The three of them waited on the boat, chatting and joking, occasionally glancing at the dock to see if anyone was coming.
Suddenly, Feng Ye sensed something was wrong in the distance, just out of the reach of the waves.
Why does it look like there's a ribbon?
What is that?
He pointed in surprise, his mind filled with questions.
Feng Xuan and A-Can looked in the direction he was pointing, and they were both puzzled.
Feng Xuan pondered for a moment: "It must have been washed up by the waves, but I don't know what it is."
Ah-Can didn't even think about it, saying without a second thought: "Who cares what it is, let's swim over and see."
"I also think we should go and take a look; what if it's something good?"
Feng Ye's curiosity was piqued, and he agreed to swim over and find out.
Feng Xuan didn't say anything more and nodded.
The three of them then took off their shirts and pants and put them on the boat, leaving only their shorts, and jumped into the sea, swimming toward the colorful ribbon.
As they got closer, they realized that it wasn't a ribbon at all, but rather a variety of colorful starfish washed ashore by the waves.
It can be clearly seen that some of these starfish have five points like a five-pointed star, while others have four or six points.
Below each corner are four rows of dense tube feet. These tube feet allow the starfish to capture prey and also help it cling to rocks. Large starfish can have several thousand tube feet.
The starfish in sight varied in size. The large ones were estimated to be over 30 centimeters long, which was astonishing and rarely seen. Even the smaller ones were over five or six centimeters long, and I did not see any smaller ones at the moment.
These starfish wriggle their tube feet, either crawling into the water or feeding.
Don't be fooled by their pretty appearance and small size; these starfish have an astonishing appetite. One starfish can eat more than a dozen scallops a day.
Its food sources are mainly slow-moving marine organisms such as shellfish, sea urchins, crabs, and sea anemones, and even beautiful and colorful corals.
Sometimes, when they get ruthless, they will even eat their own kind.
Starfish are known as "sea locusts," which gives you an idea of how destructive they are; wherever they go, shellfish are almost wiped out.
The key is that once this creature reaches adulthood, it has very few natural predators that can hunt it; only seagulls and otters occasionally come to prey on it.
Moreover, it has an extremely strong reproductive capacity; a single female starfish can lay a large number of eggs at a time, up to 2.5 million.
"Holy crap, so many starfish!"
All three of them stared wide-eyed.
"How can there be so many starfish?"
Ah-chan was very puzzled.
Starfish are not rare; they are a very common animal that can often be seen on the beach.
But such a large-scale appearance, which can be described as an overabundance, is very rare.
Although Feng Ye had never seen a starfish infestation in his previous life, he had seen it online.
It is generally believed that starfish appear in groups to hunt for food.
He seemed to be deep in thought, then bent down and felt around in the seawater, and unsurprisingly found several.
"Are there more in the seawater?"
Ah-Can was surprised again.
Feng Xuan exclaimed in surprise, "There are so many, how long will it take to collect them all?"
"Stop talking nonsense and hurry up and pick them up."
As soon as Feng Ye finished speaking, he realized the problem.
They don't have anything to put this thing in.
All their baskets and buckets were on the Rising Sun, and they were only wearing shorts, so they couldn't bring anything with them.
"Oh no, there's nothing to put in it."
Ah-Can also realized what was happening and immediately felt a little annoyed.
Feng Xuan paused for a moment, then suddenly said, "You guys pick them up here first, I'll row to the Rising Sun to get buckets and baskets to put them in."
After saying that, he turned around and ran to the dock to row a small wooden boat.
"Brother, take more. Oh, and don't forget the snakeskin bag."
Feng Ye shouted out a message.
Ever since that time the sea snake was caught, the Rising Sun has always kept more than a dozen snakeskin bags on board.
It can be used to carry shellfish that have been hauled up, or to carry sea snakes in case of an emergency, or even when there is too much fish. It is truly a multi-purpose tool.
Feng Ye and A Can stayed where they were, picking up starfish. They gathered the starfish together and piled them in the seawater, waiting for Feng Xuan to bring something to put them in.
"Damn it, with so many starfish, this beach and reef are going to suffer. All the shellfish will be eaten up, and there probably won't be any fish for a long time."
Feng Ye sighed, picked up a few starfish from the seawater, and threw them into the starfish pile.
He doesn't care about size; he picks up anything he touches and throws it all together.
I don't know when this starfish climbed up here; it wasn't here yesterday afternoon.
I guess they were washed ashore by the storm last night and came out to look for food.
"The women in the village are in a terrible situation; they won't be able to fish for a long time..."
Ah-chan shook his head.
The women in the village go to the beach almost every day at low tide to dig for shellfish in order to supplement their household income.
But now starfish are rampant, so shellfish will basically be eaten up.
Even if you go to the beach to fish again, it's all down to luck. You can only hope to find some stranded fish, shrimp, or crabs, but don't even think about shellfish.
"Yes, I just hope the starfish will leave soon, otherwise the shellfish in this area will probably have a hard time surviving."
Feng Ye also sighed.
The starfish they saw were just the tip of the iceberg; many more were submerged in the unseen seawater.
The two chatted as they picked up the starfish, and soon they had piled them up into a small mountain.
Looking at the huge pile of starfish stacked together, I was somewhat shocked.
This only resulted in the elimination of a small area.
There were so many starfish, they were densely packed all around, they were everywhere.
It would be impossible for just a few of them to collect everything, even in a day and a night.
Not long after, Feng Xuan returned in a small wooden boat, which was filled with buckets, baskets, and snakeskin bags.
The three of them immediately got to work, not even bothering to talk.
First, put all the starfish, which looked like a small mountain, into the basket to prove that they belonged to someone.
Then there's the "ribbon" carved out by the waves, which must be collected before the fisherwomen arrive.
The starfish along this ribbon are so densely packed that there's no need to pick them up one by one.
All three of them simply laid the baskets down and swept the sand directly into them, not caring if they swept sand in.
The current priority is speed.
While they're the only ones there for now, let's pack as much as we can.
There were so many starfish that they picked them until their hands were sore, but luckily they had enough stuff to carry it all.
All three of them were tired but happy, and they didn't stop for a moment.
Although starfish are very cheap, costing only a few cents per pound, every little bit helps, and more importantly, they come in large quantities.
Time passed second by second, and before the "ribbon" was completely picked up, people finally arrived from the dock.
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