Chapter 322: Deep-sea Fishing
Liang Ziqiang drove the big boat, continuing to maintain the most suitable speed for trawling operations, going back and forth in the boundless deep sea.
It lasted for about three hours.
"Get ready, it's time to pull up the net!" he shouted to the crew.
While shouting this, Liang Ziqiang himself had already started to slow down, from the original 3 to 5 nautical miles per hour to only half speed.
After the boat slowed down, Zhu Tianpeng came to the winch operating table again. This time, the operation was opposite to that when the net was released. He rolled the winch to retract the steel cable onto the winch little by little.
First, the section of the towing line closest to the hull began to slowly retract along the stern slide.
After a while, two iron "water dividers" began to emerge from the water. When the two mesh plates moved to the stern, the winch stopped working temporarily.
Deng Zhaocai and Lu Song, who had been waiting at the stern, reached out their hands, loosened the iron buckles connecting the net to the towing line, removed the two "water-dividing plates", and tied them back to the net frame on the side of the boat.
As soon as they finished their work, they retreated to a safe area. Zhu Tianpeng continued to start the winch, and the steel cable continued to retract from the sea to the ship.
The tow rope, then the hand rope and the air rope, were raised from the sea one by one and were retrieved back to the ship along the stern slide.
Next comes the key part, which is also the part that Liang Ziqiang and others are most concerned about.
The entire large trawl net began to emerge from the rolling sea water at the tail end little by little. It was completely different from when the net was cast. It became heavy and bulging because it was loaded with a large amount of fish.
Just like a fruit emerging from the water, the full picture is not yet visible.
It was like a giant whale appeared, and the truth was revealed.
Gradually, the net wings were pulled onto the stern slide along the steel cables, followed by the entire net body.
The net was extremely long and it took a while to pull it before the entire net bag appeared on the tail slide.
Although some fish are visible inside the net, the most bulging part is the net bag at the very end of the trawl.
When part of the net bag entered the stern deck, Zhu Tianpeng did not continue pulling with the steel cable, but paused the rotation of the winch again.
Deng Zhaocai and Lu Song came to the net bag. At this time, several thick iron hooks slowly dropped from the mast above their heads.
The gate-shaped mast, also known as the dragon gate, is a large gate-shaped frame standing on the ship.
The two men hooked the big iron hooks on the iron rings on the net bag one by one. After they were hooked firmly, they quickly stepped aside.
Zhu Tianpeng operated again, and the big iron hook hanging from the mast slowly retracted upwards. During this process, the net bag full of fish was pulled upwards, leaving the deck little by little and soaring into the air.
Several iron hooks are adjusted in length and angle so that the mouth of the fishing net faces downward and the tail faces the sky.
With a loud crash, a large green trawl suddenly poured down from mid-air.
Like a waterfall rushing down; like the Milky Way falling from the sky.
Countless fish poured out from the nets hanging in the air, and a rain of fish and shrimps fell onto the deck as if it was endless.
Some fish jumped and swayed along the way, falling towards the deck farther away, like silver water droplets splashing in a waterfall.
Soon, the deck was covered with fish and shrimps of all sizes. After a layer, before all the fish had fallen, the ones that fell later would hit the ones that fell earlier. It was like snow, layer upon layer.
If such a large trawl net were to be dumped manually as before, it would be a particularly thankless task, and these few boatmen alone might not be enough. Fortunately, the entire set of equipment on this boat is relatively complete in terms of function. By hanging the fish from the gantry, everything becomes simpler and saves time.
The net bag was finally emptied and lowered from the gantry again. Deng Zhaocai and Lu Song took it off the big iron hook, and the entire empty trawl net was dragged to the side of the deck by the four people.
Liang Ziqiang looked out from the cab and saw a large area of fish and shrimp on the deck, which looked like an ocean. His heart was filled with emotion.
This huge amount of fish that is dumped out in an instant is different from the small mountain of fish that is usually accumulated little by little by casting nets in the shallow sea.
The amount is larger, more than the dozen or so nets cast normally combined, and the impact brought by the sudden rush of water is much stronger.
What he saw through the glass window of the cab wasn't clear enough or exciting enough, so he couldn't help but go out and see it in person.
"Apeng, come up and open the door for me for a while!"
After Liang Ziqiang slowed down the boat to an extremely slow speed, he called Zhu Tianpeng to come up and steer the boat for him in the cab for a while.
