We continued working while chasing the fish for about three hours, until it was 8 p.m.
The signal on the fish finder screen has become much sparse, indicating that the fish have mostly dispersed.
It's time to set up the net.
Feng Ye decisively gave the order: "Prepare to set up the net!"
The boatmen immediately sprang into action and began operating the net-lifting equipment.
As the winch roared, the traction line was slowly retracted inch by inch.
Everyone looked at the sea reflecting the stars at the stern of the boat, filled with anticipation for the catch.
Under normal circumstances, the time required to haul a net through a net will generally not exceed three hours.
This net took a full five hours to cast, and it's unclear how much fish it will catch.
After the Donglai started closing in the net, the Dongsheng and Fengshou also started moving.
The Purple Aura ship finally finished hoisting its cargo an hour ago and re-cast its nets. It hasn't hauled in the nets yet and is still operating.
Although the main force of the fish has dispersed, the density of fish and shrimp in the sea is still slightly higher than usual, as can be seen from the fish scouting the mountain. Continuing to work will yield a considerable harvest.
As soon as the fishing net was out of the water, it looked like the water was boiling inside, with splashes of water churning.
Clearly, this operation yielded a tremendous harvest.
"My goodness! Judging from this, how many fish will this net catch?"
"This is only what we've hauled in so far, but it's estimated to be over 100,000 jin (50,000 kg). Last year's net haul of trout was even bigger, it was completely full..."
The speaker was Han Qiwen.
On this ship, besides Feng Ye and Ye Chenliang who was steering the ship in the wheelhouse, only he had ever witnessed the spectacular sight of that net full of pufferfish.
"100,000 jin? Haha, I'm rich..."
"Whether it will make you rich or not, I don't know, but I do know it will be very convenient. They're basically all the same kind of fish, so you don't have to pick and choose..."
"It's convenient, but it's also tiring. With so many fish, even if we just pick out the miscellaneous items, I don't know how long it will take."
"Yes, yes, yes, they'll definitely be exhausted."
"I feel fine. I haven't worked for more than five hours. Haven't I had enough rest yet?"
"Yeah, I also think it's better to have something to do. Time flies by, and it's too boring to be idle..."
The boatmen were also very excited, and amidst their discussions, they worked even harder on the equipment.
As the first package was hoisted onto the ship and dumped onto the deck, piling up into a small mountain, Feng Ye finally saw what the fish looked like.
It does indeed resemble a pomfret in appearance, just as Ah-chan described, with a silvery-blue back and a silvery-white belly.
However, this is not any kind of pomfret, and it has absolutely no relation to pomfret.
The fish has a relatively flat, slightly diamond-shaped body, and its scales gleam with a metallic sheen under the light.
Upon seeing the fish, Feng Ye was quite puzzled. Although this type of fish was less common along the coast, it wasn't entirely unheard of. Why didn't anyone on the Purple Qi ship recognize it?
He turned to Han Qiwen beside him and asked, "Do you recognize this fish?"
Han Qiwen examined it carefully for a while, scratched his head and said, "I've never seen this kind of fish before, but judging from its color and appearance, it looks a bit like a white-whiskered catfish, but the fins are different. The white-whiskered catfish has very long fins, like ribbons, which is obviously different from this fish."
Feng Ye remained noncommittal and then asked the others.
Everyone shook their heads, indicating they didn't recognize the fish.
"No way, you don't know any of you?"
Feng Ye could hardly believe it. "Has none of you seen what the White-Bearded Man looks like now that he's grown up?"
"What do you mean? You mean this is the White-Bearded Man?"
"Is that a white-bearded male? Don't be ridiculous. With fins that long, how could we not recognize it?"
"Ah Ye, are you sure you're not mistaken? This should be some kind of relative of the White-Bearded Master, right?"
"That's right, we all recognize the white-bearded gong, this fish definitely isn't a white-bearded gong..."
Everyone chimed in with their own opinions, expressing doubt about Feng Ye's words.
Feng Ye, however, said with certainty, "What you saw were the young fish of the White-bearded Man."
When they are young, they do have long, ribbon-like fins, but these gradually shorten as they grow, just like they do now.
Think about it carefully, aren't all the white-bearded men you've seen actually quite small, much smaller?
The "white-bearded man" he mentioned is scientifically known as the short-snouted silky trevally, and commonly called the white-bearded man, flower trevally, or white-bearded trevally.
This is a type of fish that lives in waters 20 to 100 meters deep, mainly swimming in coastal waters and the open ocean. Adult fish have a very wide range of activity.
During their juvenile stage, their dorsal, pelvic, and anal fins elongate into filaments, flowing like jellyfish.
The scientific community believes that this amazing "ribbon" phenomenon is a way for jellyfish to better mimic their appearance and avoid predators.
However, these beautiful "ribbons" only exist in the juvenile stage and gradually degenerate as the fish grows.
Because of their unique appearance when they are young, white-whiskered males are often kept as ornamental fish.
Short-snouted silky trevally
Young white-whiskered males, due to their weak swimming ability, adopt a floating lifestyle and sometimes drift with the tide to the shore or harbor.
This is why most of the white-whiskered males that people see are juveniles.
"Now that you mention it, it's true."
"Hmm, the white-bearded male I've seen doesn't seem to be this big, and the color and shape match up."
"So, this fish really is a white-whiskered male?"
"I'm afraid that's really true..."
After hearing what he said, everyone recalled the events, and their initial skepticism gradually disappeared as they began to accept that this was what the white-bearded man had said.
However, the topic didn't end there; it shifted to the price of the white-bearded man.
"Sigh, I wonder what price these white-bearded old men will fetch."
"Well, if the price is high, with so many fish, we'd make a fortune, but if the price is low..."
"As long as it's not too low, you won't earn too little."
"That's right, if the price isn't good, can we make up for it with quantity? More than 100,000 catties of fish, even at one cent per catty, would be more than 10,000 yuan. Surely we can't even buy one cent per catty?"
"That shouldn't be the case..."
Everyone chimed in with their own comments, their hands moving quickly as they skillfully sorted the produce.
With limited space on the deck and no other valuable cargo visible in the net, it's best not to hoist up too much cargo for sorting. Hoisting one package at a time and sorting it one package at a time is the optimal approach.
It's called sorting, but it's really not much different from just putting things directly into baskets.
They are basically all the same species, so there's not much to pick and choose. You can just grab a bunch and you'll get a whole bunch. You just need to pick out the aquatic plants and other trash, as well as a few other fish, shrimp, and crabs. It's very convenient.
However, there are too many of them, and it won't be a short time to finish them all. I estimate it will take until tomorrow or who knows when.
There are at least 100,000 catties of cargo in the trawl net, but each time the cargo is hoisted, it is only about 10,000 catties at most.
Therefore, just getting all the fish out of the net onto the boat would take at least ten trips.
Moreover, although sorting is convenient, it still takes a considerable amount of time; it takes at least one or two hours to sort a single package.
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