John Freitas Gois
August 3, 1938 - May 5, 2022
LA MESA, CA —
“There are five people who are the reason that the tuna fishing industry as it is today, exists. John Freitas Gois is one of them.” – Larry Da Rosa.
“Nothing is so good that it cannot be made better.” - Captain John F. Gois.
Captain John F. Gois, of La Mesa, passed away in his home on Thursday, May 5, 2022, surrounded by his wife and family.
Born into poverty on Maderia Island, Portugal in 1938, John Gois came to the United States at the age of 16, with nothing in his pocket and one English word in his vocabulary – “banana.” John could not wait to become an American Citizen and applied as soon as he was eligible. He was an example of one who believed in the American Dream.
John had limited formal education, but armed with an immigrant’s work ethic, an inventor’s mind, and a gift for thinking outside the box, he changed the face of the global tuna industry. In 1957, he met the love of his life, Sharon Kendall. They married in 1960, and together built both a family and a legacy.
John’s young adult life centered on a clear goal - give his wife and children a better life than he had. The opportunity that would help him achieve that goal came in the late 1970’s, when he gained command of the Granada. While John was captain of the Granada, the boat developed such a reputation for success that he was frequently asked how he got so lucky; but, as John Gois would teach his children and grandchildren, “you make your own luck.”
As a young fisherman, and then captain, John “made his own luck” by thinking outside the box, and his innovative solutions became standard practices in the tuna fishing industry. In the early 1970’s, he persuaded his boss to purchase a helicopter for the Granada so he could scan the ocean from the air to spot schools of fish.
This unconventional idea was so successful that it became the standard in the tuna fishing industry for decades to come.
In 1974, John saw another opportunity to make his own luck with a spike and a bunch of empty oil barrels. With his extensive fishing knowledge, he knew if you spot a dead mammal or a fallen tree in the water, fish would be nearby. But John was not content to wait for nature. He decided to bring the “luck” to him, by making his own artificial log. He and his crew filled the barrels with broken bits of fish and cotton soaked in whale oil, then threw it over the side. Everyone thought they were crazy, but when the boat returned to that manmade log, the tuna had flocked to it. Once again, John’s success prompted change in the industry. Today, there are thousands of these man-made logs, now called Fish Aggregating Devices (FADs) all over the world.
When John retired from fishing in the 1980’s, his inventor’s energy turned to improving the standard purse seine fishing ring. He re-designed the ring, adding rollers to protect the cable from wear, and a push button lock so it would remain securely closed. This time, John got a patent on his idea, and the new and improved purse ring became the star product of a new company, which John named “Rings Around the World.” The Gois purse ring is still the most efficient and best designed product of its kind in the industry with over 400,000 sold worldwide. Today, John’s children, nephew, grandchildren and valued long time employees carry on his legacy through their work at Rings Around the World. As John would say later in his life, “everything I did, I did for my family.”
John Freitas Gois is survived by his loving wife, Sharon, his three sons, John Jr., Brian and Todd, his daughter-inlaw, Amanda, and his grandchildren, Heather, Jessica, Madison, Rachel and Jennifer, his brother, Joseph, sisters Mary, Martinha and Judy, and numerous other loving family members and friends.
John Freitas Gois’s Funeral Service is on Tuesday May 17, 11 a.m. at Greenwood Memorial Park.