Everyone breathed softly, afraid that any loud noise would scare away the approaching swarm of squid.
At this moment, countless squid were swimming towards them from all directions, and Fu Ming and Fu Liang, standing behind the lamp, could see them even more clearly.
Holy crap, this is so much fun!
Almost all the hand nets on the boat were found, and once the squid reached the catchable range, the people who had been waiting by the boat for a long time took action.
"Haha, this is the first time I've ever caught squid like this!"
Fu Xiaochuan sighed as he looked at the heavy net in his hand, and Fu Dahai chimed in.
"How old are you? I've been sailing on ships for so many years, and this is my first time too!"
However, they stopped after a couple of sentences because the squid in the sea were constantly surging towards them, and it's no exaggeration to say that they couldn't catch them all no matter how hard they tried.
After working for two hours, the flashlight beams were so faint they could barely be seen, and the squid had dispersed, Fu Wan finally told everyone to stop and rest.
Xu Jiafu watched the entire process of catching squid by light and was also incredibly amazed.
Seeing that Fu Ming and the others had pushed the trawl net down again, he quickly returned to the wheelhouse and asked Boss Fu to speed up and change the trawl net to a different sea area.
Fu Wan and Chen Balang were on the deck counting the number of squid they had brought back.
The squid they caught hadn't been sorted by size; they were just dumped directly into the fish basket.
But each basket of squid was full, and many squid were wriggling their eight tentacles, desperately trying to crawl out.
Fu Wan roughly counted and found that she had brought up twenty-two baskets of squid in two hours, with an estimated weight of around 1,000 jin (500 kg).
The light-based fishing method worked quite well this time, but the flashlights didn't last long, so we'll have to get someone to modify them again.
Moreover, the waterproof plastic bag wasn't very effective; after a while, some water still got into the flashlight, and I don't know if it can be salvaged.
Even if they couldn't be saved, after deducting the cost of the flashlights, these squid still made a fortune.
"Uncle Chen, thanks to your idea this time, I'll give you a bonus when we get back."
Chen Balang was in high spirits when he heard Fu Wan's words and quickly shook his head in refusal.
"What bonus do you want, Awan? I'm already paid. Giving you ideas on how to source seafood is just part of my job."
"You can't say that. One thing at a time. If I say it's going to be profitable, then it's going to be profitable."
After saying that, Fu Wan glanced at the other boatmen who were still busy, and said loudly with a smile, "Not only Uncle Chen gets a bonus, but everyone does. Now everyone, put in a little more effort to sort the squid, and when you're done, go back and rest."
There's still one more day tomorrow; we'll head back early the day after tomorrow.
Upon hearing this, everyone present instantly became as energetic as if they had been injected with adrenaline.
It's unclear whether it was because Fu Wan mentioned a bonus, or because they were going back home.
Although the time on the ship was enjoyable and fulfilling, everyone couldn't help but feel excited about going back to see their families soon.
"Ah Wan, don't worry, we'll take care of things here. You go and do your work!"
"Yes, yes, we're all here. We guarantee we'll get the mission done!"
Fu Dahai and Fu Xiaochuan, along with several other boatmen, spoke up. Fu Wan didn't stand on ceremony and told them to remember to release any squid that were too small before she went to the wheelhouse.
Boss Fu wasn't surprised to see her. "Awan, I'll go collect the squid traps after I've made a quick round. You should go back and rest!"
Seeing that Boss Fu hadn't forgotten about this, Fu Wan returned to her rest cabin.
It was exactly nine o'clock at night, and Fu Wan slept until the next morning.
After getting up in the morning, Fu Ming and Fu Qing told her about what they had gained the previous night.
We did two trawls that night, and the overall catch was pretty good. We caught several hundred pounds of mackerel, mantis shrimp, and sea bream, and next to the haul by Chen Ba Liang in the early morning, we caught about eight hundred pounds of ribbonfish.
The squid traps and the fish traps that had been set up earlier were taken down when Chen Balang passed by in his boat around 4 a.m.
Fu Qing had been waiting patiently to collect this squid trap.
To her delight, her conch trap also caught quite a few squid. Not quite a few kilograms, but definitely half a bucketful.
The traps that Fu Wan and her team set down contained not only a lot of star eels, but also more than a dozen Dungeness crabs weighing about a pound each.
This thrilled Fu Ming. He still vividly remembered how expensive the Dungeness Crab had been last time.
After hearing about these findings, Fu Wan was very satisfied.
On the last day, she deliberately changed the sea area for trawling. Since it was the last day, Boss Fu simply let go and let her, Fu Ming, and Fu Liang steer the boat in the wheelhouse.
It was rare to find that the steering wheel room was full of young people; with elders like Boss Fu and Xu Jiafu absent, Fu Ming and Fu Liang were much more relaxed.
Fu Ming touched the buttons on the control panel for a while, and then leaned closer to the blue display screen, wondering why this little thing could show whether there were schools of fish on the seabed.
Fu Liang noticed a thick notebook next to the ship's wheel and curiously flipped through a couple of pages.
"How come this still records how many times we set up the internet each day?"
Fu Liang also attended primary school. Although his handwriting in the notebook wasn't great, after reading a few pages, he immediately realized that it recorded the situation of setting up the net in the past few days.
It includes not only the number of times the nets were pulled up, but also the specific time, location coordinates, and approximate catch.
Fu Wan then remembered that they hadn't kept records of these things when they went to sea before.
"This was written by Uncle Xu. He said that large ships would keep records when they went out to sea. It's called a nautical log."
Father and Uncle Chen thought it was a good idea, so they wrote it down as he suggested.
As Fu Wan steered the boat, she said that she also thought this method of recording was good. Sometimes, after a long time, she would forget what came up online, but when she looked at the notebook, she could remember it again.
Furthermore, it contains coordinate records, so if you don't know where to trawle in the future, you can find your way by referring to the records in the logbook.
Fu Liang nodded, suddenly feeling that this was a good approach, and he immediately made a decision.
"Yes, I'll have to write this down in a notebook when I go out to sea in the future."
This must be what people used to say: a bad pen is worse than a good memory!
As they were talking, Fu Ming suddenly noticed that a bunch of white dots had appeared on the screen in front of him again.
"Holy crap, look! Aren't there schools of fish?!"
Although the screen is choppy, it was the same when I was watching the Plum Blossom Fish online last time.
Fu Wan glanced at the coordinates of that place and immediately adjusted the direction of the rudder to sail there.
Whether there are fish or not, we'll find out once we get there.
It was at this moment that Fu Liang noticed something unusual on the distant sea.
A column of water shot into the sky, and many seabirds flew around it.
"Is that a whale? Is it hunting?"
"There are more than just whales over there! Look over there, a pod of dolphins is coming!"
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