(Written in Honor of my '81 Tuna Boat Captain Herb Mayr who passed away recently of a heart attack at the age of 66)

Our 1981 Tuna Boat crew poses with one of our smaller catches. Your author is at the top left and Captain Herb is in the hat.

As I launch a new business, returning to the private sector after 40 years mostly serving in the public and non-profit worlds, for some reason my memories take me back to the summer of 1981 I spent fishing for bluefin tuna. Somehow the lessons learned that summer seem very applicable to my current situation.

I had gotten a job on a small tuna boat with 3 other crew members working off the coast of Gloucester, MA. I had no previous experience fishing in the ocean and in fact had never seen the Atlantic Ocean, growing up in Wisconsin.

Please forgive what may be somewhat corny comparisons that follow connecting tuna fishing to successful business practices, but I hope by sharing my "fish" stories you can find value and meaning in the connections that are implied. What are some of these tuna treasures that seem to keep on giving?

1. The Importance of Perseverance - With little ocean going experience I literally was convinced I was going to die twice on my initial day of fishing. The first time-while heading out, on a dark stormy morning, to the tuna fishing area and being thrown around on waves seemingly the size of large buildings. I said my final prayers on several occasions. The second time-after being sea sick and throwing up for the entire first day. I felt so bad I began to think of ways I could find another job for the summer. Thank goodness I hung in there and kept going. My sea sickness eventually subsided in the days ahead, as did my understanding of which waves are dangerous and which are just normal;

2. Make Sure You Have Good Experience and Knowledge of Your Chosen Field of Endeavor- The ocean can be a very intimidating and dangerous place. We were lucky on my boat to have an experienced captain to insure his young crew members did not end up in the drink, or lost at sea permanently;

3. Invest in Quality Equipment- Though our small boats were only about 25 ft. long, and not that wide, they were well-built, well-maintained and kept us safe and secure even in the big waves;

4. Keep Your Work Space Organized and Clean- Our captain stressed this mandate, because when a 1000 pound tuna hits the line on a small boat with 4 crew members all hell breaks loose. Life can become very chaotic and dangerous as you try to fight this large fish together;

5. Go to Where the Catches Can Be Made- We had to travel about an hour each morning from Gloucester to the area where the tuna were "running". If we would've tried to catch Bluefin closer to the coast we would have had no luck at all;

6. Develop a Good Strategy and Be Prepared- Though looking back it seems archaic, we had 4-5 powerful nylon lines extended off of our small boat in different directions. Each line originated in a rubber laundry basket, was fitted with a strong, sharp hook, well baited and set at different depths below the boat. Should a tuna grab a hook, the line would start flying off the boat dancing like a whirling dervish. We all wore gloves because the hook needed to be "set" immediately by grabbing on the rope and tugging. You can imagine the rope burn if you tried to set the hook of a 1000 pd. tuna with your bare hands!

7. Keep Chumming to Advertise Your Hooks- For those not familiar with this fishing term, "chumming" is the act of cutting up small fish (herring in this case) into pieces that look similar to your bait and throwing it off the boat to float slowly past the hooks that you have set at different depths. The chum will hopefully attract the tuna as it swims by, not recognizing that one of those pieces of herring is on a very sharp hook;

8. Have Patience- Our boat was one of the company's most productive the summer of 1981. We ended up catching 4 huge bluefins, with one weighing in at 1000 pds. and 10 feet in length. A lot of expensive sashimi, sushi and steaks for the local restaurants. Yet some boats did not catch any tuna that summer session. In between catches we realized how important it was to stay prepared, optimistic and confident. Before we caught our first fish we had to have faith that we would eventually hook one and that, in fact, there were tuna swimming below us. After the excitement of the first catch we were constantly on edge knowing that great opportunities existed;

9. Fight the Good Fight- The actual process of bringing in a large Bluefin tuna can be very long and physically demanding. A fish can drag a boat far from its original anchoring point. It is like hand-to-hand combat as you battle, pulling in this nylon line with well-protected hands. Sometimes the tuna escapes the hook and is lost. It is interesting to note that many of the largest tuna, around the 1000 pd. mark, will suffer a heart attack when caught on a hook and drop straight down demanding great effort just to pull up to the boat. The 750-800 pounders seemed like the strongest and most active swimmers, as you might fight them for hours and be pulled for miles;

10. Celebrate the Victories- I still remember very clearly 36 years later, the profound feeling of victory our boat had one afternoon out on the water. We had just caught a large tuna and it was hanging like a trophy attached to the side of our small boat, weighing us down as we prepared to return to Gloucester. Our crew was relaxing and eating a sashimi lunch from a tuna we had caught the previous day. A large whale-watching boat full of people stopped next to us and they were amazed at the sight of this small craft with a huge fish somehow attached to it. Cameras were clicking as we enjoyed our sashimi in the sunshine and felt on top of the world!

Thanks for the memories, Herb.