I am a local in North America

Chapter 63 A Full Hold of Fish!

More than ten minutes later, the two fishing boats slowly docked at the berth, and the mooring lines were thrown ashore and firmly tied to the mooring bollards with a heavy thud.

As soon as the boat came to a stop and the gangplank was set up, a tall, dark-skinned, middle-aged man with a full beard and a tired expression, wearing a heavy waterproof suit stained with fish scales and salt, hurriedly disembarked.

He is Uncle Zheng, who rented the boat from Su Jierui's family.

Uncle Zheng also owns two fishing boats, but they are both old fishing boats over twenty meters long. The two families have maintained a good relationship since the generation of Grandpa Su. For a period of time, the two families were neighbors and lived together near Chinatown in Seattle.

Later, Su Jierui's great-grandfather bought a house and moved away. Uncle Zheng and Su's father often met at the dock, and over time they developed a lifelong friendship, much like Su Jierui and Tang Jie's situation.

"Xiao Rui! A Rou! Were you getting impatient?"

Uncle Zheng, with his booming voice and the characteristic hearty manner of a fisherman, strode over with a bright smile, extending his calloused and frostbitten hands to pat Su Jierui's shoulder forcefully:

"We were lucky this time, it wasn't a wasted trip! The ship's cabins are almost full!"

Feeling the strength in Uncle Zheng's hand, Su Jierui realized that even though he was young and strong, he might not be able to win an arm wrestling match against these veteran fishermen who had worked the land for years. He laughed and said:
"Uncle Zheng, thank you for your hard work..."

"Come on, let me show you the goods! Let's finish quickly while there's still time, everyone's homesick and eager to go back and rest!"

Uncle Zheng was in high spirits. With a wave of his hand, he led Su Jierui and Arou onto the deck of the Fuyou.

The deck had been preliminarily cleaned, but it still reeked of a strong, fishy smell of seawater and seafood, and the air was filled with the odor of diesel fuel—this was the case in every fishing port.

"These past two months have really worn out the brothers."

Uncle Zheng pointed to the cold storage and gestured for the crew to open the heavy hatch. A chilling blast of air rushed out instantly.

“Arui, we had a very close call this time. We encountered two big storms along the way, but luckily your two boats are sturdy and we made it through.”

With a slightly smug tone, after entering the cold storage, Uncle Zheng first pointed to the rows of fish baskets in the corner and said with satisfaction:

"The Moonfish trawled a few nets in the high seas to the north and caught a lot of black cod, each weighing more than ten pounds and very fat! Japanese restaurants call it 'silver cod' and it's quite expensive."

"I just called the owner of 'Dayang Seafood,' Mr. Chen, and he said he'll come to check out the goods later and give me a price right away. It'll be delivered from the ship, and he should be able to sell it for $11.5 per pound! That's better than last year..."

Looking at the baskets of different kinds of seafood, Su Jierui quickly made a mental calculation.

He knew that once this quality of black cod was shipped to supermarkets across the West Coast by wholesalers, the price would immediately jump to around $25 a pound, and if it was further processed into fish fillets, it wouldn't be surprising to sell it for over $30 a pound.

Su Jierui nodded, smiled, and said to Uncle Zheng:
“This price is really good. My parents were just saying on the phone yesterday, ‘Uncle Zheng, you work the hardest, you don’t want to rest for even a day.’”

The temperature in the cold storage was low, and Uncle Zheng tightened his collar, sighing:
"It's not that I don't want to, it's that I simply can't... My eldest son is getting married next year, and my youngest son is also taking the college entrance exam next year. There's still hope that he'll be accepted by an Ivy League school, and maybe he can even go to Stanford to study... computer programming."

"As their father, there's nothing I can do to help them. I can only try to earn more money. The interest rates on student loans in the US are shockingly high. Some people still haven't paid them off even when they're in their forties or fifties. I can't sleep well at night when I think about it."

"Speaking of hardship, your parents are just as hard-working. They give up a good life and spend just as much time at sea as I do. They've been in the Bering Sea for over a month now, haven't they? I heard they even rescued five crab fishermen who were in a shipwreck? They're incredibly lucky to have met your parents. Fishing for king crabs there is like risking your life for money; it seems like there's always some kind of accident every year..."

Arou glanced at Su Jierui and quietly reminded him:

“My brother was there too, but he flew back earlier. The five people in distress were sitting on the drifting container. It was my brother’s good eyesight that allowed him to spot them. Otherwise, if the search area had been misplaced and the search had been delayed for another two days, those people might have frozen or starved to death.”

"Oh? You found that, Ari? That's a truly great deed!"

Uncle Zheng's eyes widened immediately. He turned to Su Jierui, patted him hard on the shoulder, and continued to praise him:

"Thank Goddess Mazu, no wonder your father managed to catch the maximum amount of king crab despite the delay. They also mentioned that since you came aboard the fishing boat, fishing has become much easier, and they often encounter large schools of fish. You're a lucky child..."

Su Jierui was a little embarrassed by the praise, smiled and changed the subject, then took stock of his gains.

