With the concerted efforts of Bai Yu and the others, they finally managed to collect all ten crab traps.
At that very moment, everyone still on the yacht—whether security personnel, staff, or Wang Hai and his group who were reeling in the fishing line—
They all put down what they were doing and looked at the ten crab traps on the deck, or more accurately, at the catch inside them.
While they were sorting through the crab traps, they had already seen that the harvest from each trap was quite good.
At least none of them were from the Air Force; each one contained a considerable number of crabs. The sheer number of crab legs was so large that it almost triggered trypophobia in anyone who saw it.
What Bai Yu and his team need to do now is to distinguish between king crabs and snow crabs, as well as male and female crabs, and whether the crabs are compliant with regulations.
Although Bai Yu has obtained a special fishing license that allows him to fish for king crabs in the Bering Strait during the off-season, he still has to comply with local laws and regulations regarding the size of the crabs and other factors.
For example, only male king crabs can be caught; females cannot be caught. In addition, the width of the crab shell must be greater than 19 centimeters. Crabs that do not meet the standards are not allowed to be caught.
The first rule is universal: only male crabs are allowed to be caught each year, while female crabs are not allowed to be caught, since they need to reproduce.
As for the latter rule, it is relatively stricter.
According to Bai Yu and his team, during last year's king crab fishing season, the requirement for male king crabs was that their shell width should be no less than 17 centimeters, but for them, it became 19 centimeters.
But that's understandable, since they're outsiders and they're here to catch king crabs outside of the fishing season, so it's understandable that they have higher expectations.
The same applies to snow crabs; they also have male and female restrictions, as well as size requirements.
However, snow crabs are different from king crabs; the requirements for them are much lower. If Bai Yu and the others want, they can talk to Heng Ke and catch some female snow crabs.
However, Bai Yu and his group did not do that. They were just here to experience catching king crabs; there was no need for them to make a fortune from it.
Bai Hao then took a large seafood basket and went to one of the crab traps, preparing to clean out the harvest inside.
Whether it's snow crab or king crab, both of these crabs are very large, and ordinary seafood baskets simply cannot hold them; only large seafood baskets can be used.
"This crab trap is mine now. You can choose whichever crab trap you want."
After Bai Yu finished speaking, he sat down on the small stool he had brought with him and prepared to open the crab cage to get to work.
Li Xue also moved a small stool and sat next to Bai Yu; the crab cage now belonged to the couple.
Li Shuang and the others next to them did the same thing, pairing up and choosing a crab cage.
As for the remaining six, we'll just have to wait. Once Bai Hao and the others have finished cleaning up all these things, they'll naturally have time to clean up the remaining six.
As for the security personnel on the side, after they finished looking at these crab traps, they also had their own work to do; there were other crab traps for them in the ocean.
"Xue'er, I'll catch the king crab, and you catch the snow crab. You still remember how to tell the male from the female, right?"
"Don't worry, Brother Bai, I've got it all remembered."
As Bai Yu spoke, he opened the net of the crab cage and pulled out a snow crab.
Snow crabs and king crabs are both large, cold-water crabs, and they share many similarities.
The similarities mentioned here are not in appearance. These two types of crabs look completely different, with significant differences.
The shell of a king crab is quite rough, with many small, pointed bumps. You can tell the sex of a king crab by looking at these bumps.
For example, king crabs have a small, tower-like protrusion on their abdomen. The protrusion is pointed in male king crabs, while it is much rounder in female king crabs.
Another way to distinguish them is by their navels. Male king crabs have pointed navels that are triangular in shape, while female king crabs have much rounder navels.
Secondly, the legs of king crabs can also be used to distinguish them. Male king crabs have more hair on their legs, while female king crabs have less hair, and some even have no hair at all.
Upon seeing this, Bai Yu had a thought that flashed through her mind: this thing is quite similar to a person; men have leg hair, while women have less leg hair.
Finally, there's another way to tell them apart: the claws. Male king crabs have larger claws, while female king crabs have smaller claws.
Using the methods described above, you can roughly determine the sex of a king crab.
The methods used by snow crabs are basically the same, with only minor differences.
For example, snow crabs have much smoother shells and fewer bumps on their bodies, so the first method won't work on them.
Bai Yu took the first snow crab out of the crab trap. He first measured the width of its shell with calipers. It was 17.9 centimeters, which was just enough to meet the standard for catching.
Bai Yu then handed the snow crab to Li Xue, who was standing next to her, and asked her to identify whether it was male or female.
After Li Xue took the snow crab, she immediately flipped it over and looked at its abdomen. She then noticed that the snow crab's abdomen was triangular, which was a characteristic of male crabs.
Then take a look at this guy's legs. The crab hair on his legs is so thick, it's like he's wearing a pair of long underwear.
