The Fish I Catch Can Level Up-Chapter 246: The Shortfin Mako Shark's Savior
Chu Mingcheng wasn't entirely sure how much a Hapuku would sell for in Melbourne. In New Zealand, blue cod sold for fifteen Australian dollars per jin on the market, though the unit of measurement over there was kilograms.
A leopard coral grouper was only about twenty-five Australian dollars per jin, which converted to just over a hundred RMB per jin. The price was indeed significantly cheaper than back in China.
During his time sightseeing in Melbourne, he'd made sure to visit the seafood markets.
The Hapuku was a fish with high economic value. Chu Mingcheng guessed it should be more expensive than New Zealand's blue cod, but at most, it would be around the price of a leopard coral grouper.
In that case, the price he'd get from Noah would be even lower, probably around fifteen Australian dollars per jin.
He used the crane to weigh this Hapuku and found it was one hundred and sixty-seven jin, worth about two thousand five hundred Australian dollars.
Although the unit price couldn't compare to the Giant Tasmanian King Crab, its substantial weight meant this fish was likely worth about the same as the king crabs in the corner of the deck.
Chu Mingcheng was quite satisfied with this. He re-baited his hook with squid, attached a bell to the fishing rod as well, and tossed the baited hook into the water to wait for a bite.
Then, instead of watching the rod, he turned his attention to bleeding the Hapuku.
He cut the gills and severed the spinal cord at the tail. He then turned on the water hose and stuffed it directly into the fish's mouth, blocking the cut opening. Blood immediately began to pour out from the tail in a steady stream.
But before the blood had even been completely flushed out, a ringing bell cut through the night.
Chu Mingcheng quickly dropped the hose and rushed to the side of the boat. He grabbed the fishing rod from the fishing hole and gave it a sharp lift.
This fish felt a bit light. It probably wasn't very big.
In just a short while, a Hapuku that had just reached a meter in length was reeled up.
Chu Mingcheng lifted the fishing line slightly and felt it still had some weight. To be safe, he grabbed the gaff, hooked the fish, and lifted it directly onto the boat.
He weighed it and was surprised to find that a meter-long Hapuku was over fifty jin. This fish was indeed quite plump.
Now he had two fish that hadn't been properly bled, so this time he didn't immediately cast his line again. Instead, he thoroughly bled both fish and placed them in the refrigerated hold.
The meter-long Hapuku was manageable, but when the one-and-a-half-meter fish was placed in the refrigerated hold, it immediately took up most of the space.
Based on the current situation, even if he stacked the fish layer by layer, he could probably only fit six or seven of the one-and-a-half-meter ones at most. The space in this refrigerated hold was truly limited.
But what could he do? This wasn't his own big boat. Chu Mingcheng could only make do.
After catching two more Hapuku around 1.2 meters, the fish blood washing off the boat was carried farther and farther by the waves, attracting several sharks that were particularly sensitive to the scent of blood.
Sharks, which were a rare sight in the coastal waters of China, were very common here in Australia.
Anglers here often encountered sharks that would snatch the fish they were reeling in.
If it were a worthless fish like a Giant Trevally, it didn't matter, but if it was a rare and valuable catch, anyone would curse.
Chu Mingcheng caught another 1.3-meter Hapuku before the sharks arrived, but his luck ran out on the next cast.
As he was reeling it in, the fishing rod twitched strangely. In the end, he only pulled up a large fish head. He immediately understood what had happened and began to curse nonstop.
Through the illumination of the lights, he saw several ferocious shortfin mako sharks.
At that moment, he was actually considering whether he should just grab his fish spear, jump into the water, and stab all these shortfin mako sharks to death.
Aren't they endangered? How could three or four of them appear at once?
Looking at them, it seemed the conservation efforts in recent years had been quite successful. He felt it might be better to stab them to death after all, to make their endangered status a reality.
The largest shortfin mako sharks could grow to four meters, but these were only a little over two meters long. Chu Mingcheng felt he could probably take them out one by one with his spear right now.
Otherwise, with these sharks around, he could forget about fishing for the rest of the night.
He'd already caught five. He felt that just a few more would fill the refrigerated hold, and Chu Mingcheng, being a bit obsessive, couldn't stand the thought of there being empty space.
Looking at the shortfin mako sharks that occasionally surfaced, he gripped his fish spear, eager to give it a try.
Just then, Jiang Luoluo, who seemed to have just finished showering, appeared at the door of the pilothouse in her nightgown and called out, "Ah Cheng, are you still fishing? It's so late—why don't you come to bed? Staying up late is bad for you!"
Chu Mingcheng's attention was instantly diverted.
Jiang Luoluo, fresh from her shower, had her jet-black hair casually draped over her shoulders. A nightgown that covered all her charms couldn't suppress the curves that were bursting to break free.
Because the sea breeze lifted the hem of her gown, her long, slender, fair legs were completely exposed to his view.