Since he started going out to sea with his parents to film fishing footage, he has indeed relied on his talent quite a bit, using "learning to drive a fishing boat" as an excuse to help his family's fishing boat chase schools of fish in the nearby sea.

Unfortunately, fishing boats are subject to quotas and fishing bans, so many times we can only watch helplessly. Even so, the savings in fuel, time, and labor costs are still a considerable surplus.

During last year's Dungeness crab fishing season, their two fishing boats filled their quotas before anyone else.

It was the dead of winter in the North Pacific, with rough seas, but it was also the prime fishing season for some high-value seafood. Besides the conspicuous black cod, there were several baskets of Pacific halibut nearby, already frozen solid. Their flat bodies resembled huge gray shields, with rough skin, but the flesh underneath was snow-white and thick.

On the other side are red-striped rockfish. Their colorful appearance has now faded, but their firm flesh makes them an excellent choice for fish fillets, though they are not cheap.

There are also Pacific cod that were caught on the King's Landing. There are so many here that they are neatly stacked in basket after basket, but none of them are as big as the cod that was teased by the killer whale a few days ago.

There are also rock flounder, arrow-toothed flounder, and side-spined shrimp, but in relatively small quantities. Uncle Zheng and his group are heading to the North Pacific, near the Bering Sea, mainly for black cod and Pacific cod, as the purchase price at the dock is high this season.

After visiting the Fuyou, we went to the newer Moonfish. The cold storage was also filled with many fish, with the fish baskets neatly arranged and the fish heads facing one side, as if they had some kind of obsessive-compulsive disorder.

As agreed beforehand, Uncle Zheng and his team borrowed the boat for fishing. After deducting costs for fuel, ice, bait, crew wages, and supplies, 35% of the net profit was to be given to Su Jierui's parents. In addition, Uncle Zheng voluntarily paid $5000 for the maintenance and depreciation of the fishing boat.

Su Jierui didn't need to worry about the money. In the short time that the Fuyou and Moonfish docked, the shouts of buyers could already be heard on the nearby pier.

Uncle Zheng heard this and, clearly eager to return home, rubbed his face, which was red from the cold, and said to Su Jierui:
"Xiao Rui, shall we hurry up? The buyers are all waiting. The sooner we weigh and settle the accounts, the sooner the brothers can get their money and go home. I've been away for more than two months, and my wife and kids almost don't recognize me anymore!"

"Okay, Uncle Zheng, you make the arrangements. We can learn from you."

Su Jierui was there to oversee things, but of course, this couldn't be discussed openly.

Over the next few hours, the dock area became unusually busy and noisy.

Mr. Chen, the owner of "Dayang Seafood", boarded the boat first with a few of his employees. He was obviously a regular customer of Uncle Zheng. After exchanging greetings, they got straight to the point.

The roar of the crane filled the air as its sturdy boom swung nimbly, hoisting baskets of frozen black cod, Pacific halibut, and Pacific cod out of the icy hold.

The electronic scales for weighing fish were set up on the open ground of the dock. Whenever a full fish basket was lowered by the hook, someone would loudly announce the weight, while Ah Rou and Uncle Zheng's nephew would quickly record it in their notebooks.

"This basket of black cod is of uniform size and of top quality!"

The buyer, Mr. Chen, peeled back the surface ice, carefully examined the fish's gills and eyes, nodded in satisfaction, and gestured to Uncle Zheng:

"Just like they said on the phone, $11.5, I'll take the whole of it."

Several white and black buyers rushed over to inspect the goods. When they heard Boss Chen announce the highest price, they looked at each other and fell silent.

Mr. Chen was one of the most powerful buyers at this pier, and since the price was close to the market high, the others tacitly turned their attention to other catches.

We see each other all the time, and if you ruin someone else's business, someone else might ruin yours. So, I won't easily do anything that offends anyone.

Uncle Zheng grinned and said to Boss Chen:
"I knew you knew your stuff! Give me a fair price for those real cod and halibut in the back too!"

Su Jierui and Arou did not get involved in the specific negotiations, but they stood aside and quietly observed and learned.

Tang Jie's eyes lit up, and he nudged Su Jierui with his elbow, whispering:

"See that? That's real power! I wish my ship could have this kind of scene when it returns to port someday..."

Su Jierui was speechless, and wanted to remind him that both fishing boats belonged to his family.

The entire process—counting, weighing, negotiating prices, loading—was carried out in an orderly manner.

On the open ground of the dock, refrigerated transport vehicles lined up, their engines never turned off to ensure the continuous operation of the refrigeration system.

Besides the black cod, which was bought up entirely by Mr. Chen of Ocean Seafood, other Pacific cod, halibut, rockfish, and other fish were also successively taken away by several different buyers.

By the time the last basket of fish was loaded onto the truck, it was already past 10 p.m., and the dock was brightly lit.

Uncle Zheng finally took a thick stack of receipts and a calculator, and led Su Jierui and Arou onto the ship to do the calculations.

As for Tang Jie, he had been waiting impatiently for a long time and took a ride back to Seattle with an acquaintance...

(End of this chapter)