Vision for Fishing

The following are some of the key points from a talk by Father to the Korean elders and their American proteges on September 21, 1992, at the beginning of the first of four workshops Father organized in Kodiak last fall.

I have spent twenty years developing oceanic enterprises. I wanted to develop three hundred fishing grounds, with ten good-sized boats in each fishing port, and use them as a springboard for developing sightseeing, fishing, and business ventures.

I am also interested in recreational hunting. In Canada we have the largest deer farm in North America, with about five hundred deer. There is another one in New Zealand with over a thousand head. We have another one in England. Once we are ready we can ship the animals to hunting preserves around the world, set them free, and charge people to come and hunt them. We can invite rich people and charge them a lot.

Fishing and hunting expeditions will be among the most exciting sports. We can build big hotels in port cities and have tackle shops. Our ocean activities can handle all the arrangements for sport fishing.

You need to become a master in terms of dealing with boats, fishing, and training young people. Then witnessing will be easy.

Originally I planned to sell a boat to an interested young person in a port city-the son of the mayor or police chief, for instance, someone with good character and credit references. We could set him up with a fishing boat and encourage him to develop the sightseeing and fishing business, selling fresh fish locally. Once he masters that, he can make a living in the city and pay off the boat in several years. If we give five boats to five promising young people, you will have a group of committed people. With that kind of foundation, after five years you can buy a fifty-foot boat, even a hundred-foot commercial trawler, just by coming up with a twenty-percent down payment. I was thinking of making some kind of association of fishermen all over the country and have them contribute a certain amount each month to help young people buy boats.

If fishermen can't make a living on the fish they catch, they may have to combine fishing with sightseeing. I predicted this twenty years ago, and that is why I encouraged one hundred twenty young people to launch this project. I went to Germany for six months and when I returned, many of them had disappeared, because they didn't pay enough attention.

Now you have some experience dealing with Good Go boats and fishing. If you are really well trained and determined to multiply people like you, then we still have hope. That is why I called you here for training.

The fishing and sightseeing business is ideal, because America is surrounded on three sides by ocean, and seventy-five percent of the world's fishing grounds are within American territorial waters. Out of this, about eighty percent of the fish are around Kodiak. That is why I established this fishing area in Alaska. Other fishermen went bankrupt and left town. Yet I started taking over one by one. We have been losing money up until now, but I never gave up. Even this year, many businesses have been shutting down to save money, but I pumped another five million dollars into it, building surimi and fish-powder factories. I spent over ten million dollars to establish factory boats. To be successful in the fishing business, you need to cover every aspect.

Wherever we establish this kind of project, we become controversial.

I want to establish ocean church projects and centers again. That is why I developed many kinds of things here, where International Seafood Association (ISA) and our factory are located.

Couples from the Blessing of the 30,000 can come here and then publicize our activities in their countries.

We should be able to develop fish farms everywhere, even in the desert or on the top of a mountain. We can channel ocean water anywhere, with advanced technology.

Ten years ago I could see that people would be interested in eating live fish, if they could see them live and select the one they want. People will pay five times more for a fish caught in the ocean than for one raised in a fish farm. That is why I made many Japanese restaurants all around the country, so people could go fishing in the night and bring their live catch to the restaurant to sell them the next day.

You should establish four teams in each state, making two hundred teams around the country. Take people out to the ocean and fish. While fishing, teach them Divine Principle. Do you think you would be wasting your time talking about Divine Principle every day?

I have been planning this for twenty years, but nobody could follow me. You didn't know back then the consequences coming in the future. I have been striving all alone for twenty years but nobody really followed. Now you see the reality.

I began tuna fishing in the Boston area. I made innovations here with salmon fishing. You are young people. You have so much hope for the future. Work hard. Mobilize young people. Educate them and train them to follow your footsteps. Otherwise you will be accused when you go to the spirit world.

You may not know about it, but I have sent fishing fleets around the world. For example, Japanese brothers are in Spain. They set out a three-mile-long net in the ocean around Spain to catch tuna. Other companies trying the same tactic caught only two to three hundred, but our net caught 1,664 giant blue-finned tunas. We keep them alive in the net and feed them, fattening them to sell in Japan when the price is highest, around Christmas and January. This is a natural fish farm.

Fish lay millions and millions of eggs at a time, but they become part of the food chain, in which big sea creatures eat the smaller ones. So over ninety-nine percent are usually eaten and only a very small percentage get hatched. If we can control that system, the resources will be unlimited.

We have to realize that sixty thousand people are dying every day of starvation. Think about the position of True Parents. Shouldn't we worry about that? I am very concerned about it. We have to prepare to solve that situation. If we develop a strong foundation of fishing and sightseeing and people come to know what we are doing and why, rich people around the world will support my project and go to Africa for fishing, sightseeing and farming. Then the African people will be able to survive.

Look at all the high-level people following me through the Professors World Peace Academy. Once the project is going well, they will follow me and bring everybody else.

Prepare yourself to receive me any time I give a call from Korea. I may have the photo album of you and go through it and choose certain states and call you up. You should be prepared to receive me at any time. I may not show up myself but send someone else. If you are not fully ready, you are a failure.

We catch fish here in Kodiak and have many trawlers. You should be able to sell them in your region and earn your living expenses.

I will put you through special training, not just how to catch fish but how to cut them, gut them, and all the necessary steps. It is serious training. You can develop fish farms.

Interracial couples have some advantages. For example, an American husband and Japanese wife: in Japan, the wife can represent the project, because you have to have a Japanese president, and in America the husband can be the president. So you can do business both there and in America. You can borrow money from both Japanese banks and American banks, if you utilize your connections. That way you can make a successful international foundation.

The Korean regional directors are in my position and will be responsible to push this project. The Korean regional leader will be like the elder brother and the state leader the younger brother. You must follow the elder brother. You need to multiply people like you, because the Korean regional directors are getting old, and we need younger blood. You have to educate other people.

During this workshop, each team will have a tent. If you don't fulfill your responsibility you have to stay out, even overnight, until you reach your goal. You did not come here to have a good time. Tomorrow I will teach you how to catch fish on a boat, how to navigate the boat. In the future you will be trained to repair boat engines, too.

People will be assigned as team captains according to age, and will rotate by turn.

Even though our Good Go boats are safe and do not sink, we want to avoid accidents. Those of you who are here for the first time and are strangers to fishing, I think the fish may try to catch you! Listen carefully to what I will teach you. I cannot be on your boat, so every day I will teach you what to do. I will talk to the first team that meets their goal and gets back. If I went out, it would be too easy. I would be able to finish before noon.

Just like people, fish like to be around scenic areas. They like cool, shady spots. If you see nice mountains and rocks, you will find fish in those areas.

You do not have to use a lot of energy to cast your line. Keep the angle of your line at about thirty degrees. If the angle is perpendicular, the fish are more likely to notice it. Usually fish stay about a foot above the bottom. Wind your lure slowly. Adjust the weight of your lure and sinker to keep the bait floating at about a thirty-degree angle. You will learn the rest by experience on the boat.

Once you go back, you will repeat this kind of session. Send people out to two hundred fifty cities, and then twenty-five hundred cities. Blessed couples must participate. This is the way we will save America. Who will save this country? You will.

You have to be trained to be a lecturer wherever you go. Whomever you meet, you should be able to give lectures to. We should be able to mobilize campus ministers so that they can give lectures every day, just like you. This way we can multiply our membership and also the people who can lecture.