I told Zhu Tianpeng that there was no special situation, so for now I just needed to keep the current direction and low speed. It was like staring at the cab for a while.
Zhu Tianpeng received a full month of training with him last month and already had the ability to operate the ship. He was now the first mate of the ship. It was no problem for him to keep watch for a while.
Liang Ziqiang himself walked out of the cab and came to the deck.
The ship was very large, not only was it 24 meters long, but it was also 4.5 meters wide, so the deck area was quite large. The fish that had just been dumped out of the trawl only covered a section of the deck.
Liang Ziqiang took a look and saw that there were really all kinds of fish. It was so diverse! Among them, a large proportion was a kind of blue-scaled fish.
This fish has a green stripe on its back, so it is called green-scaled fish, but in fact a large area of its ventral surface is all shiny silver-white.
Blue-scaled fish are generally not big. Even in the deep sea, blue-scaled fish are generally small in size.
One of the favorite foods of Bryde's whales is bluefin bream.
Obviously, the large school of fish in front, which were being chased by Bryde's whales and skuas in turn, leaping out of the air with a flash of silver light, were the school of blue-scaled fish.
In addition to the blue-scaled fish, there are many other fish as well.
At first glance, there are sea bass, bluefin bream, sea wolf fish, thorn fish, herring, yellow croaker, large yellow croaker, small yellow croaker, white croaker, thorny pomfret, golden pomfret, swallowtail pomfret...
By the way, those fish that are twisting and turning among the jumping school of fish are cutlassfish and eels.
And it's not just fish, there are also some squid and calamari.
At first glance, the shrimps seem to include mantis shrimp, lobsters, and prawns.
As for crabs, the most common ones are swimming crabs. In addition, deep-sea orchid crabs can also be found on the deck.
Liang Ziqiang's eyes quickly and automatically skipped over these small fish and focused on searching for the big fish.
Soon, we saw a Spanish mackerel that seemed to weigh several dozen kilograms.
The usually ferocious and domineering swordfish was buried under a bunch of small fish because of its tipping.
From time to time, it would stick its mouth out from the pile of fish, open its mouth to take a breath, and look as aggrieved as a little wife.
Liang Ziqiang's eyes continued to wander. Skinned fish. Two big skinned fish could weigh thirty or forty kilograms each. But this thing is not valuable no matter how big it is. Forget it. It's better not to look at it.
"Ghost-head knife! Look at the color!" Deng Zhaocai and Liang Chun nearby shouted while pointing at a bright color emerging from the pile of fish.
Liang Ziqiang ordered several people to wear gloves, and he put one on as well. Together with them, he dug a few times and pulled the dolphin out of the pile of fish.
The fish has a square head that is surprisingly large, but its body is very narrow, giving it a top-heavy feel. Its scales glow in the sun, sometimes green-brown, sometimes cyan-blue, and sometimes gold and purple.
This swordfish should not have been in the trawl for a long time, so its scales have not been particularly damaged during the trawl, and the fish itself is still alive for the time being. But it is estimated that it will not last long. As the fish's life fades, the color will disappear and turn gray.
Although the dead swordfish is no longer good-looking, it can still be sold as an ordinary edible fish. As long as there is a freezer, everything is easy.
"Bomb fish, isn't this a bomb fish?" Lu Song was pulling it out by himself and soon pulled out a big fish weighing dozens of kilograms from the pile of fish.
Liang Ziqiang took a look and found it was a bonito, but it was different from the bomb fish he had encountered before. It was a real bonito.
“Hey, is this amberjack?”
Soon, Liang Ziqiang saw two more yellowtails, each weighing about 30 kilograms. This fish is as famous as salmon, and its price is at least as high as that of bomb fish.
Although there are piles of fish and shrimp, the big fish have the advantage of size after all. If you look carefully, you can still quickly find them among the pile of fish.
When he looked again, Liang Ziqiang's eyes suddenly lit up! A fish that could hardly move was gasping for breath in the pile of fish.
The fish is torpedo-shaped overall, with smooth skin, a dark blue metallic luster on its back, and silvery-white edges and belly.
Tuna! This is a albacore tuna! Once upon a time, tuna could only be seen from afar in the shallow sea.
Now, it finally appeared on his deck! After the catch was dumped on the deck, the real hard work began.
