Bai Yu accepted Huang Ge's invitation and took the small shovel from him, then pried up the barnacles.
The usual way to deal with these barnacles that parasitize the backs of sea turtles is to smash them and then throw them back into the sea.
As for eating them?
To be honest, most of the crew members didn't think that way. After all, this thing sucks blood and might carry some kind of bacteria.
Of course, not all barnacles are inedible. At least in Bai Yu's knowledge, there is a type of barnacle that is quite expensive and considered a rare variety.
I've seen these barnacles before when I was beachcombing, and I've made quite a bit of money from them. The variety of barnacle is the Buddha's Hand Barnacle.
Just as Bai Yu finished cleaning the sea turtle and he and Brother Huang were preparing to release it back into the sea,
The other fishing net was also retrieved and was waiting to be loaded onto the boat at the stern.
As luck would have it, Bai Yu and Brother Huang pushed the sea turtle to the deck at the stern. He glanced at another fishing net, and in that one glance, he made eye contact with these guys.
That's right, they made eye contact. As Bai Yu looked at the other person, the other person was also looking at him!
"Holy crap, what the hell is going on? How come there are sea turtles in that net? And there are several of them! How long are we supposed to keep cleaning them up?"
"What? Mr. Bai, what are you saying?"
Huang Ge didn't hear Bai Yu's words very clearly, mainly because the sea breeze was too strong, the fishing boat was moving, and there were winches and other machines working behind it.
In such an environment, if the conversation between the two parties is even slightly quiet, it's easy to not be able to hear what the other person is saying.
"Brother Huang, look at that fishing net over there. There are sea turtles in it, and not just one. Do you think these sea turtles might have barnacles on them?"
"Of course they will. Almost every adult sea turtle will have barnacles on its body. I don't know how they spread, but they seem to be everywhere in the ocean."
Let alone sea turtles, even the Yuxue, which we are on, had several thousand kilograms of barnacles dug out from the bottom of the ship during maintenance some time ago.
"These are just the ones that have been parasitizing the bottom of the ship for a year. Think about those sea turtles that spend years in the ocean—can they escape the harm caused by barnacles?"
Huang Ge gave Bai Yu a brief explanation of his question.
In short, marine creatures like sea turtles and whales cannot escape the parasitism of barnacles; the longer they live, the more barnacles they may have.
Bai Yu was aware of the maintenance work on their company's fishing boat, Yu Xue, which took place back in May of this year.
It happened to be the time when fishing was banned in the South China Sea. My uncle and his crew had just finished a fishing operation and then took the boat to the shipyard for routine maintenance.
While performing maintenance, it also gives all the crew members on board a break.
Uncle showed Bai Yu the photos of the boat's maintenance back then. The bottom of the boat was indeed covered with barnacles, so many that they could easily trigger trypophobia in anyone who saw them.
So when Brother Huang brought up this matter again, he instinctively thought of the previous situation with the Yuxue, and he couldn't help but shudder. That scene was truly disgusting.
After they emptied the net of fish, they found three sea turtles inside. These sea turtles were of different sizes and looked different.
Especially the patterns on their backs, some look like leopard print, while others have no patterns and are all dark brown.
Without exception, all three sea turtles, regardless of size or pattern, had numerous bumps on their bodies, some of which looked like eyes.
The most outrageous one was the little sea turtle. This guy wasn't very big, with its shell only about half a meter long, but it had dozens of eyes on its back.
These are not simply eyes, but a type of barnacle that just looks like eyes.
The back of his head was covered in eyes, which still looked a bit creepy.
Bai Yu and Brother Huang were busy with this situation again. The latter took the little sea turtle away. He was used to cleaning barnacles and didn't seem to feel any discomfort with these eye-like barnacles.
Bai Yu then approached the giant sea turtle. This one was about the same size as the one they had cleaned before, but it had more barnacles on it.
Moreover, they are not only on the shell of this creature, but also on its head, on the shell of its abdomen, and in the hollows of the shell of its hind legs.
The barnacles on the shell are relatively easy to clean, but cleaning the barnacles on the head and hind legs is a bit troublesome.
As mentioned before, barnacles are parasitic organisms that suck the blood and flesh of the host.
The fact that these creatures can grow on the flesh of sea turtles proves one thing: they are embedded in the flesh and blood of sea turtles.
Although the turtle's skin is relatively thick, it still felt pain during the cleaning process.
In order to better clean the barnacles from the sea turtle, Bai Yu climbed onto its back, using his own weight to keep the turtle from moving around so he could clean the barnacles.
By the time Bai Yu finished cleaning the barnacles off the turtle, blood was gushing from its head and hind legs.
Although the turtle had lost a lot of blood, its expression showed that it was in a relatively relaxed mood.
Bai Yu had just finished cleaning one sea turtle when Brother Huang had already cleaned up the other two and released them.
At this moment, Brother Huang was waiting for Bai Yu with a bottle of disinfectant. After Bai Yu finished her work, he poured some disinfectant on the bleeding area of the sea turtle and disinfected it simply.
Just then, the loudspeaker on the fishing boat blared, announcing that they had spotted a school of fish!
..............
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