Chapter 183: Difficult to Access Protected Area
There are four protected areas along the coast of Spain to Corsica, namely, Scandola Protected Area, Medes Protected Area, Cabrera Protected Area and Formentera Protected Area from north to south.
The Scandola Reserve is the only one in French territorial waters, where Xiao Peng found Mata Hari's jewelry. The other three reserves are in Spanish territorial waters.
However, the three reserves are different. Formentera and Medes are more like tourist destinations. Medes is actually a very small area of one square kilometer near a large reef.
Although this place is small, it is a famous diving destination in Spain. Every year, thousands of diving enthusiasts go there to dive. When Xiao Peng was learning to dive, he also went there to dive with his coach.
The Cabrera Nature Reserve where Xiao Peng and his team were going was completely different.
The Cabrera Reserve is not a small reserve like the Medes Reserve. The Cabrera Reserve consists of 19 islands and nearby waters, and its area is quite large.
It is also a tourist destination, but there are quite a lot of rules there: only 300 tourists are accepted every day; only a small number of qualified fishermen are allowed to fish there using specific fishing gear; recreational fishing is prohibited, etc.
The most troublesome rule there is that diving activities other than for scientific research are prohibited, regardless of whether it is for humans or submersibles.
The reason for this regulation is that the Cabrera Reserve is one of the few places in the western Mediterranean where red corals survive.
Amber, pearl and red coral are known as the world's three major organic gemstones.
The most popular of these is naturally red coral, especially in China. Since ancient times, it has been listed as one of the "Seven Treasures of Buddhism" and was called "Auspicious Treasure" by the ancients. In the Qing Dynasty, officials of the second rank and above used red coral in their imperial court beads. This was even more prevalent in the West, where the ancient Romans called it "red gold."
In ancient China, red coral came from the waters of Japan and Taiwan, while red coral in the West came from the Mediterranean.
Like other corals, red coral is made up of the corpses of coral polyps, so its growth rate is very slow, less than one centimeter a year. It also has extremely high requirements for water quality and is on the verge of extinction due to over-exploitation.
There is something interesting about red coral: in China, which is criticized by Western countries for not protecting animals, red coral is a national first-class protected animal, but in the Western world, red coral is not included in the World Conservation Union list - so the red coral in the Mediterranean is almost being dug out.
It is interesting to say that Westerners do not protect red corals but instead list them in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, restricting the export trade of red corals. In other words, they allow fishing and then manipulate the price themselves.
Anyway, the price of red coral is extremely high now. In China, a gram of high-quality red coral can sell for tens of thousands of yuan. There was once a two-foot-tall "coral tree" that sold for 130 million yuan!
Many people in southern China poach red coral. After all, it's a relatively simple operation. Red coral doesn't live like the claims marketed as "living between 200 and 1,000 meters deep in the ocean, and only near extinct volcanoes." That's pure bullshit. In reality, red coral primarily lives in waters between 20 and 50 meters. They can simply haul up the rocks with a special trawl net attached to their boats.
There are also red corals that live thousands of meters underwater, such as the coral species found near the Hawaiian volcano, but they are extremely difficult to salvage by manpower and are almost impossible to appear on the market!
If you don't get caught poaching red coral, you'll make a fortune. If you do, you'll be sentenced to at least ten years in prison. Anyone you see selling red coral in China should report it to the police. Otherwise, they're a scam or don't have the franchise license.
It is a national first-class protected animal. Do you think this is a joke?
Later, China cracked down more severely, and those illegal salvage ships all went to the waters of Japan. Every year, more than 200 unnumbered and unregistered "black ships" went there to engage in illegal fishing. In their eyes, catching a few red corals was not as profitable as catching a boatload of fish.
But in the Mediterranean, you don’t have to worry about so many things. The laws of each country are different, but as for the fishing of red coral, as long as it is not caught in a protected area, it is generally fine.
They even say that poaching red corals in marine sanctuaries is fine! For example, there used to be red corals in the Medes Sanctuary, but they were all stolen by divers.
There is a difference between the red coral in the Mediterranean and the red coral in Asia.
Anyone familiar with red coral knows that Asian red coral is dark red, while Mediterranean red coral ranges from deep red to pink. In short, the color is not as deep as Asian red coral: Asian red coral is "venous blood", while Mediterranean red coral is "arterial blood".
This difference is due to the fact that Asian red corals belong to the genus Rhodophora, while Mediterranean red corals belong to the genus Pleurocoral. While Asian red corals grow on reefs, Mediterranean Pleurocoral tends to grow upside down, from top to bottom in places like underwater caves. Therefore, "scraping the surface" fishing methods are not very effective here. Fishing relies primarily on divers.
After staying in France for so long, Xiao Peng realized one thing: it turns out that the high quality of Westerners only exists in the articles of Chinese public intellectuals.
Anyway, the result now is that all the red corals in the Mediterranean have been basically cleared out except for those that have not been discovered by humans, and the Cabrera Reserve is one of the few places in the entire western Mediterranean where humans know that there are red corals but have not yet cleared them out.
Spain, eager to preserve this rare natural wonder, maintains strict regulations around the Cabrera Reserve, allowing 300 tourists daily to explore the 19 islands, but not diving. The procedures for diving near the Cabrera Reserve are incredibly complex. Even though Patachi is a CNI employee, she still tells Xiao Peng, "It takes time."
Anyway, it's you who's anxious about finding the S-80 submarine, not me! So Xiao Peng can wait.
Xiao Peng also thought about this question: If he went there to look for S-80, would he pick the red coral when he saw it?
The answer is obvious: If you don’t pick it, you’re a grandson!
You don't even protect yourselves, yet you expect Xiao Peng to protect you?
Neuropathy!
Xiao Peng's sailboat was much faster than the 'Dragon Boat'. When he arrived at La Ciotat, no one came to greet them. It was estimated that others would not have thought that Xiao Peng and his companions would come back so early.
But when Xiao Peng and his friends arrived at the door, they found someone waiting for him. They were two girls. After seeing Xiao Peng, one of the girls quickly came up to him and said, "Xiao, you're back?"
Xiao Peng frowned and looked at the girl who greeted him without saying a word.
The girl looked surprised: "Oh my God, you didn't forget me?"
Xiao Peng sighed: "Is this the only line you can say?"
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