As for the final outcome of the discussion among the uncle and others, it remains unknown. We can only determine the result of their conversation by observing the direction of their voyage after the fishing boat sets sail.
Anyway, after Bai Yu and Wang Hai left the restaurant, they went straight back to the crew cabin to wash up and rest.
However, if you come close to Bai Yu and the other person, you can hear what they are saying.
"Brother Yu, are we really going to have lobsters and crabs tomorrow? You're not kidding me? I've seen the restaurant's order slip for this trip. In the seafood section, besides kelp and seaweed, the only thing that counts as shrimp is fish balls. Where are the crabs and lobsters?"
“I said it’s there, so it is. When have I ever lied to you? Remember the crab traps we just set off the deck? When we wake up tomorrow, we’ll bring all those traps up, and there will be lobsters and crabs in them.”
Bai Yu gave Wang Hai a brief explanation and repeatedly assured him that there would definitely be lobsters and crabs to eat tomorrow.
In Bai Yu's opinion, they had set fifty crab traps tonight, and even if they were unlucky, they should still be able to catch a few crabs and lobsters.
"Brother Yu, what time should we get up tomorrow? Let's have some seafood congee for breakfast. Seafood congee made with big crabs is so delicious, I can eat three big bowls by myself!"
For lunch, we'll have a steamed shrimp and crab feast. Steamed crabs and lobsters, no matter what kind they are, whether they are mud crabs or swimming crabs, and lobsters, no matter what kind they are, are all incredibly fresh after steaming. If you dip them in some vinegar and chili oil, the taste is unimaginable!
Let's have another one tonight, spicy crab, grilled lobster...
The moment food was mentioned, Wang Hai perked up and began listing several seafood dishes he was familiar with.
But before Wang Hai could finish speaking, Bai Yu reached out and covered his mouth, preventing him from continuing.
There was nothing he could do. Listening to Wang Hai's endless chatter, as if he were ordering food, Bai Yu, who had just finished his late-night snack, felt his stomach rumble again, filled with longing for the dishes Wang Hai had mentioned.
Despite growing up by the sea, they never get tired of seafood.
Especially large crabs and lobsters. Even though they are no longer poor and are not short of money, these two things are still ingredients that they are reluctant to eat.
This may be related to their childhood living environment and consumption level. They only eat these high-end ingredients in buffet restaurants, and they eat to their heart's content.
Things are different now. Bai and Yu have their own fishing boat, and the crab traps have already been set. All they have to do is wait for dawn so they can retrieve them.
Bai Yu had already asked her uncle at the restaurant that the crab traps would be taken down at 6:30 the next day. The two brothers wanted to take them down too, so they could get up early and come over to join in the fun.
Bai Yu readily agreed, and even asked his uncle to leave a crab trap for him and Wang Hai each, so the two brothers could collect the crabs themselves.
Furthermore, the fish caught by these two crab traps were not taken into the cabin, but stored in the kitchen as an extra meal for their sea voyage.
After returning to the crew quarters, the two brothers immediately washed up, lay down on the bed, and fell into a deep sleep.
Nothing was said that night.
The next morning at six o'clock, Bai Yu opened her eyes to the sound of an alarm clock, and Wang Hai next to her was also woken up by the alarm clock.
"Brother Fisherman, what time is it? Can we go collect the crab traps now?"
Even though he had just woken up and was still a little dazed, Wang Hai still didn't forget to eat!
"That's about right, it's already six o'clock. Let's go collect the crab traps now, and then, as you said, take the crabs to the kitchen and ask Uncle Li to make us seafood porridge!"
I already talked to Uncle Li yesterday, and we'll postpone breakfast until we've finished collecting the crab traps, then we'll make seafood porridge with the crabs."
"Great, seafood congee is good, I'm going to eat three big bowls!"
While Bai Yu and Wang Hai were chatting, the two of them were not idle and quickly put on a set of windbreakers.
It was still very cold on the sea in the early morning, and the sea breeze, mixed with damp air, was very uncomfortable to behold.
