Bai Yu hadn't expected his fried anchovies to be so popular; they were almost gone in no time.
Moreover, I reckon that if the crew hadn't considered that some people hadn't eaten, the remaining fried anchovies would have been taken away.
After all, fried anchovies can't really be considered a dish, but rather a snack, a snack that can be eaten anytime.
After Bai Yu and his three companions finished lunch, they packed up all the remaining fried anchovies and told the chef that since the crew members liked fried anchovies, they should fry some more so they could eat them as snacks when they had nothing to do.
Anyway, anchovies aren't worth much. The two rounds of anchovies they just caught amounted to about fifty or sixty tons.
Even if all the crew members ate as much as they wanted, having fried anchovies for three meals a day, they still wouldn't be able to eat much.
Afterwards, Bai Yu and his three companions took the remaining fried anchovies to the second-floor rest area. They then filled a pot with tea, grabbed some other snacks, and sat down to rest.
It's not that they wanted to slack off, but there was nothing else to do on the deck given the current situation.
After catching two rounds of anchovies, the captain steered the fishing boat in a different direction.
Ultimately, the economic value of anchovies is simply too low. Just now, the third mate made a new discovery in the waters on the left side using a fish finder; a school of fish swam past the fish finder.
The other party appeared for a very short time, just flashing across the fish finder before disappearing.
The captain had no idea whether this school of fish covered a large or small area, what species it was, or whether it was valuable.
Even so, the captain still adjusted the fishing boat's direction and headed in the direction where the school of fish had disappeared.
After all, the anchovies they are catching now are already of very low value. Even if this whole school of fish is not a valuable species, it won't be much less valuable than the anchovies.
Thinking about it that way, maybe we could give it a try. What if this school of fish is a valuable sea fish, like cod?
That's right, cod also exists in Peruvian waters, which is why Bai Yu and his crew were able to catch so many big fish when they used cod as bait a few days ago.
After all, cod is also prominently featured in the diets of large fish such as tuna and swordfish.
Although the cod from Peru is different from the cod from the Bering Strait, both types of cod are more expensive than anchovies.
With the idea of trying a different species of fish, the captain steered his fishing boat to another school of fish and launched another attack on them.
More than an hour later, a new round of raids began.
At this moment, Bai Yu and his three companions were still sitting on the second deck, also keeping an eye on the situation at the stern, assessing whether they needed help with this round of catch.
If needed, they will naturally go down to help.
But if they catch another anchovy this time, there's nothing they can do, so they'll just have to stay in the rest area.
Cleaning anchovies really doesn't require any help; they're incredibly easy to clean.
As the two winches on the deck operated simultaneously, the two trawl nets were also pulled back at the same time.
In less than ten minutes, the walkie-talkie that Bai Yu had placed on the table rang.
"All crew members, including the sorting team, assemble on deck! Bring your scissors and assemble on deck!"
"All crew members, assemble on deck, and bring your tools!"
......
"What's going on? Why is everyone gathered on deck? What did they catch in that net? Should we go down and take a look?"
Li Shuang glanced at Bai Yu and asked.
The voices on the walkie-talkie were heard by everyone present, but the rest area was still some distance from the stern, so they weren't quite sure what the situation was like there.
"Let's go down and take a look. They've called all the sorting team members out. It must be that the catch from this net is not easy to clean up, otherwise they wouldn't have called them out as well."
After Bai Yu finished speaking, he stood up from his chair and walked towards the first deck.
As Bai Yu said, if the catch from this net is easy to clean, even if the quantity is a bit large, the sorting team won't be called out.
The sorting team members usually only have one job, which is to sort and store the fish caught on the assembly line.
Now that they've all been called out, it means that this catch can't go into the production line. It needs to be processed on the deck before it can be sent to the freezer.
Soon, Bai Yu arrived at the stern of the boat and saw what the trawl net was full of.
"My goodness, is this the usual squid? Brother Liu, how come these squid are all so big? This one must weigh dozens of kilograms!"
That's right, this net caught a bunch of squid, and they were really big ones.
These squid have a dark red skin color. Among the squid that Bai Yu saw, those that were tightly stuck to the fishing net were all at least one meter long.
For a marine creature with tentacles, a length of one meter isn't actually that long, but considering that this is the shortest length for these squid, it's quite an exaggeration.
"Mr. Bai, these are Peruvian squid, one of the local specialties. I didn't expect to encounter these guys this time."
Brother Liu gave a simple explanation: this squid is one of Peru's specialties, and it is also one of the imported seafoods in China.
