1983Fishing and Farming between Mountains and Seas

Chapter 433 Half of the prawns sold for
Liang Ziqiang had originally planned to notify the crew to go out to sea two or three days ago, but because of the blackmail letter, the plan was postponed for a few days.

There is still some time before the winter flood arrives. Liang Ziqiang estimates that around November, the special wintering fishing ground will begin to gather a large number of fish and shrimps to avoid the winter. By then, he can lead the entire fleet to the wintering fishing ground to show off his skills.

Last year there was only one steel boat, and although it made a lot of money there, it was only an appetizer compared to the long-term prospects of the wintering fishery.

Now that stretch of sea has been contracted, with three large ships working at full capacity together, it can be said that it has begun to develop into a small fishing company!

In late October, he first went out to sea with the crew members. When another batch of fish cages made by the carpenter came out, he drove the "Ziqiang" steel ship alone, called Zhu Tianpeng, Lu Song, Liang Chun, Lin Liming, and his father, and went to the wintering fishing grounds after more than half a year.

Having survived a dangerously high summer, it is now nearly November and although the wintering fish grounds have not yet begun to gather large numbers of overwintering fish, they are already safe enough.

Liang Ziqiang and others came to a place close to the atoll, found a place to place all the cages, and fixed one end of them to the reef of the atoll.

In theory, this kind of solid wood cage is fine on a shallow sea island like the Nameless Island, but it is a bit fragile in a deep sea environment like this. It cannot be used for years or even decades like the specially made high-density plastic cages of later generations. However, Liang Ziqiang does not think this is a big problem.

In his vision, with the buffering effect of the atoll, these solid wooden cages could be used for a few months or even half a year.

As for the longer term, by next summer, even if there are no waves that destroy the cages, a "water dragon" will definitely occur in this place.

With the “water dragon sucking water” roaring and spinning, how could the fish cage be safe and sound?
No matter if they are washed away by the tide or destroyed by a water dragon, you can make a new batch the next year and put them here for display.

This is an essential cost in order to have exclusive fishing rights in this fishery.

He didn't expect to breed grouper and snapper here. The real grouper was well-farmed on the nameless island.

Of course, we can't completely not raise any animals here, and we have to at least make it look somewhat real.

In November, he went to the nameless island in the middle of the night, scooped out a small number of snappers and groupers from the cages there and put them into the new cages at the deep-sea fishery.

At least everything looks like a decent and standard deep-sea aquaculture farm.

In addition, he specially made several large signs with wooden boards, which read:

"This is a special experimental sea area for aquaculture farms approved by the state. No one else is allowed to enter. Extreme phenomena often occur on this sea surface. Those who enter will bear the consequences at their own risk!"

Emphasizing the official approval of the state is naturally a way to give yourself a big banner.

The "extreme phenomenon" is specifically mentioned, but it is not directly stated as "dragon sucking water". On the one hand, it serves a certain warning role, and on the other hand, it is equivalent to a disclaimer.

In case someone really ignored the warning and forced their way in here, encountering a water dragon in the hot weather and causing a tragedy, Liang Ziqiang had given them a prior warning.

Two of the signs were fixed on the atoll, and the others were fixed on reefs found on the edge of the wintering fishing grounds.

It was mid-November and the long-awaited winter flood arrived.

A large number of winter fish began to flock to the wintering fishing grounds, and the fish and shrimp quickly gathered. The snappers and groupers in the net cages placed near the atoll did not need to be fed at all, as countless small fish and shrimp poured in through the "reverse whisker" device, providing them with enough bait.

The first round of winter fishing has begun.

The first fish to appear in the deep-sea wintering grounds are still the cutlassfish, conger eels, squid and other fish that are not very cold-resistant. There are also many yellow croaker, golden pomfret and horsehead fish.

The number of boats has increased from one last year to three today, but the amount of fish and shrimp caught in each net has basically not decreased compared to last year.

After five days, each ship can catch about fourteen or fifteen tons of fish, which is much more than usual in the deep sea.

