The "Chusheng" spread its wings and opened the trawl net as wide as possible. Then, as the ship moved forward, a large amount of seafood hidden on the seabed was wrapped in the fishing net and then carried away into the distance.
Yu Shengnan felt a little useless because the water was too deep and his perception range was not enough. So now the operation of the "Chusheng" trawler had little to do with him. It could be said that it relied entirely on the fish finder, which seemed to be no different from the operation of other trawler boats.
Following Yu Shengnan's instructions, Meng Kechuang drove forward for three hours and then began to close the net.
What would the first catch be like? Everyone on the boat was filled with anticipation. As the diverter plate emerged from the water, they removed it, then flipped the netting wire rope into the boat. With continued traction, the net gradually began to float, and a large number of net bags and floats began to be pulled up.
The rope is pulled back through a winch, so it does not need to be pulled manually. If it is pulled manually, it will be very strenuous. It is just like a cow plowing the field. If you force people to do the plowing, you can imagine how tiring it is.
The pulled-up net needs to be turned over the side of the boat and then fixed to the side of the boat (it must be fixed firmly, otherwise it will fall into the sea more easily), because the last net bag needs to be lifted directly from the outside of the boat's side from a slightly middle part, relying on the net lifting machine.
The size of the net bag looks okay. It’s not a full bag, but it’s more than half full. Judging from the weight, it must be at least two or three tons.
When the net bag was hoisted onto the deck, and as the short fat man Guo Zhuang and another fat man worked together to pull the rope of the net bag, a large amount of seafood fell onto the deck.
"Come to work, everyone take your benches and baskets and start working," Zhao Lei called everyone over to start sorting. This job was everyone's main job, and everyone was busy actively.
Yu Shengnan also went to see the fish and saw a lot of different kinds, including familiar pomfret, red sea bream, peeling fish, big cuttlefish, small squid, angler prawns, and nine-segment shrimp, as well as greenfin fish, red-eyed sea bream (a type of bigeye sea bream), axefish (scientific name: sweet porgy), etc., which she saw for the first time, and many more small fish.
In fact, this amount is not too much for the "Chusheng". According to the trawl net installed on their ship, the net bag should be able to hold five or six tons, and most of the fish are miscellaneous fish, so this net can only be said to be very average.
Although the harvest was average, it was pretty good as we had a seafood feast for lunch.
"Everyone, share it. Zhao Lei, please pay attention. We'll continue with the second net later."
The crew had no idea how much these seafood were worth, and everyone was very happy. Yu Shengnan also returned to the cockpit with a smile.
"Lao Meng, let's not go any further. The water here is already 200 meters deep. Let's go to the island we saw earlier and then tow it around it."
Yu Shengnan decisively gave up the original plan and let Meng Ke rush to the shallow water area.
According to his thinking, he had caught a lot of fish after dragging the net in the deep water, but they were not very valuable. He could sense the fish schools thirty meters underwater, so why not drag them in the shallow water? He thought that all the fish that came up were valuable. Not all of them, but at least most of them were valuable.
But when the second net was really dragged down in the shallow water, he realized that he was wrong.
A trawler does not use a hand-thrown net to catch valuable fish. The trawler keeps moving forward. If you find the fish in front of you are valuable, they will be put into the net. If you find the fish in front of you are not valuable, they will also be put into the net. It is impossible for you to choose which fish to take and which to reject.
"Dinner is ready, everyone take turns to eat," Feng Buping's voice appeared on the intercom.
The second net of fish had not yet been hauled in, and the crew members had all gone to eat. The fish from the first net had already been sorted, and only a few people were still using water pipes to rinse the sorted seafood.
The lunch was very sumptuous, with Dongpo pork, West Lake vinegar sea bass, braised squid with pickled mustard greens and bamboo shoots, and sea eel with tofu. Well, I won’t say whether it tasted good or not, but Feng Buping has grasped the essence of Hangzhou cuisine, which focuses on sweet dishes.
"Brother Nan, let's go eat, everyone has finished eating." Qiao Shan was holding a large bowl, and only a little rice could be seen, as 90% of the bowl was covered with various dishes.
As expected, we are brothers. He even calls me brother while eating alone. In fact, this is already the third bowl of soup that Qiao Shan has eaten.
Yu Shengnan looked at the food in Qiao Shan's bowl and her appetite was aroused. Forget it, don't think about it anymore. No matter how good this net is, it will still be dragged farther as planned. Let's go and eat first.
As the saying goes: When you are full, you don’t miss home.
Yu Shengnan came to eat with great expectations, but when he put the first bite of Dongpo pork in his mouth, he suddenly felt something was not right, so he tried other dishes.
"Uh..." Yu Shengnan wanted to find someone to ask about her feelings, but when she looked up, she saw only Feng Buping.
"That's unfair. We don't have much sugar on the ship, so we should try to use it sparingly. We can also make our dishes a little salty."
Yu Shengnan endured the discomfort and finished a bowl of rice, and then stopped eating. Compared to sweet food, he still preferred salty food.
When the second net was lifted, Yu Shengnan no longer looked behind because he knew in advance what had gone in.
"As for the small fish, let's take care of them. Just keep one or two baskets and throw away the rest," Yu Shengnan shouted to Zhao Lei who was sorting the fish in the back through the intercom.
He now understood why the small miscellaneous fish were so cheap at the dock. For large ships, the miscellaneous fish were almost unwanted. Putting worthless miscellaneous fish on board was a waste of space. The reason why one or two baskets were left was for cooking. After eating miscellaneous fish for a while, everyone had gotten used to it.
The second net was pretty good, and a school of Spanish mackerel was caught, probably more than a ton of Spanish mackerel.
The Chusheng's ice holds can hold nearly 200 tons of fish. A trawler, at a rate of three to five hours per trawler, can only haul four to eight nets a day, and that requires continuous operation. Based on the catch from the first two trawler hauls, it will take more than ten days to fully load the boat.
In fact, Yu Shengnan's estimation was wrong. The harvest from the first two nets gave him an illusion. Compared with some boats, the harvest from these two nets was just a bursting point.
Without saying more, just the more than one ton of swordfish in the second net can be sold for 140,000 to 150,000 yuan. It can be said that the net was fully loaded.
Later, Yu Shengnan realized that sometimes the trawl net would come up empty-handed, and there would be almost no valuable goods after one cast.
However, the first day of the "Chusheng" was a good start. Yu Shengnan divided the crew into two shifts, one led by Zhao Lei and the other by Wang Qiang, and then they took turns to rest.
Similarly, the same goes for driving the boat. Meng Kechuang, Jiao Kegui, Yu Shengnan and another person named Tian Fei who had driven a large boat before took turns in two shifts.
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