal of interest, you must also have a solid preparation within yourself before you can invite him over for dinner and talk with him. It's important to connect to the top people if you want to get things done. If you want to influence history, you have to become a quality person and be able to move the high quality people in your area. In order to reach these people, you have to be serious and study and be able to gain success in some area. Then, you can move the minds of people who are making the same kind of effort in their lives.
People who accomplish things in life want to have someone whom they respect to inherit those things. Who can they respect? They will respect the person with these qualities: the one who is serious and willing to study or research, and then make real effort to apply what he learns. This is the one who will gain such respect. You have to become like that.
Around the top person are usually four or five people and you have to study them. Each one has some good characteristics. One of them might work hard, but when his time is up, he's immediately gone. Another one might spend more time, but he doesn't work as hard. A third one might spend less time, but he is so serious and his sincerity tops them all. From them, you can figure out which patterns to follow. You take the best habits from all of them. For three years, don't say anything. Talking just drains your energy and takes away your concentration. Just put things into action. Be silent and learn. You must become one of the people to be missed. When you aren't there, the top man will ask, "Where is he today?" And the others will ask the same question as well. They have to become interested in you and they really have to need you to be around. Everyone should miss you. I look at all of you. I am thinking about someone whose face I want to see. This year I don't see someone's face which I remember from years before and I miss him. If I don't miss you, it's because you are not a needed person for the tuna season. That isn't so good is it? The one who has been fishing for a few years and is eager to teach things to others, is the one who has learned something the difficult way and wants to share with others. That person will have little tricks of how to do things and he will be able to teach about many different aspects of fishing that he found out for himself.
You will see someone who is faithful to his own job, but not so serious about the sake of the whole purpose. Then, you will see another one who doesn't spend so much time on his own job, but is more concerned about the whole group and how everyone else is doing. Some people are very faithful to their own boat and they don't pay attention to what others are doing. Such people think that is the best way of life for them. On the other hand, another person comes around, giving a hand to other boats and giving suggestions on how to improve things. The second person in both examples is the more precious person. The second kind of person never seems to bicker with other boats. He has already done his share on his own boat and with his extra time wants to help other boats. He isn't thinking of just his own boat, so how can he be in conflict with another boat? He is interested in all the boats. This way he keeps clear of all the little arguments that can come up.
All of us must become such a person that other people want to have around helping them. This doesn't mean you don't accomplish your own work. That's not it. It means that after you finish your own work, you are free to help others with theirs. You must learn how to be quick and efficient. I have practiced this since I was very young. As a student I developed these habits. In school, no one wanted to do the cleaning jobs, but I always took those jobs. In my school, I helped the teacher with more cleaning jobs than anyone else.
When I go to the toilet and find some litter I always pick up that litter without anyone seeing me and throw it away. When you make a habit of that, the difference will show up later on. Don't only do your own share, but be interested in others doing as well as you. Then, you will really contribute to the effort of the whole class.
I recently came back to Morning Garden after being gone for four years, and immediately I could tell whether the caretaker of this house had been doing a good job or had been neglecting the small things. In the boat it is the same. I never look at the boats on the first day out. On the first day, everyone is meticulous, but the day you finish is when I go to take a look. Some of the boats are really messy by then. The boat which is as clean on the last day as it is on the first day is the winner.
I have that strong standard of judgment in everything. Recently, I was looking through a machine shop. There were veterans of twenty and thirty years working there. I gave them some very strict comments, but each time, they were humble to what I said because they had only thought so far and not beyond that. They recognized that I had thought way beyond their thinking. This impressed them.
People who build boats think they build pretty good boats, but I go through their shop and pin-point things they had not thought about. Not a single point is a mistake on my part. I apply this kind of serious thought to everything. For example, the Washington Times newspaper won twenty awards this year in an international competition. Not just one, but twenty awards, and it's just beginning, just in its first few years of existence. This did not come about by accident. The people at the Washington Times know it was my serious attitude which produced this result. They don't think they could have put such a thing together on their own.
Basically, this tuna fishing is not just to go out and get the tuna and make some money. That is not the central point at all. This is good basic training for the rest of your life. If you apply the principles you learn faithfully, you can make a success out of your life. Do you understand? Like anything else you do in your life, you have to put a lot of time in. Study everything, discuss it with others and read it again, then put in concentrated effort.
