Ye Xiaocui and the others had deployed their longlines on both sides of the boat, so the people retrieving the longlines were now divided into two groups.
Jack had never seen these things before, and after his first round of longline fishing, he now actively joined the team reeling in the hooks.
As soon as Fu Wan grabbed the first rope hook, she felt something struggling below.
Without saying a word, she quickly pulled up the fishing hook, and a pufferfish weighing more than a pound appeared in front of them.
"Wow, this pufferfish is pretty good!"
Fu Liang exclaimed in admiration, and before Fu Wan could even touch it, he took the pufferfish and pulled out the hook.
Because of Fu Liang's actions, the pufferfish sensed danger and, within a minute, inflated itself into a spiky ball. The enraged pufferfish delighted Fu Ling and Qin Mingzhu.
Pufferfish are actually quite similar to pufferfish; when provoked, they inflate themselves into a ball to threaten predators.
But to humans, this isn't a threat; it's just cuteness.
Pufferfish are relatively easy to distinguish from pufferfish. Pufferfish have a grayish-brown back, a milky-white belly, and large, cloud-like black patches and many small spots on their back and sides, making them easy to spot among coral reefs. (Pufferfish image from the internet, please delete if infringing.) Watching the pufferfish go from a round, plump shape to flattening back down in the blink of an eye, Fu Ling and Qin Mingzhu couldn't resist the urge to handle it.
As it turned out, Fu Wan had just pulled up a yellowfin seabream, which immediately stopped her.
"These pufferfish have teeth, be careful they don't bite your finger off!"
These words immediately startled Fu Ling and Qin Mingzhu, causing them to take several steps back.
However, Fu Wan wasn't just trying to scare them. Don't underestimate this pufferfish; it has two rows of incisors.
After all, they are carnivores. There was even a fisherman in the next village whose finger was bitten off by a pufferfish.
So when Fu Liang saw that it was a pufferfish, he quickly took it and removed the hook to prevent Fu Wan from getting hurt.
Pufferfish may look intimidating when angry, but they are actually poisonous fish. Unlike lionfish and golden drumfish, their poison comes not from their spines, but from their internal organs.
The pufferfish's internal organs contain potent toxins; even a small amount can be fatal. However, its skin and flesh are considered a rare delicacy.
So as long as an experienced fisherman or chef cleans it properly, it's fine. And the price of pufferfish is not low, about 1.2 yuan per kilogram.
Both longline fishing operations yielded few empty hooks. In addition to pufferfish, Fu Wan's side also caught two yellowfin seabream and black seabream weighing about one pound each, while Ye Xiaocui and Jack's side caught several sea bass and a giant grouper weighing over two pounds.
As they were getting closer to Swallow's Nest Island, Fu Wan quickly pulled up the remaining two hooks. She had thought it was another sea bream, but it turned out to be two two- or three-pound grouper.
Sesame grouper is actually a type of grouper. It is called sesame grouper because its body is covered with spots the size of sesame seeds.
The sesame grouper is dark brown all over and doesn't look much different from other groupers. This type of grouper is primarily carnivorous and extremely ferocious. Although the sesame grouper isn't as valuable as the rat grouper or the red grouper, its tender flesh makes it very popular in restaurants, so its price is quite reasonable.
However, Fu Wan had never caught a sesame-spotted plant before, so she wasn't sure how much it could fetch.
"Hey, these two sesame-like spots are nice!"
As Boss Fu was about to operate the trawler to pull up the net, he turned around and saw Fu Wan and Fu Liang unhooking the grouper from the hook.
Fu Wan then casually asked, "Dad, what's the price of these sesame seed spots now?"
Boss Fu stopped and thought for a moment before saying, "The price of seafood changes every day. If it doesn't change much in the near future, it should be around one yuan and fifty cents."
One dollar and fifty cents is actually not bad, especially considering that seafood prices have risen quite a bit recently. After all, grouper used to cost only around one dollar.
Actually, it was because money was valuable in those days, and the workers' wages were less than 30 yuan.
The live fish, such as grouper and pufferfish, are all carried in a tall fish basket, which is actually a large water tank filled with seawater, so that the fish are still lively and jumping when they arrive at the dock.
Normally, if there were live hold on the ship, these live fish and shrimp would be kept there, but when Boss Fu's ship was built, there was no space for a live hold.
Therefore, to obtain a live cabin, we have to wait for the new ship to be delivered by the shipyard before the Lunar New Year.
After the longline fishing was all done, Fu Liang and Ye Lin moved everything off the deck and then wound the trawl net ropes onto the haul-in machine.
Ye Xiaocui and Jiang Chunlan were busy coiling up the longline fishing lines and hooks. After putting these things away, they began to sort through the last catch.
The sound of the net-lifting machine was still creaking and groaning. Boss Fu waited until the trawl net was lifted into the air above the deck before turning it off.
"Hurry, hurry, hurry! Once we've finished sorting through the items in the net, we need to go home!"
Boss Fu shouted, "After a whole day of working on the boat, your sweat even tastes a bit like seawater!"
This time, it was Jack who untied the net. He had never tried it before, but after Fu Ming taught him a few times, he quickly learned how to untie the rope knot.
As the rope was pulled out, there was another series of crackling sounds as fish were thrown into the water. Everyone had already taken cover to the side, but quite a few fish were thrown to their feet due to inertia.
"Good heavens, there are sharks here!"
Ye Xiaocui was shocked. Fu Wan looked over at the sound and saw several dog sharks struggling in the pile of fish.
This catch is much better than the previous one!
Jiang Chunlan nodded in approval, saying, "When we pulled it up just now, I noticed that this net was heavier than the previous one. It's definitely a good quality net!"
Before Fu Wan and Fu Ming could exchange more words, they quickly grabbed the fish basket from the side.
The trawl net had a wide variety of fish, including a surprising number of dogfish as well as sardines, presumably caught in the net while the fishermen were chasing a school of sardines.
Not only that, there were also a lot of pomfret and fighting pomfret. In order to sort the fish better, Fu Wan used a stick to pry the pile of fish apart.
It turned out that what she uncovered shocked her as well.
"What is that? A hammerhead shark?!"
Hearing Fu Wan's exclamation, everyone turned to look.
"Wow, it really is a scythe shark! I haven't seen one of these in years!"
"Indeed, the price of a hammerhead shark is quite good!"
Just as everyone was sorting through the fish and discussing it, a strange sound came from the sea.
"Chirp chirp!"
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