1983Fishing and Farming between Mountains and Seas

Chapter 358: Discovery in the Atoll
"Don't worry, there are plenty of fish here and we earn a lot of money. Who would go out and fool around? Isn't that just ruining your job?!" Lu Song immediately replied.

Several other people also expressed their willingness to keep the secret, even patting their chests.

Liang Ziqiang returned to the cab and told Zhu Tianpeng about the temporary increase in wages under the recent special circumstances. Others' wages increased from five yuan to eight yuan, while Zhu Tianpeng's increased from seven yuan to ten yuan.

Zhu Tianpeng hesitantly said after hearing this: "Is it too much? Why don't you just add them? I'd rather do the same as before."

In fact, compared with the workload that is about to explode, it is reasonable to increase the salary, and it is only during the special period of wintering fishing grounds, and the salary will naturally return to normal after that. Liang Ziqiang did not continue this topic, and immediately ordered Zhu Tianpeng to slow down the speed of the boat, gradually stop the boat, and then start the anchor chain warehouse and start to drop anchor.

He watched the entire process from stopping the ship to dropping anchor, and felt that Zhu Tianpeng was now quite skilled in the operation.

After the boat was anchored, he and Zhu Tianpeng came out of the cab, returned to the deck, and began to sort the fish with Deng Zhaocai and others.

Six pairs of hands worked together, and they were not as meticulous as usual. They just roughly sorted the different fish into the corresponding baskets. In this way, the speed was indeed much faster than usual.

Sorting, picking and putting into the refrigerated compartment; sorting again, putting into the refrigerated compartment again. The six people worked together for more than an hour before taking a break.

They couldn't spend all their time sorting fish. They had to move the remaining fish and shrimp to one side to make room for sorting fish, and then continue trawling to catch new fish.

It was almost two o'clock. After I had some lunch, it was already three o'clock in the afternoon.

Deng Zhaocai and others continued to sort the fish, while Liang Ziqiang returned to the cab to drive the boat. Zhu Tianpeng looked out, and a new round of operations began.

By the evening, another full net was dumped onto the deck. The first round of fish that had not yet been sorted out, plus the new catch, seemed endless for a moment.

The catch of this net was quite different, some large and some small. The big one was Spanish mackerel, and the small ones were mainly two kinds of fish: one was the common sardine, and the other was pomfret.

The Spanish mackerel and sardines were completely mixed together, and it was obvious that the sardines attracted the Spanish mackerel.

This time the pomfret was completely different from the previous ones. Its color was neither silvery white nor gold, and it was obviously not a golden pomfret or a silver pomfret.

They are all gray pomfret, shaped like a kite, wide and flat. The most distinctive feature is the tail, which looks very similar to a flying swallow.

"This is the swallowtail pomfret. This fish is at least more valuable than the golden pomfret, right?" Deng Zhaocai recognized it.

Indeed, the swallowtail pomfret is not as expensive as the silver pomfret, but it is more expensive than the golden pomfret.

The sardines, which are the most numerous in this net, are certainly not valuable, but the prices of the remaining giant mackerel and swallowtail pomfret are still relatively pleasant, which should be considered good on average.

The amount is also huge, not less than the first catch. The resources here are so rich that it is impossible to reduce them so easily after just one catch.

Liang Ziqiang found a location close to the atoll and anchored the boat. The water near the atoll is shallower, so it is quite suitable to anchor the boat here for the night.

After dinner, all six people came to the deck and worked together to sort out the fish.

The big mackerels this time weighed about 100 kilograms. Although they were tormented by the trawling net, occasionally a big mackerel still held on to its breath. When Liang Ziqiang and his team approached, they opened their mouths and showed their sharp teeth. Although they were unable to hurt people out of the water, they were put aside to dry for safety, and they started to clean up the tails left by the net in the morning.

After the remaining horsehead fish and hairtail from the morning were completely sorted and stored in the warehouse, we started to process the swordfish.

There were two huge swordfish, weighing over 100 pounds, which were difficult for one person to move, so two people carried them into the cold storage compartment.

After processing the swordfish, they were busy sorting out the sardines and pomfret, and carrying them to the cold storage compartment one by one.

I was busy all the time until after eleven o'clock at night.

The two rounds of fish caught today totaled three tons, and they had finished sorting them out before they knew it. But they were really tired, and their bones were about to fall apart. When the deck finally became empty, the six of them didn't want to move at all.

The mast lights on the ship were still on all night. Although there were very few ships appearing in this deep sea area under normal circumstances and the probability was extremely small, we still had to have the necessary safety awareness.

For one thing, this sea area itself is not on the main shipping route and can be considered remote.

Another reason is that in the summer, a sudden "dragon sucking water" will occur here, and the terrifying scene must have been observed. Even if large merchant ships that usually travel in the deep sea need to pass by nearby, they will take the initiative to avoid it, so it is even less likely that a ship will appear here.

Only Liang Ziqiang understood the scientific laws behind the "black dragon's rampage" here, so he dared to come here in the middle of winter to show his skills.

