1983Fishing and Farming between Mountains and Seas

Chapter 467: Hidden Fish in the Sea Cucumber's Belly

In contrast, the cables of bottom trawls are much longer than those of ordinary trawls. In order to ensure that the net mouth touches the bottom, the length of the cables must be several times the depth of the sea water.

In addition, in order to prevent the net from tipping over at the bottom of the water, the process of releasing the towing line should be stopped from time to time.

In short, bottom trawl takes longer to cast and retrieve the net than pelagic trawl.

Fortunately, the area where the bottom towing operation was attempted for the first time was around the Unknown Island. The seabed was not as deep as the deep sea, so it was enough to release only a small half of the steel cable.

Liang Ziqiang did not go to a place too close to the island, because there were too many reefs on the seabed there, which would easily damage the net. He chose a place about two miles away from the island, where the situation was relatively better.

When it came time to close the net, the scene was indeed very different from that of the three ships of the Ziqiang.

There was a burst of clanging sounds, and the noise on the deck never stopped.

He came here for the black dog sea cucumber, but what he actually dragged up were quite a few "hard guys" such as clams, Manila clams, sea cucumbers, razor clams, oysters, scallops, conches, cat's eye snails, and spicy snails. Each one of them could make the steel make a bang when it hit the deck.

In addition, the number of stone crabs, swimming crabs, squid, octopus, sand shrimps, prawns and black tiger shrimps is significantly higher than when trawling the middle and upper layers.

As for fish, there are many fish that prefer to live at the bottom, such as toothfish, leaf flounder, ray, flower flounder, and yellow cap flounder.

In addition to the fact that the contents of the fish poured out of the net bag are very different, there is another characteristic: the flounder and flatfish collected are basically all injured.

In fact, Liang Ziqiang was already trawling quite slowly during the operation, much slower than the mid- and upper-layer trawling, but fish injuries are almost unavoidable in bottom trawling.

The net touched the bottom, stirring up the sand and stones on the seabed. In addition, so many shellfish and snails were caught in the net, and their hard shells naturally caused scratches on the fish bodies.

In addition to various kinds of fish, shrimps, snails and shellfish, there are also quite a few black dog ginseng, which accounts for almost a quarter of the total.

In addition, there are also some bright orange-red plum blossom ginseng and brownish yellow topaz ginseng.

"We also have plum blossom ginseng. This is the most valuable, better than topaz and black dog ginseng!"

Seeing the bright red ginseng, Liang's father immediately picked one up, looked at it, and said.

Plum blossom ginseng is revered as one of the "eight treasures". It is crispy, delicious, and has high nutritional value. It is indeed much higher than the status of black dog ginseng. In later generations, dried goods can be sold for more than one thousand per catty. Of course, in fact, most of them are farmed goods in later generations. If they are wild, the price will be much higher than this.

Several people sat on the deck and sorted out the catch. This time, shellfish and snails were mixed together, and there were too many types and too many varieties. Liang Ziqiang decided that since the prices of clams and clams were similar, he would not separate them so much and put them all in the same basket.

However, the plum ginseng must be placed in a separate basket and cannot be mixed with the black dog ginseng, because the price difference is more than just a little.

While he was tidying up, Lin Baixian suddenly got so scared that he jumped up from the stool and threw a sea cucumber in his hand away.

"Fuck, Ah Xian, what the hell are you doing?!" Li Liang couldn't help but curse.

"Oh my god, something suddenly came out of the sea cucumber's stomach. If it were you, wouldn't you be shocked?!"

"Are you talking about this?" Liang Ziqiang picked up a ginseng, stretched out his hand, and pulled out a long and thin thing from the anus of the ginseng.

It turned out to be a fish, very slender, gray-yellow, without scales, and with small, squinty eyes.

"Wocao turned out to be a fish? What does this fish mean? It likes the butt of sea cucumbers?!" Lin Baixian finally saw it clearly.

"This is called a hidden fish. It can't live without sea cucumbers. It hides in the sea cucumber's stomach during the day and sneaks out at night to find something to eat!" Liang Ziqiang said.

Every creature in the ocean has its own way of survival. The hidden fish is thin and weak, and has no fighting power at all, so it is almost impossible for it to survive in the ocean. Many weaker fish think of hiding, and like to drill caves and find reef caves.

The cryptid also likes to dig holes, but it digs holes made by sea cucumbers...

Drilling into the body of the sea cucumber and merging with it seems to be much safer. That is why it is called a hidden fish.

There are actually quite a few sea cucumbers that have holes drilled by cryptofish. At most, up to fifteen cryptofish can be hidden in the body of a sea cucumber.

As for the sea cucumbers that are often visited, no one knows what kind of sour and refreshing taste they have.

Lin Baixian usually couldn't catch sea cucumbers at the bottom of the sea when he cast a net to catch fish, so he didn't know much about the relationship between sea cucumbers and hidden fish. Suddenly, he saw a long and thin thing coming out of the sea cucumber's body, and subconsciously threw the sea cucumber away.

After knowing the whole story, Lin Baixian was no longer surprised.

Next, Liang Ziqiang drove the Fu Qiang to trawle around the Wuming Island for several days in a row, and the total harvest of sea cucumbers was still very considerable.

After waiting for several days, there was no sign of an earthquake, so the fleet began to head towards the deep sea again.

Liang Ziqiang decided to go to the two water areas on the map again. Although he didn't find anything special the last time he went there, at least he got a good harvest of ordinary fish and shrimp.

This time, four boats were operating separately in the same waters, three of them catching fish in the upper and middle layers, and the largest boat, the Fuqiang, catching fish and shrimp at the bottom.

The three ships were driven by Liang Fu, Zhu Tianpeng and Lu Song respectively, while the tugboat was driven by Liang Ziqiang himself, and he supplemented it with some newly recruited crew members.

The fish catches of the three Ziqiang ships were similar to those of the last time here, but when it was the Fuqiang's turn, they found that there were many clams and shellfish mixed in with the shrimps, crabs and snails.

Clams and Manila clams are common on the seabed. What Liang Ziqiang did not expect was that the most numerous of them were not these common shells, but a large shellfish with a larger shell, almost twenty centimeters long.

This shell is brown in color, and the scales on the top of the shell are very dense, and the overall shape is a bit like a butterfly's wing.

Lin Baixian and Li Liang had already followed from Ziqiang to Fuqiang. At this time, Lin Baixian squatted there and picked up one of the big shells. He looked up and asked Liang Ziqiang:

"Why does this thing look a bit like a pearl?"

"If you can see it, it must be!"

"Fuck, you make me sound ignorant. I know so much about seafood!" Lin Baixian was a little dissatisfied.

In fact, what Ah Xian said is not accurate. There are many kinds of shellfish that can produce pearls. They can all be collectively called pearl shells, but they are very different from each other.

The one in front of you is actually called "Pectin maxima", also known as "white butterfly oyster".

Many larger pearls are produced from this white lip oyster.

Of course, this only means that compared with ordinary shells and clams, these pearl oysters have a very high probability of producing pearls, but it does not mean that every pearl oyster will definitely produce pearls.

He was not sure whether there were pearls among these white oysters.

"Come on, try prying two of them open!"

Liang Ziqiang immediately found a chisel and used the one in Lin Baixian's hand to pry it open...

(End of this chapter)