The only difference is that what we import from Peru is squid, but once it reaches domestic merchants, it becomes octopus tentacles and is sold as such.
Peruvian squid have suckers on their tentacles, which makes them look like octopus tentacles. In some street food stalls, they are sold as octopus tentacles.
The reason for this is that octopus tentacles are priced higher than squid, with the cost price difference being several times higher.
If squid tentacles were used to impersonate octopus tentacles, the cost would decrease, and the profit margin would skyrocket.
If you were the boss, I think it goes without saying how you should choose among these options.
Furthermore, the bodies of these Peruvian squid will not go to waste either; they can be used in street food, barbecue restaurants, teppanyaki, and the like.
It can even be used in food processing plants to make snacks such as squid tentacles and dried squid.
Bai Yu's company has a seafood processing plant that processes squid tentacles, but their squid are not imported from Peru; they are caught by their own company.
Fishing boats come in many types. In the first year of the company's operation, the company only had one squid fishing boat, which was used to catch squid in the southeastern seas.
Their company now has three squid fishing boats, and all the squid needed for their processing plant are caught by these three boats, which is more than enough to supply the plant's needs.
After all, most of the products from their processing plant are not sold on the market, but are sold through their company's live streaming channel.
In this way, their company sells only what it can produce; if it runs out, they simply stop selling.
...
The reason Brother Liu called the sorting staff up to the deck this time was because there was one more step that needed to be taken before these squid were put into the freezer.
That means removing all the internal organs before storing the squid in the hold. This allows for better storage of the squid and reduces the storage pressure in the hold.
Some fishing boats, especially those with specific purposes or other intentions, will not only remove the internal organs of Peruvian squid when they catch them, but also perform a dismemberment procedure.
Separate its tentacles from its body, freeze the body, and then freeze the tentacles.
Only after being cooked and frozen will the squid tentacles look more like octopus tentacles, and they will fetch a higher price.
However, this is how Bai Yu and his team intend to handle it. They only plan to consume the Peruvian squid they caught this time and sell it to their own seafood processing plant.
Therefore, their squid only needs to be frozen, not cooked and frozen.
Even after they bring these squid back to their country, the squid legs will be sold separately, and they will strictly explain the origin of these squid legs and sell them at the price they deserve, not an inflated price.
Then Bai Yu and his three companions went to the edge of the deck and waited for the crew to hoist the trawl net and dump all the squid onto the deck.
They just dump it directly onto the deck. You can't dump it all out at once; half is about right. The rest of the squid are left to soak in the sea.
These squids are not only long, but each one is also quite plump, with the thickest part being as thick as an adult's calf.
Even if you were to dump squid of this size into the unloading chute, they might not be able to slip through the gaps and into the hold.
Under the operation of the staff, the trawl net was hoisted up from the middle, separating all the squid inside in half.
The first cleaning only yielded half of the squid. Due to their size, these squid weighed quite a bit, probably over 10,000 kilograms.
However, there are actually not many of these squid; there are only about a thousand or eight hundred of them in total.
As for the crew working on deck, apart from two who needed to operate the crane and another who needed to monitor the netting status,
With the addition of Bai Yu and the other three, there were a total of fourteen people working on the deck.
Dealing with these squid is actually quite simple. Unlike octopuses, squid caught in trawls aren't very active. Even if they're still alive when they get to the deck, they're already quite wilted.
In addition, although these squid tentacles are somewhat similar to octopus tentacles, as they have suckers, they are actually very short.
It won't be easy for them to attack Bai Yu and the others using their tentacles.
On the contrary, it would be incredibly easy for Bai Yu and his group to deal with these squid.
It doesn't matter what tools they're holding—a cleaver, scissors, or even a fruit knife.
They only need to pierce the squid's body with any sharp object, then slit it open in one direction.
Then they remove all the internal organs from its stomach, leaving none behind. There's no need to leave any, since nobody would eat those things anyway.
After removing the internal organs, you can make another cut along the wound to remove the squid's mouth from its tentacles.
Whether you do this step or not makes no difference; not picking it won't cause any major problems.
It was still Brother Liu who was responsible for opening the trawling net tie. When the crane lifted the trawling net to the middle of the deck, he decisively opened the tie.
Then one squid after another came onto the deck, and in no time at all, the deck was covered with a layer of squid.
Once half of the squid had been dumped from the trawl net, Bai Yu and the others each grabbed a small stool, found a spot, and started working.
...
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com