Actually, I didn't have the time to come here, but I felt so much that I wanted to give you a good start, so I came yesterday and went fishing at four o'clock in the morning. Today I am here with you. Tomorrow I may go out too, but that will be the last day. I cannot stay with you all summer, so please, do your best. The last ten years, I devoted every single day of the season out on the ocean. Rain or shine, I went out. Literally, rain or shine. There were storm warnings and still I went out. One time there was a storm coming and everyone could see it clearly, but in the middle of the night I said, "Let's go." The captain obeyed and we went out. I've gone out in the midst of a frenzied ocean and endured it. And then, in the morning I came back in, having won over that.
While I was in the boat waiting for the tuna to come, I thought over and over again of the providence in America and planned what to do. I thought about the problem of world hunger and planned what to do step by step. I didn't just think one or two years ahead, not like that. Instead, I thought about hundreds of years to come and what to do to prepare for that. I thought about how to farm the tuna and how it could be nurtured and used for millions of pounds of nutritional food in the future. I thought like that all the time. There is nothing that I didn't think of in the long hours while I was waiting for the tuna to come.
Every morning I went out, no matter how early. I was always full of hope and expectation for that day. I came back when the sun was setting, returning with elation that I had done my very best for that day and wondering what the next day had in store for me. I expect you to take pride and to go the same path that I have gone. You are now privileged to tread the very same path that I have walked these past ten years.
Everything you do here is directly involved with me. Many things I have invented myself. I have paved the road and pioneered everything for you. Take that as your pride, and just as every rock along the pathway has witnessed what I have done, so your footsteps will also be recorded. All that we do has a deep religious significance. Don't just go out and catch fish like other fishermen, tie it up and bring it home. Please don't fish like this, not in any way like this.
This is a very precious opportunity. Don't be discouraged. Do you think that in my time of fishing there were moments that were difficult? Sure, there were. There were up times, and down times of doubt and worry. When you are very happy and elated, when you are catching the tuna, think of what kind of experience I had in the same moment. Would I have just thought about getting one more tuna, or would I have been happy because one more aspect of creation, of the world, was coming under the influence of God's love?
You have to relate the experiences you have to how I would have thought and experienced things when I was fishing. The success of your own mission is tied to all the other One Hope boats. Not just in this area, but wherever they are, all along the coast, even down into South America. When you are operating the Good Go boat think to yourself, "We made this boat with our own hands. Brothers and sisters made this boat." Also realize that we will make larger boats with our own hands as well. Someday there will be hundreds of ocean-going vessels that we will have made with our own hands.
These dreams all began here. They are realized here. The New Hope and the Flying Phoenix were the modest beginning of the future fishing fleet which will go all over the world. The first time I put my foot into Gloucester they all rose up against me. In a sense, it was ridiculous because they didn't know me at all. Anyway, in ten years they have seen more of us and they know how hard we are working to make the fishing industry successful in the future. Now, some are thinking, "What if Reverend Moon were to quit now like we once kept telling him to?"
Reviving the Fishing Tradition
In the very beginning, tuna was only ten cents per pound, when I first started. Now it is over $4.00 per pound, going up to $5.00 per pound and someday it will reach $10.00 or $20.00 per pound. You will see that day. If we can farm the fish, hundreds of fishermen can hope to make a good living out of tuna fishing. I have been paying the price for that to happen, literally. Our movement has invested millions of dollars to bring the foundation up to this level. We lost all that money in a real sense. It was just a sacrifice in order to bring things to this point.
The middle men who exploited the whole situation were really angry when I came on the scene. However, the fishermen know a different story and many have come to care about us. Not all of them see what is going on. Many fishermen don't look very far beyond their own boat, but some even love us and look for us to come each year.
The consumer will come to find out about tuna and they will begin to like it very much. Just last year, the price began at $1.25 per pound and it went up to $3.00 per pound. The buyers were upset about that, but you know how hard the fishermen work. They get up so early every morning and face the difficult weather. Did the buyers ever have to work so hard? No. They have never worked like that, yet they get most of the profit. That is why the fishermen really loved what we did. Because we paid more, the other middle men had to pay more too; they lost some of their profit margin. They are the only ones who complained. We wanted more of the margin to go to the ones who worked for it. That was our motivation. Those middle men don't have the right to take what belongs to the fishermen. Someone had to come in and fix that situation.
At one time Gloucester was a great export city for cod and other kinds of fish. When I came here the situation had gone so low that many fishermen didn't leave until the afternoon. They didn't even get up until noon! I really wanted to bring back the spirit of Gloucester. I wanted to change it. So, I started going out very early in the morning, as early as 4:00 a.m., and I would bring back a tuna by 9:00 a.m. This motivated them to start going out earlier.