Liang Ziqiang didn't plan to return to the shore on the same day of his trip to the deep sea. Otherwise, he would waste a lot of time and fuel on the way back and forth, which was not cost-effective.
Since the fish will stay in the deep sea overnight, they have to be sorted and put into the cold storage to keep them fresh.
"Come, let's sort the fish together. Put different fish in different baskets. Even if you have the same kind of fish, put the particularly large ones in a separate basket!"
Liang Ziqiang called out and the crew members brought baskets and began to sort the fish piled on the deck.
Fortunately, Liang Ziqiang had bought enough baskets in advance, with more than 20 stacked on the deck alone. There were also hundreds of spare baskets in the net cabin under the deck.
Liang Ziqiang took out a special fish-filleting knife, picked up the albacore tuna, and made a quick cut just under the gills. The fish blood immediately gushed out and fell into a large basin below.
Tuna is also a typical fish that needs to be bled. Only by bleeding immediately after catching it can we avoid blood stasis affecting the quality of the fish meat and ensure the freshness of the fish meat.
Tuna that has been bled in time is very suitable for sashimi. The price of bled tuna and unbled tuna is completely different.
Moreover, since tuna usually rely on constantly swimming to obtain enough oxygen, their lives basically enter a countdown from the moment they are salvaged from the water.
Liang Ziqiang would of course give priority to dealing with these fish that cannot survive out of water.
After bleeding, the tuna body was rinsed with water.
Then, Liang Ziqiang took out the bonito and yellowtail. Like tuna, bonito and yellowtail also need to be bled.
After draining the blood of several types of fish and rinsing them, Liang Ziqiang picked up the fish and walked to the basement level along the entrance to the fish hold on the deck.
The fish hold, refrigerated fish hold, net hold, crew living quarters, anchor chain hold, bow hold, fuel tank, all of these are on the underground level below the deck.
Since all the catches in this net needed to be kept fresh, they went straight to the cold storage compartment after going down to the underground floor.
In order to save fuel, the refrigerated compartment had not been started before. Only now that it was needed did Liang Ziqiang turn on the switch of the piston refrigeration compressor of the refrigerated compartment and start the refrigeration.
After he moved several processed bonito, yellowtail amberjack, and albacore tuna into the cold storage one by one, he returned to the deck. Deng Zhaocai and others were still busy picking and sorting other fish in full swing.
After they are sorted, they will be carried out one basket at a time and taken to the basement for refrigeration.
At this time, one person is responsible for driving the boat, one person is responsible for lookout and coordination, and there are actually only four crew members left who can sort the fish.
We are short on manpower. We can't finish sorting all the items at once, so we have a lot of work to do.
The key point is that they went out to sea very early in the morning, and now the sun is starting to set, and they haven't had lunch yet.
The main reason is that when a new boat goes out to sea for the first time, they have to wait until the fish is on board, cook the fish head and offer it to the Dragon King before they can eat.
That’s how they’ve been here till now. Fortunately, they managed to stuff two steamed buns into their mouths to keep themselves from getting hungry.
At this time, Liang Ziqiang started to cook lunch.
The fish chosen for the Dragon King of the Sea was still a spotted sea bass, but its size was bigger than the one he had caught in the shallow sea before.
In addition, they picked up some swimming crabs, mantis shrimps, bluefin bream and yellow croaker from the deck as side dishes for the people on the boat.
Now, with a deck full of fish and shrimp, I feel like there is an inexhaustible supply when cooking.
Of course, I also brought some leafy vegetables from home.
After the meal was quickly prepared, according to custom, they worshipped the Dragon King first, placed the head of the big sea bass on the bow, lit incense, set off firecrackers, and then worshipped.
After finishing all this, they took turns to eat. Except for Zhu Tianpeng who continued to sit in the cab and Lin Liming who was still in charge of lookout, everyone else ate first.
Afterwards, Liang Ziqiang replaced Zhu Tianpeng and Deng Zhaocai replaced Lin Liming, allowing them to start eating lunch.
After finishing the meal, there were only about three or four hours left until dark.
It is estimated that there will be just enough time for one more round of trawling before dark.
As usual, they worked together to throw the large trawl that had been lifted into the air again from the stern slide into the sea at the stern.
For the next three hours, Liang Ziqiang drove the boat in the cab, maintaining a speed of three to five nautical miles per hour. Zhu Tianpeng looked out.