Because I went to bed late, I woke up a little later than usual the next day, but I was still able to finish the day by surfing the internet once in the morning and once in the afternoon.

With so many fish and shrimps gathered together, they would definitely attract large fish. Liang Ziqiang and his friends did not encounter any on the first day, but they soon encountered some on the second day.

There was more than one. Halfway through the morning's work, the big ship saw white waves rising on the sea. Liang Ziqiang raised his telescope and saw two long, narrow, gray-white heads rising from the water.

One of the narrow heads sprayed out two streams of water, which were two or three meters high.

At the same time, a several-meter-long black back with blue-gray spots also emerged from the water.

Liang Ziqiang immediately recognized that they were two pointed-head whales, swimming side by side in the water at a certain distance apart.

The pointed-nosed whale is formally called the minke whale, also known as the minke whale, the minke whale, and the pointed-nosed whale. One of its most obvious features is that the entire whale head is extremely narrow and pointed, with only one crest. This is how the name "pointed-nosed whale" came about.

Among all baleen whale species, the pointed whale should be considered a relatively small to medium-sized one. But even if it is small, it is still a big size among marine animals, weighing one or two tons at any time.

Two pointed-nosed whales surfaced from time to time in front of us. They were estimated to be five or six meters long. Wherever they went, small fish and shrimps jumped out of the water in large numbers, making the waters, which were already crowded with fish and shrimps, even more lively.

"Brother Qiang, there are so many small fish in the whale's mouth. Do you want to come again and grab more small fish from the whale's mouth?!"

Deng Zhaocai shouted at Liang Ziqiang at the top of his voice, as if he was afraid that he had not seen the latest movement on the sea.

Liang Ziqiang shook his head, obviously not intending to repeat the operation he did a few months ago.

At that time, through precise angle operations, a part of bluefin mullet was successfully pulled out of the mouth of a Bryde's whale.

That's because the density of fish on the sea surface is generally not very high. But in this place, there are fish everywhere under the water. If you drag the trawl with your eyes closed, the trawl net will still be full. Naturally, there is no need to test your driving skills and snatch small fish and shrimp from the pointy-headed whale.

Liang Ziqiang was about to put down the telescope and retract his gaze from the distance when he suddenly discovered that behind the two pointed-headed whales swimming side by side, waves were rising one after another on the water surface, and big fish jumped up from time to time, seemingly enjoying their prey.

The lens barrel moved slightly, and he was secretly delighted!
Bomb fish! Schools of bomb fish!

It’s not surprising that bonito appears right after the pointed whale.

Bonito has a habit. Once they meet a whale, they like to follow the whale's butt and pick up leftovers along the way. The two can also complement each other.

Bomb fish cannot be compared with those small fish. Not only is it big in size, but it is also expensive.

With so many bomb fish appearing all of a sudden, and money being delivered to your doorstep, you can’t just sit back and do nothing…

The ship adjusted its course and did not head towards the two pointed whales, but instead headed behind them. There was a large area of ​​water where bonito were picking up leftovers like crazy. They were not picking up the small fish and shrimps left by the pointed whales. On the contrary, the pointed whales were eating the small fish, and the bonito were picking up the big ones behind them.

The pointed whale is also a member of the baleen whale family. Baleen whales have a common feature: they have no teeth in their mouths, but have plate-like baleen on both sides of their upper jaws. Therefore, they can only filter feed on small fish and shrimps, and cannot swallow anything larger.

On the contrary, bonito is fully capable of eating some relatively large fish and shrimp.

Of course, bonito is only limited to following baleen whales. If it were other whales, it would be tragic because they could swallow them in one bite.

Soon, the large steel ship circled around the bonito and dragged its net over them to harvest the fish.

Gradually, it was almost noon, so we started to slow down and raise the net.

When we arrived on the deck, we saw that in addition to a large number of small fish and shrimps, the most eye-catching thing was the many bomb fish.

Each one weighs about ten pounds, and their appearances are not exactly the same.

One part has dark diagonal lines from the bottom of the dorsal fin to the tail. Liang Ziqiang had caught this kind of fish in the shallow sea with a lotus-patterned boat before. It is bonito.

The other part had three to five dark horizontal bands on the ventral side. Liang Ziqiang recognized it immediately. It was bonito!

In the past, he had caught flat-rudder bonito, white-rudder bonito, and the smallest round-rudder bonito, but he had never encountered true-rudder bonito.

The taste of bonito is better and its economic value is better than other types of bonito. Seeing that there were still a lot of bonito on the deck, Liang Ziqiang immediately felt that the income from this net was guaranteed.

The catch on the third day was relatively light, consisting mainly of common fish and shrimp, but the number remained unchanged, with the net bursting in every round. The catch is conservatively estimated to be close to three tons.

The fourth day brought another surprise. It can even be said that it was the most surprising day after four consecutive days of working in the wintering fishing grounds.