Especially since they are now at the junction of the Southeast Sea and the South China Sea, the temperature here is lower than that in the southern part of the South China Sea.
Therefore, for the sake of your own health, you should definitely wear extra clothes, and a windproof jacket can also block the invasion of the humid sea breeze.
As the two of them went up to the deck, they found that they weren't the only ones there; there were quite a few other crew members fishing with their rods by the side of the ship.
I wonder if these crew members got up early or if they didn't sleep at all last night and fished on deck all night?
Bai Yu didn't care about that. Even if he was the company's boss, today was his day off, and rest time belonged to the crew members.
Bai Yu and Wang Hai then went to the bow of the boat, intending to collect two crab traps there and take the crabs inside to the kitchen to cook porridge.
The crab traps that Bai Yu and his team set down yesterday were all huge, round in shape, about 1.5 meters in diameter, and 60 centimeters high when opened.
These crab traps are specifically designed for deep-sea fishing. Unfortunately, the Yuxue is a trawler, and it only has about fifty crab traps on board, provided by the shipyard.
Compared to those specialized crab fishing boats that can carry hundreds or thousands of crab traps with them when they go out to sea, he is just a small-time crab catcher.
Bai Yu originally planned to collect one crab trap by himself, but to his surprise, whether it was because there was too much crab in the trap or because the depth of the trap was too deep and the water pressure was too strong, he couldn't pull the rope to the boat.
"Oh my god, why is this thing so heavy? Is it because the haul was particularly good this time that it's so heavy? Ah Hai, come help me, let's put in one crab trap together. Let's finish this one first, and then we'll go work on the second one."
Bai Yu tugged on the rope of the crab trap, then immediately called Wang Hai over, and the two of them worked together to pull the crab trap up.
Then, after spending half a day, they finally managed to retrieve the first crab trap, which was then suspended in mid-air outside the deck of the fishing boat.
Then, with great effort, the two brothers each grabbed one side of the crab trap and lifted it onto the deck.
This guy was exhausted from working with them; his hands were almost sore. It felt like he was fishing for a giant fish weighing over 100 pounds—it was just too heavy.
The main problem is that the cross-sectional area of this crab trap is simply too large. After it is dropped into the sea, which is more than 100 meters deep, the resistance that the seawater can provide when it is pulled up is simply too great.
In addition, just as Bai Yu had thought, the crab trap was incredibly fertile. All that could be seen were crabs, lobsters, and even a considerable number of sea creatures and conches.
The crab trap was incredibly rich in resources, but unfortunately, the fish inside were all in poor condition, with injuries all over their bodies, and there were quite a few fish bones, heads, and other mutilated carcasses in the trap.
For a moment, Bai Yu couldn't tell whether these broken fish were the frozen bait he had put out yesterday, or the sea fish that had been put into the cage and eaten later.
"Damn, Brother Yu, look at the catch in this cage! So many crabs and lobsters, that's enough to feed us for days!"
"Absolutely. Hurry up and help clean the cage. Ah Hai, go get two baskets, I'll pick all the lobsters out of there."
"Okay, I'll go get it right away."
After saying that, Wang Hai walked towards the cabin to get a basket to put the lobsters and crabs in.
Bai Yu took out a pair of gloves from his pocket, then opened the net above the crab cage, ready to start selecting lobsters.
This time, quite a variety of lobster species were caught. Bai Hao saw three types: slipper lobster, Chinese lobster, and Chinese spiny lobster.
Chinese lobsters are also known as small green lobsters, but the Chinese lobsters caught in this crab trap are all red, which is somewhat different from small green lobsters.
The slipper lobster is a type of lobster that looks similar to the corpse beetle. Although it doesn't look very good, it has a very high nutritional value and tastes quite good.
As for the Chinese spiny lobster, it's a bit of a shame that this lobster was not available.
In the past, when white fishermen went beachcombing, catching a spiny lobster was a day to celebrate.