When I saw they were leaving by 4:00 and 5:00 a.m., I started leaving at 2:00 and 3:00 a.m. When some of them even challenged that, I determined not to even leave the tuna grounds and just stay awake all night long on the boat. However, no one left earlier than 2:00 a.m., and so they gave up in a spiritual sense. Also, they had larger boats and they thought they were better because they had more expensive equipment. We proved it is not the size of the boat which brings success; it is the spirit of the man. We proved that.
After a few years of fishing, something like a morning ritual began to occur. In the early morning there would be a tuna strike and everyone's eyes would go searching to see which boat had dropped anchor. They would look for the red anchor ball and see which boat was moving away. Almost every morning, the first boat was a Moonie boat. We had less boats than all the other boats. Out of proportion to the number of boats we had, and the number of boats in the entire fleet, we came up with the first catch in the morning. This is the tradition which we built up with our own effort. Don't disregard this. I don't want to hear, "Well, Reverend Moon didn't come fishing this year so the Moonie boats are only doing a mediocre job." I don't want to hear that. They are thinking that we will be discouraged because I am going to jail. Why should we do less this year than any other year? Why should we be outdone this season? After ten years, we have built up the standard. Now, we can go way beyond that. Will you keep the standard really tight, or will you be defeated this year? How? How will you keep the standard? You have to catch up with my spirit. Whatever you do, do it in my spirit.
The essence is this: put all your heart into it. Talk to God and talk to the tuna. For the sake of the world, for the sake of God, do everything with all your heart. For ten years, we have fought against injustice. We have fought here in Gloucester and now we are beginning to win. Morning Garden has been returned to us, the fishermen are beginning to understand us and the mayor has apologized for Gloucester's earlier unfair treatment towards us. In all these ways, we have won a victory.
We have fought on all three coastlines. When we started building steel boats in Alabama, 3,000 people came and demonstrated against us. At that time, there were thirty-one other shipyards. Now, what has happened? We are the only ones to survive there and we continue to contribute to the economy there. Can you believe that? It has only been five to six years since we began working there. If we hadn't gone there, no one would have survived the crisis.
It was the same way in Alaska. Everything we try to do, the people come and try to stop us, but they have no real reason to do so. You can imagine how it is for me to hear all the reports coming in from everywhere in the United States. Every report that came in when we first started something was very bad.
I have put so much energy into this country. Our movement has invested so much time and money, bringing so much from all over the world and investing it into the United States. I often thought I should give up everything and go invest in someplace else. However, since God truly wants to use America, I have persevered. Everything I have done in this country began under full opposition. No one tried to understand or help me. Still, I have gained a tremendous foundation to uplift America. And you are Americans. You will inherit all this. No one will oppose you as they have opposed me.
They will welcome you. From now on, people will begin to see our motivation more clearly. We will win every fight. We have that foundation. First, you must save your nation. Second, you have to secure the future of the ocean. There used to be at least forty large fishing vessels working out of Gloucester. Now, there are only a few. There is no hope in this country for the ocean. We are bringing hope to this nation.
You cannot complain about anything. You are inheriting everything. The ocean has a great and wonderful future. I know it. You believe it. Who is that future for? For who? For us? For America. You came here, not because of your leader, but because God was calling you. You are here because of God's calling. You have to know how special it is to be here. Don't complain about being here.
I have already endured this course. I have already invested long and tedious hours. Not for myself. I didn't do it for myself. I did it for you. I know young people will come here every year. I did everything for the sake of the young people of America. You represent those young people. You have to receive and inherit all these things from me. If you complain, you won't be able to get what I am giving to you. I am concerned about this.
The One Hope is made with everything equipped to catch a tuna. It was made for you! I don't need all those boats. I designed them with you in mind. Before you came, I was working hour after hour. Will you go this course? Will you do everything that I am asking you to do this summer? Think about the tradition that I laid down here with my own sweat and tears. Everyday, working on the boat, I was thinking about you.
I spent ten years preparing everything for you. From now we really have to go out on the ocean and inherit everything that is there. It is there, waiting for you. If you miss this point, you will miss something great in the future. I have been so serious to make the standard -- for you! Please remember this. If you don't make a foundation, then someone else will come and take it from you.
I did not pioneer all these areas for that. I have pioneered Gloucester, the Gulf and now Alaska. Many people already stayed here, but they never thought about my effort. No matter how early, I woke up and worked hard all day. Many young people would never work as hard. If you Americans don't take this from me, I will give it to the Japanese. If they don't want it, I will bring Korean members to inherit everything. If they don't, I will get the blessed children and make them take the inheritance. Do you understand? Are you clear about this point? Do you know what I mean?
From this moment, make up your mind. We start the program from this moment. Each day is a step towards the future. May God bless you.