Nearing noon, the sound of water came from the sea about 10 to 20 meters away from the side of the boat. It seemed as if dozens of rolling wheels suddenly appeared on the water surface, turning forward continuously, stirring up waves of water and making noises.

"It looks like tuna, there are so many tuna coming!" Zhu Tianpeng shouted excitedly at the bow.

In Liang Ziqiang's field of vision, at least dozens of tunas jumped out of the water at the same time, and then without wasting a second, they dived into the water very smoothly.

The body bends into a semicircle, going in and out of the water, like a pair of gears rolling on the sea without stopping.

Tuna sometimes catch food by constantly entering and exiting the water, and sometimes they spin in this way just to stay alive.

This is related to the characteristics of tuna. Their body structure determines that they must swim constantly to get enough oxygen to survive. Once they stop swimming, it is almost the moment when the tuna dies.

This makes all tunas look like perpetual motion machines in the ocean.

When the results of this round of trawling were revealed, there was no doubt that it was the most fruitful tuna harvest Liang Ziqiang had ever had since going out to sea!
Actually, I encountered a school of tuna in the deep sea last time, but unfortunately, a great white shark showed up and we were defeated. In total, we only caught a dozen tuna.

This time, at a glance, there were at least thirty tunas on the deck.

A considerable portion of the tuna we saw earlier fell into the large trawl net.

In terms of size, the tuna this time are all slightly larger than those last time, including longfin, yellowfin, and blackfin tuna.

There are more than thirty tunas, and the first thing to do is to bleed them to ensure the quality of the fish meat, which inevitably leads to another busy meal.

The bled tuna is first refrigerated before the other fish are processed.

The fifth day was the day they were about to return from their voyage, and Liang Ziqiang decided to go down to the atoll to take a look.

These days they have been parking the boat near the atoll overnight. Now they just need to drive the boat closer to land on the atoll.

In fact, Liang Ziqiang was also quite curious. These reefs just formed a circle. What would the situation be like in the middle of the circle?
Because we have been busy trawling for fish these days, we did not get off the boat to check even when we were anchored near the atoll.

Several people climbed onto the circle of reefs that surrounded the atoll one after another and squatted down to take a closer look.

The first thing they saw through the sea water was not fish, shrimps or crabs, but something like seaweed attached to the rocks, in clumps, swaying in the blend of sunlight and sea water.

Compared to seaweed, they have more different shapes. Some look like hair, some look like sunflowers, some look like tentacles waving, some look like mushrooms, petals...

The colors are even more colorful, emerald green, brown, white, sky blue, purple, pink, and bright yellow, intertwined together, turning the underwater reefs into a colorful world.

"Sea anemones, right? This reef is covered with sea anemones..." Lu Song, Deng Zhaocai and others identified it after taking a few glances.

Although these colorful things look different, they are all the same organism - sea anemone.

Sea anemones have nothing to do with seaweed. In fact, sea anemones are not plants but animals.

Seeing so many anemones, several people were a little disappointed.

Sea anemones contain toxins. Later, some people began to try to eat sea anemones, and in the 21st century, they could be sold for a small amount of money. But in the 1980s, fishermen would not pick sea anemones when they saw them, and even if they did, no one would be willing to buy them.

Several people stood up and continued to walk around the atoll. Suddenly, Deng Zhaocai pointed to the reef under his feet:

"Look, there are fish that are not afraid of death. They dare to swim in and out of the sea anemones. They look weird!"

Liang Ziqiang had already seen two orange-red fish, about ten centimeters long, emerging from a cluster of orange-yellow anemones.

The color of this anemone is similar to that of the fish. If it weren't for the three wide white stripes on the sides of the fish's body, it would be almost impossible to spot it.

"Since it can survive in a poisonous sea anemone, is this fish itself also poisonous?" Liang Chun seemed to not understand this and asked tentatively.

"Young Master Clown?" Liang Ziqiang's eyes flickered, and he became happy, "Don't worry, it's not only non-toxic, but also very valuable!"

Clownfish is a type of clownfish. This fish can cover itself with a layer of mucus, and move freely in the anemone, but it is not poisoned at all, but enjoys the protection of the anemone.

In fact, not only the male clown fish, but almost most clownfish have this characteristic. They naturally like to stay with sea anemones to avoid being preyed upon by other big fish.

For this reason, clownfish is also known as "anemone fish".

The relationship between the two can be said to be mutually beneficial. The sea anemone uses its sting to protect the clownfish, and in return, the clownfish's food scraps are given to the sea anemone for its enjoyment. In addition, the clownfish can also attract other fish to approach, increasing the anemone's chance of predation.

Clownfish are not ugly, which is what Liang Ziqiang is most interested in. The reason why they are called "clownfish" in China is that they usually have one or two white stripes on their faces, which is very similar to the clown characters in Peking Opera.

Not only are they not ugly, on the contrary, most clownfish are elegant and beautiful, and are very ornamental.

Liang Ziqiang believed that these fish were the kind that Jiang Wen'ang would definitely be very interested in!
(End of this chapter)