However, since the relevant departments included the Chinese spiny lobster in the protection list in 2019, this creature has become a national second-class protected animal, and the handling measures for this seafood after it is caught have also changed.
They can't be eaten or sold anymore, so the first choice after catching the spiny lobsters is to release them back into the wild, as they can't bring any economic value to the fishermen.
Soon Wang Hai returned with several baskets, and at the same time Bai Yu picked out more than ten lobsters from the crab cage. Wang Hai then put all the lobsters into the baskets.
For a crab trap with a diameter of 1.5 meters, more than ten lobsters did not take up too much space, and there was still a lot of harvest waiting for them inside.
Bai Yu and Wang Hai then focused on cleaning the crabs, as the most aggressive creatures in the crab trap were the crabs themselves.
This aggression was not only directed at Bai Yu and his companion, but also at the other spoils inside the crab trap.
While Wang Hai went to get the basket, Bai Yu had already witnessed three treadmill fish being brutally killed by the giant blue crab.
The sole, also known as the scad, is a flat, sea-dwelling fish that lives on the seabed. When faced with crabs, this fish is at a significant disadvantage.
When crabs see sole, their first choice is to eat it; sole is just one of their food sources.
However, while catching crabs, Bai Yu found a sea snail among the crabs.
When Bai Yu first saw the conch shell, she thought it was very beautiful, and then it felt somewhat familiar, as if she had seen it somewhere before.
However, no matter how much Bai Yu searched his past experiences, he was certain of one thing: he had never found such a conch, nor had he ever eaten it.
Where did he see this kind of conch?
After reflecting on his past experiences, Bai Yu then turned his attention to the list of protected animals. After all, as a law-abiding fisherman, Bai Yu was very knowledgeable about protected animals.
"Nautilus? No way, could this thing really be a nautilus? It's empty, just a shell. How did it get into the crab trap?"
In Bai Yu's memory, only the shape of a nautilus overlapped with the shape of the conch in front of him, but what he didn't expect was that...
When he picked up the conch, it was empty, just an empty shell, and judging from the state of the shell, it must have been empty for a long time.
It was only when Bai Yu discovered this situation that she breathed a sigh of relief.
After all, given the nautilus's current status, it's an even more prestigious protected animal than the Chinese spiny lobster. If he were to catch one alive, he wouldn't know what to do.
Bai Yu then placed the empty shell aside, not having time to deal with it for the time being. He would think about how to dispose of it after he finished his work.
However, Bai Yu soon learned the main reason why the nautilus appeared in the crab trap: it was brought in by a hermit crab.
While cleaning the crab traps, Bai Yu found a piece of hermit crab carcass inside the net, which looked like it had been eaten by the crabs.
It took Bai Yu and his companion about ten minutes to clean all the fish from the crab trap. The catch was quite large.
There were seven Chinese lobsters, twelve mantis shrimps, and two spiny lobsters, but those two have already been released.
Crabs were the most numerous, with as many as twenty-one mud crabs, most of which weighed over eight ounces, and some even weighed over a pound.
The number of swimming crabs was also quite large, with seventeen of them, each weighing more than half a pound, and some even weighing a pound.
Keep in mind that it's February, not crab season, so this size of crab is already considered quite good; it's rather plump.
Most sea fish are flat, bottom-dwelling fish such as sole and flounder.
What interested Bai Yu the most was a turbot weighing about three pounds. Turbot of this size is very rare. He immediately put it away, planning to take it to the kitchen to cook for lunch.
We had no choice but to sit down, because there were just too many crabs in the crab trap. The fish weren't in great condition either; almost every one of them had injuries, which affected their appearance.
For these kinds of sea fish, their best destiny is to end up in the pot, used to improve the crew's meals.
After cleaning up the first crab trap, Bai Yu stuffed the nautilus shell into his pocket and then followed Wang Hai, carrying their catch, towards the kitchen.
He hadn't forgotten that his main purpose in catching the crabs was to make seafood porridge, and now he had to deliver the crabs to the kitchen.
...............
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com