The remaining four crew members were busy sorting out the previous round of fish on the deck, which had yet to be sorted out. They had to clean the deck before the new round of fish came up.
This time we started to pull the nets in the evening. Unlike the last time, the fish we caught this time were not as diverse, and most of the fish in the net were squid.
In addition to squid, the next most common fish are some blue fish, blue crabs and red shrimps.
It seems that the sea area where we were sailing this time happened to encounter a large wave of underwater squids.
Night is falling and it's time to find a place to moor the boat.
Liang Ziqiang originally thought that the ideal situation would be to find an island in the deep sea and then anchor near it for the night. However, after looking around, he could not find any island nearby.
Finally, we decided to turn the boat around and sail towards the shallow sea for a while. We are not yet at the shallow sea, but just a little closer to it. The water is relatively not that deep, so it is more convenient to drop anchor.
After deciding on the anchoring location, Liang Ziqiang started the anchoring procedure.
This type of boat is very different from the previous wooden boat's anchoring method. It is not just two people picking up the anchor chain and throwing it into the water.
The water in the deep sea is so deep that a very long anchor chain is needed to reach the bottom of the sea. Not only is it long, but it is also very thick. This kind of anchor chain is simply not something that can be lifted by human power.
It requires a special anchor windlass.
Liang Ziqiang slowed the boat down to a stop and started the anchor winch.
At the bow, under the deck, there is a special anchor chain compartment for storing anchor chains.
The hatch was opened, and the anchor winch lifted the huge and heavy iron anchor and anchor chain, which dropped continuously into the sea.
By the time the anchor landed in the mud on the seabed, the sky gradually darkened and the blue of the entire sea surface turned into ink-like black.
After the sound of the ship's motor stopped, the sound of the deep sea waves began to emerge. Wave after wave hit the hull, making a regular sound.
Liang Ziqiang and his friends were tired after a long day and couldn't rest for the time being.
Although a new round of trawling has ended, the large amount of squid, shrimps and crabs dumped on the deck have not yet been sorted and stored.
For dinner they cooked fresh squid, shrimp, crab and herring. As soon as they put down their bowls and chopsticks after eating, they joined together to sort out the catch.
A light was turned on at the fish sorting area on the deck and at the entrance to the fish hold, and they got busy with the help of the light.
Fortunately, although the catch of this net was not small, most of them were squids, and the species were not that complicated, so it was relatively easy to sort them out.
In less than two hours, all the squids, shrimps, crabs and bluefin breams had been sorted into different baskets and carried into the cold storage compartment on the basement floor.
At this point, the six of them finally had a break, took a shower, left one person on the deck to watch the night, and the other five went to sleep.
Six people took turns, and each person was on duty for about an hour, then woke up the next person to take over.
The lights on the ship's mast were kept on all night to prevent other night-time ships from passing by and failing to spot the ship and ramming it.
Liang Ziqiang slept well anyway. Compared to the night fishing last year when he spent the night on the wooden boat, although it was in the deep sea and the waves were large, the big iron boat was very stable, even more stable than the night fishing.
This is how we spent the new ship’s first deep-sea night.
This month is considered the season when the sunrise in the South China Sea is relatively early. The next day, at about five o'clock, the morning light seeped out from the sky and gradually penetrated the sky and the sea.
When Liang Ziqiang and the others arrived, they just happened to catch the sunrise over the sea.
The first sunrise was not majestic, but small, like an egg just peeled from its shell, or like the first cry of a delicate baby.
But the sun rose very quickly. As they were getting dressed, washing, and making breakfast, the young sun grew rapidly, and it seemed as if they could hear the sound of it climbing up the sky little by little.
By the time Liang Ziqiang and his friends finished breakfast, the morning sun had already burned through the eastern sky, and the rosy glow had spread to the entire sea.
A few early-rising seagulls seemed to be on fire, flying high and low in the rosy glow.
The originally deep blue water surface was also covered with a layer of gold, and the color kept changing with the ripples of the water.
Under the waves, a black shadow suddenly flashed and shattered a small piece of golden light in front.
"There's a fish. There seems to be a big fish underwater ahead!" Deng Zhaocai raised his arm and pointed, shouting before Liang Ziqiang, Zhu Tianpeng and others.
It didn't look like a shark or a whale. Liang Ziqiang stared at the water ahead, watching the movement of the big fish...
(End of this chapter)
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