God’s Will and the Ocean: Episode 02

God’s Will and the Ocean
True Father Speaks on: The Way of Tuna, Pg 1-3
July 13, 1980, Belvedere

The Way of Tuna

July 13th, 1980, Belvedere

THE UNIFICATION Church is very special, with its understanding of the role of Abel. The world would never imagine that I spend a great deal of time on the ocean to catch tuna, so before I start on the main topic I want to talk a little about tuna. If you think some fish are beautiful, then you would have to consider the tuna to be the beauty queen of all fish. How many of you have ever seen tuna? Well, most of you haven't, so you may not know what I am talking about.

Tuna are completely streamlined for fast swimming and they are the only fish which can fold all their fins right next to their bodies when they are swimming really quickly. It is like the concept of the Concorde: for take-off the wings are spread out, but for cruising speed the wings are swept back. A tuna's side fins are completely hidden when it is speeding along, giving it a completely smooth surface. A tuna can swim up to ninety knots, like an airplane of the ocean! Water resistance is greater than air resistance, so airplane designers will have to study tuna when they want to come up with ideas for more efficient airplanes. The average cruising speed for tuna is thirty-five knots.

Tuna do not live in just one area, but swim in all five oceans. If the ocean were divided into sovereignties, then the tuna would be in trouble because it would need a visa. But tuna just fly through the water, in all five oceans of the world! Furthermore, tuna have solid meat which is good for eating. In the future, tuna will provide food for the world.

Tuna fishing is the king of sport fishing because it is so exciting and thrilling. Tuna fishing is really the ultimate goal of fishermen. I would like to generate world-wide interest in this apex of the sport by perfecting the skill of catching tuna. You have to outsmart a tuna in order to catch it because they are very smart fish. However, once you master the skill, you become an addict. Even when you think you will finally leave the fishing ground for the day, your attention is drawn back to the area and you are eager to return.

Tuna fishing requires a boat that is from twenty-five to fifty feet long. Getting a boat and all the necessary equipment, plus daily expenses for fishing, requires money that only more wealthy people can afford. Only people who have a strong interest in the ocean can concentrate on this kind of sport fishing. For this reason, people who can afford it always concentrate on tuna. Women of the world always dream of having diamonds, and sports-minded men always dream of catching tuna. Tuna fishing is more than just a sport or a hobby; it is really a battle, and this is why I like it; you must be ready to go after the goal and gain the victory.

A big tuna weighs over 1,000 pounds, which is six or seven times the weight of the average person, and is thirteen to fourteen feet long. When we pull a big tuna aboard the New Hope, it stretches diagonally across the whole boat, touching each side. Tunas are caught with a hook and long line, and great skill and knowledge are required to win the battle. After long, long hours of waiting, a tuna will strike and for that moment, you forget everything else. In Gloucester, three to five hundred boats gather for the tuna season. People sail for months from the West Coast and through the Panama Canal to come for tuna fishing in Gloucester. In some cases, boats come from South America. For that season, the richest and most famous boats assemble in Gloucester.

The fishermen are more proud of their boats than women are of their finest jewelry. These boats each need four crew members to go along. You can imagine that no one can afford to do that except wealthy people; they spend all that money and time to get there just for the excitement of catching tuna. Five hundred boats use about $50,000 worth of bait a day. Tuna season normally lasts seventy days, and the bait alone costs $3.5 million. If each boat is crewed by three people, that is 1,500 people in one area. If each boat spends $500 a day for seventy days, that is $1.5 million. This is the investment that they make in order to have a chance to catch a part of the quota of tuna that the government allows to be caught each year.

If the government allots 1,800 tuna and you sell each tuna for $1,000, that is only $1.8 million. In other words, tuna fishing is not a money-making investment. It is extraordinary to break even at tuna fishing; it is virtually impossible. When I see the enthusiasm these people have for tuna fishing, I think that if they loved America the way they do fishing, it would have become the Kingdom of Heaven a long time ago. I always think that if Americans have that kind of heart and soul, why not harness it for kingdom-building? During the tedious wait for a tuna to strike, people may complain and fight, but when the tuna bites, they are instantly united as one. I have never seen such instant unification! That is the unification spirit I am trying to promote, so rather than just talk about it, I particularly want Unification people to come from all over the world and experience it.

The one thing men cannot say they have experienced is the pain of giving birth to a child. Only women know it through experience. However, tuna fishing is usually in the man's world, and it is difficult for women to understand it. The rugged tuna world is far apart from the world of make-up, manicures and jewelry. Fishermen usually wear nothing from the waist up, and they get deep tans.