That's good. We don't need to look at anything else. Just by combining these two points, it's definitely a male snow crab, and a snow crab that meets the requirements.
Li Xue simply put the crab into the seafood basket next to her, and the first one she caught was hers.
Catching crabs with a crab trap is very simple. The only troublesome thing is distinguishing between male and female crabs. However, for experienced crab enthusiasts, as long as they have enough knowledge about king crabs and snow crabs, it is still very easy to tell them apart.
Just like Bai Yu and Li Xue now, a glance and a comparison are enough.
Moreover, Li Xue's speed is already relatively slow, but once she becomes more proficient, her speed can be improved further.
While Li Xue was trying to determine whether the snow crab was male or female, Bai Yu took out a second crab from the crab cage, this time a king crab.
Bai Yu was extremely careful when catching this creature, after all, king crabs are all very large.
The crab is large, so its claws can't be small either; they are also very large and look like they have a lot of power.
In this situation, if Bai Yu isn't careful and gets pinched by this guy, do you think he should shout out?
So to avoid this situation, Bai Yu had to be careful. He held the king crab by its shell with both hands and took it out of the crab cage.
There was no way around it; this king crab was just too big. The size of its shell alone was almost the same as Bai Yu's head.
Then, when Bai Yu picked it up, the guy felt like he weighed at least seven or eight pounds, maybe even ten pounds.
For a king crab of this size, Bai Yu only has one requirement: it must be a male king crab!
Bai Yu then took it out of the crab trap and brought it to his men, examining it carefully by the light of the yacht's lamps.
Hmm, this guy's claws are pretty big, like a male king crab!
The crab's legs are covered with a lot of fine hairs, which is a characteristic of male king crabs. The crab's navel is also triangular, and the bulge on its abdomen is pointed!
It's confirmed, it's definitely a male king crab!
Bai Yu was overjoyed with this result, after all, the king crab was really too big, and if it were brought back to land to be sold, it would probably fetch a good price as well.
As for the width of this king crab's shell?
There's absolutely no need to measure it; you can tell just by looking that it's definitely over 20 centimeters.
After all, this king crab was almost the size of Bai Yu's head. Bai Yu knew his own head size well; it certainly couldn't be less than 20 centimeters.
"Xue'er, look! Isn't this king crab big? It must weigh about ten pounds!"
Bai Yu held the king crab while showing it off to Li Yue beside her.
Men are so childish; a big crab is enough to make Bai Yu happy for half a day, and he will show it off to others like a treasure.
"Brother Bai, did you catch this in a crab trap? It's huge! Have we ever had a king crab this big before?"
"I don't think so. The largest king crab we've ever eaten before was only six or seven pounds, and that was back in Harbin."
In Bai Yu's memory, they had seen ten-pound king crabs before, but they had never eaten them.
The king crab they had just caught gave Bai Yu an idea: should they cook it?
This is a question worth pondering.
Whether he eats it or not is another matter. What he needs to do now is to put the king crab in the seafood basket next to him.
As one king crab and snow crab after another was removed, the harvest from this crab trap visibly decreased.
After counting, Bai Yu found four snow crabs and fifteen king crabs, a total of nineteen crabs, in this one crab cage alone.
Of course, this doesn't mean that this crab trap only yielded this small amount of catch; rather, it means that these are all qualified crabs.
There were also many other female crabs, or crabs that did not meet the size requirements, but these were not included in Bai Yu's count.
Those that did not meet the standards were released back into the wild; all the crabs that remained were marketable and of value.
Nineteen crabs may not seem like many, but for Bai Yu and his group, this number of crabs was already quite good, and they were very satisfied.
To put it a little more dramatically, their first crab trap could easily be called a "bursting net."
After all, there were quite a lot of crabs in their crab cage, but many of them did not meet the standards, so the remaining nineteen did not seem like many.
There were at least twenty or thirty crabs that were released back into the wild. The total number was really large, considering that the crab traps they used weren't the large crab traps specifically designed for catching king crabs.
With just these crabs placed together, Bai Yu and his team filled their crab cage to the brim; it was completely full of crabs.
Moreover, this was not an isolated case. When Bai Yu counted the remaining crab traps, the harvest inside was also very plentiful, with each trap yielding nearly ten king crabs.
Some even have more than ten qualified king crabs, and the ten crab traps together contain more than a hundred crabs.
Moreover, it's possible that these crabs have been growing in the sea for several months, as the crabs that Bai Yu and his team caught were either too small to meet the standards or were ridiculously large.
Of the more than one hundred king crabs that Bai Yu and his group caught, about 20% weighed nearly ten pounds each. This initially made Bai Yu and his companions suspicious.
So, were all the crabs they ate before qualified crabs? Were those four- or five-pound king crabs really qualified?
.........
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