At the end of five days, Liang Ziqiang did not let the three boats return to the shore to sell their catch at the same time. Instead, two of them returned first, and the other stayed here for seven days to continue fishing. When the two boats had rested for two days and returned to the wintering grounds, the remaining boat left here and returned to the shore to sell the catch.

That is to say, no matter what night, there will be at least one boat staying here to keep watch.

In fact, so far, at least no foreign ships have followed him to find a wintering place. This may be because even in other ordinary deep seas, the amount of fish and shrimp in winter is very considerable.

Of course, compared to later generations, there were not many large steel ships capable of sailing in the deep sea at that time.

But just in case, he still felt it necessary to use this staggered time approach to ensure that he had his own boat staying in the wintering fishing grounds throughout the winter fishing season.

In the past, if the weather conditions were ideal and the boat could go out to sea every week, it could earn about 50,000 yuan a month. If the weather was not ideal and the boat spent more time at home, it could earn at least 30,000 to 40,000 yuan a month.

Now, with three large boats, the monthly income can reach hundreds of thousands. Of course, this is limited to the short winter fishing season.

Every time he went to the bank to deposit money, as long as he went to the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China in Binzhou District instead of the Construction Bank in Qianluo District, Liang Ziqiang would habitually pass by the door of the Snow Egret Hotel from a distance. But in the following few times, he did not see Deng Zhaocai for the time being.

In a blink of an eye, two months have passed. New Year's Day of 1986 has arrived, and in a few days, it will be the Spring Festival of the new year.

During the break, Liang Ziqiang, together with his father, elder brother, father-in-law, and uncle, caught some prawns from the shrimp ponds and the seaside ponds and went to sell them to Wei Pan at the county fishing port.

Now that the scale is dozens of acres and there are more shrimps, it is natural that they need to be sold in batches.

The breeding cycle of prawns is not as long as that of groupers and snappers. After half a year, the prawns are ready to be sold. Of course, he still keeps about half of them and will sell them around March after the Chinese New Year.

By then, the entire market will have endured several months of the fishing off-season, and all kinds of seafood, including prawns, will be in short supply. Prices will not fall compared to now, but will only be higher.

The yield per mu is still only maintained at about 150 kilograms. Liang Ziqiang alone owns 40 mu, and it is estimated that he can produce about 6,000 kilograms of shrimp.

This time, half of the shrimp pond was emptied, and it is estimated that about 3,000 kilograms of shrimp were caught.

In addition, my father and eldest brother also emptied half of their respective ten-acre ponds and loaded up the shrimps to head to the county town.

There were two boats. Liang Ziqiang was on the lotus-patterned boat with his father-in-law and uncles, while his father and eldest brother were on the phoenix-tail boat.

When we get to the fishing port, we naturally won’t go to Lao Xiao’s public purchasing station, because they will only give us a rigid breeding price.

Only Wei Pan, after many years of cooperation, can offer the same price as wild prawns, and it is said that those who purchase the goods specifically ask for it.

When we arrived at Wei Pan’s purchasing point, Wei Pan came to greet us before we even entered.

Because the last time he came to the fishing port to sell the deep-sea fish, he had already made a verbal agreement with Wei Pan to bring prawns to sell on this day. Wei Pan was waiting today.

I heard that Liang Ziqiang alone had over 3,000 kilograms of cargo, and that there were still a lot on the boat of Liang Tiancheng, Liang's father. Wei Pan was so happy that his eyes shrank into a line.

There were not many shrimps last year, but Wei Pan had already tasted the sweetness, and I wonder how many times more the quantity will be this year!
Without Liang Ziqiang's instruction, the workers in Wei Pan's shop had already run to the boat and were helping Chen Dagang and the others to carry basket after basket of prawns off the boat and then to the shop to be weighed.

After all the shrimps were weighed and added up, the amount of shrimps Liang Ziqiang brought over this time was 2,982 kilograms, which was almost half of the shrimp production from the 40 acres, but it was not accurate to that extent.

As the Spring Festival is approaching, the purchase price of prawns has increased slightly compared to the usual 12 yuan, and can be purchased at a price of 12 yuan and 50 cents.

The total value of Liang Ziqiang's boatload of prawns reached 37,275 yuan!

(End of this chapter)