I thought everything would be calm and uneventful until the day I returned.
Who would have thought that after I took a nap after my shift ended, something would go wrong?
It was already afternoon, and everyone else had already eaten lunch.
Feng Ye was the last to get up and hadn't eaten yet.
He held his bowl, leaned against the wall of the ship's deck, and ate while watching everyone haul in the nets.
However, after the tow line was retrieved and the net winding machine was put into operation for a period of time, they discovered that something was wrong with the sea surface behind them.
Faintly visible beneath the surface are signs of large fish moving about, their movements rippling as if chasing a moving trawl net.
"What's going on?"
Feng Ye's heart tightened, and he quickly walked to the side of the ship to observe carefully.
Dark shadows swarmed beneath the surface of the sea, and there were quite a few of them, but unfortunately, it was impossible to tell what kind of fish they were.
He was even more confused.
It's all too common for fish to follow a moving boat in search of food.
But it always follows behind the stern of the boat, never behind the trawlers.
This is unusual!
This is so unusual!
The boatmen also noticed something was wrong and nervously stared at the sea.
"Big fish! There's a big fish in the water!"
"I saw it too, but it was a bit far away and underwater, so I couldn't see what kind of fish it was."
"Could it be a shark?"
"Hmm, very likely..."
Feng Ye also leans towards this conjecture, as it is a common phenomenon for sharks to follow ships in search of food.
But as I said before, this situation is very unusual.
As the fishing net was slowly pulled in, it gradually rose to the surface, and the dark shadows underwater also rose to the surface, becoming clearer and clearer. The fish fins cut through the water, creating ripples.
"A shark, it really is a shark!"
"So many sharks, there must be a dozen or twenty, right?"
"Holy crap, how come there are so many sharks following us?"
"What's going on? Were these sharks attracted by the fish and shrimp in the trawl nets?"
Everyone was surprised to see this.
Feng Ye frowned, recalling a similar situation he had encountered on his last fishing trip, where a group of sharks had followed him.
The only difference is that last time, it was because the blood of swordfish and great white sharks flowed into the sea, attracting a large number of sharks.
But what's the reason this time?
The claim that the fish and shrimp in the trawl nets attracted them seems rather dubious.
He had never heard of such a thing in both his lifetimes.
As he was pondering this, he suddenly noticed that the color of the seawater near the trawl net seemed a little off.
Upon closer inspection, good heavens, there was red liquid spreading beneath the surface of the water, resembling blood.
However, it was quickly diluted by seawater and was easily overlooked if not looked closely.
Feng Ye's heart skipped a beat. Could something have happened in the trawl net that caused the fish and shrimp to be injured and bleeding, thus attracting these sharks?
When the trawl net was almost fully pulled in and about to emerge from the water, the net bag suddenly began to shake violently, causing the reel to make a creaking sound.
Everyone's expression changed.
This is clearly something big struggling in the net.
"careful!"
Feng Ye shouted a warning to the boatmen to be careful and not to fall over because of the fishing nets.
If you're not careful and fall into the sea, you could easily become food for sharks.
No sooner had he finished speaking than a super-sized fish, six or seven meters long, suddenly darted out of the trawl net.
This big fish looks very strange. Its snout is wide and flat, and its sides are covered with sharp teeth. It looks exactly like a giant saw.
And it's very long, I estimate it's nearly two meters long.
"Damn it, my internet..."
Feng Ye gasped in shock, her heart aching beyond measure.
The net is definitely broken.
Given the size of this fish, the hole must be quite large, and repairing it will probably take a lot of effort.
He then understood that the sharks behind them had been lured there by this big fish.
Because this is a sawfish, a fish that is usually docile, but becomes extremely ferocious and bloodthirsty once caught in a net or when it discovers a school of fish.
The red liquid we just saw must be the blood left by the fish as it wreaked havoc in the net, which attracted the sharks.
As its name suggests, the sawfish is a type of ray, or perhaps a type of manta ray.
"Chainsaw Maniac", "Devil Swordsman", "White Ghost"...
These chilling-sounding titles are all names people have given them.
The snout of the sawfish is flat and narrow, protruding in a sword shape, with 17 to 35 pairs of tooth-like structures composed of shield-like scales on both sides, resembling a saw, hence the name "sawfish".
Saw Ray
Its snout is one-third the length of its body and is extremely sharp. If you are stabbed by it, you will either die or be seriously injured. Hence, it has earned all these terrifying titles.
But in fact, sawfish are usually very gentle and will not attack humans unless provoked.
They spend most of their time lazily lying on the sand at the bottom of the sea, moving slowly, digging in the soil with their snoutsaws to forage for food, mainly crustaceans and other invertebrates in the mud and sand.
However, when they encounter schools of fish, they reveal their ferocious and bloodthirsty nature, much like sharks.
Sawfish will rush into a school of fish and slash left and right with their "saws." When they encounter large fish, they will saw them repeatedly until the prey is either unable to fight back or is dead before feeding.
As for the cases of injury, they mostly occurred when the animals resisted being caught by fishermen.
Another point worth mentioning is that, compared to the common flat-shaped rays, the sawfish's body shape is actually more like a shark, and it is often confused with the saw shark, which also has "saws".
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