He knew, perhaps most importantly, how to manage the psychological dimension of physical work. Deep-water fishing is not a comfortable occupation. It involves cold nights, long hours, physical exertion under difficult conditions, the boredom of waiting and the adrenaline of action, and the necessity of functioning regardless of how you feel. The capacity to function while uncomfortable, while cold, while frightened, while hungry — this is not a native human trait that everyone has equally. It is something that develops through practice, through the repeated experience of pushing through discomfort because the job requires it. Alvarenga had that practice. It was built into him by years of doing work that demanded it.
He also knew the psychology of waiting. A fisherman who goes out on overnight trips knows that there are long stretches of nothing — motionless water, empty lines, the absence of any activity — and that these stretches do not mean the trip has failed. They are conditions to be endured, not evidence of defeat. The capacity to wait without losing focus or hope is a professional fisherman’s skill, and it was directly applicable to the circumstances of the drift.
Michael Tipton of the University of Portsmouth made this point in essentially these terms when commenting on the case: the maritime background is a behavioral advantage, not just a knowledge advantage. It is not only that Alvarenga knew which parts of a turtle to eat; it is that he had the mental and physical constitution of a man who had spent years operating under the conditions that the drift imposed. He was not being asked to develop that constitution from scratch in an emergency; he already had it.