People say women distract from fishing,
he thought, unable to look away. But clearly, those people have never been married to someone this beautiful.
Chu Mingcheng immediately agreed and casually tossed the fish spear he was holding.
He glanced at the time and realized it was already twelve-thirty. It was indeed late, and he should go to bed. Who cared if the shortfin mako sharks were endangered or not!
He currently had twenty charges of Life Conversion, which he'd deliberately saved in case of accidents.
Using them for staying up late wasn't very cost-effective. It was better to get a good night's sleep.
After packing up his fishing gear, he practically sprinted back to the room. Seeing this, Jiang Luoluo's heart tightened.
She had a feeling Chu Mingcheng had misunderstood something. She really had just been telling him to come back and rest early.
However, it wasn't long before a beautiful symphony began to play inside the boat.
By the side of the boat, several shortfin mako sharks were still lingering due to the scent of blood, completely unaware that they had just narrowly avoided contributing to their species' endangered status.
Therefore, it could be said that Jiang Luoluo had saved them, and had paid a great price for it...
……
Chu Mingcheng walked out of the bedroom the next day, feeling refreshed and invigorated.
It was only a few minutes past six in the morning. A man approaching thirty had more energy and recovered faster than when he was twenty, which put him in a very good mood.
Even if this cheat Codex didn't have any fishing-related enhancements, he was very satisfied with just the improvements to his physical fitness.
He made himself a simple breakfast. Jiang Luoluo would probably sleep for several more hours, so he didn't bother her.
After eating breakfast, Chu Mingcheng went to the pilothouse and first checked the fish finder.
As he'd expected, there were still fish in the deep trench, but the thick red lines were all gone, indicating that the Hapuku had already left.
After all, they were deep-sea fish. It was normal for them to appear in shallower waters to hunt at night.
During the day, these fish would hide in waters deeper than five hundred meters to avoid predators. Catching them was not an easy task.
Chu Mingcheng started the fishing yacht and drove to the location of the first crab cage buoy. He changed into his diving suit, preparing to go down and check the situation.
If there were still some Giant Tasmanian King Crabs outside the cages, he could stuff them all inside.
Although Jiang Luoluo was expected to wake up after nine o'clock, Chu Mingcheng's movements were still very swift.
He dived into the water and reached the bottom at an extremely fast speed. Last night, crab cages numbered five through ten hadn't caught many Giant Tasmanian King Crabs.
Therefore, after reaching the bottom, he stuffed all the Giant Tasmanian King Crabs he found into these cages.
With his manual intervention, the harvest of Giant Tasmanian King Crabs this time was substantial.
If he hadn't dived down to catch them by hand, this morning's harvest would probably have been reduced by half, and that fifty-plus-jin Giant Tasmanian King Crab would never have been caught.
After confirming that all the regulation-sized Giant Tasmanian King Crabs within the cage's range had been stuffed inside, Chu Mingcheng immediately swam back to the surface, boarded the boat, and went to another bathroom to give himself a quick rinse to wash off the seawater.
He changed into a set of waterproof work clothes, went out onto the deck, retrieved the crab cage's buoy, tied the rope to the crane, and started the crane.
The crane's pulling speed wasn't fast, but it was very steady.
Plus, the crab cage didn't exceed one hundred and fifty jin. Even with the water pressure and currents, which made the actual pulling force far exceed one hundred and fifty jin, this crane could still lift it.
The crane's maximum load was one ton, so it was more than adequate.
Chu Mingcheng didn't even need to pull it himself. He just needed to guide the cage as it was pulled out of the water to avoid scratching the boat's surface.
Then, he operated the crane's direction, slowly lifting the cage and placing it on the deck.
Chu Mingcheng opened the livewell and saw that many of the red seabream he'd caught last night had lost their vitality and would probably die soon.
He simply moved all these red seabream out of the livewell and into the refrigerated hold.
The space that hadn't been filled last night was now perfectly filled by these red seabream.
Afterward, he replaced the water in the livewell, took the Giant Tasmanian King Crabs out of the cage, and placed them inside one by one.
When keeping other crabs together, you had to cut the tendons inside their claws to prevent them from fighting and killing each other.
But Giant Tasmanian King Crabs didn't need this. Their carapaces were extremely hard—the force of their claws wasn't enough to harm each other.
This cage had a total of four Giant Tasmanian King Crabs: two large ones over ten jin, and two small ones of only five or six jin.
After placing the king crabs, he set the cage aside and took the opportunity to check on the giant king crab that had been hiding in the corner.
He observed it for a moment and saw that the crab was still alive and quite vigorous, which made him sigh with relief.
Then, he splashed some seawater on its dry carapace to moisten it and left it alone, continuing to retrieve the crab cages.
About two hours later, all ten crab cages had been retrieved and were stacked neatly on the deck.
They were stacked in two rows of five, which didn't take up much space.
To ensure they were stable, Chu Mingcheng even used six packing straps to secure the cages both horizontally and vertically.
As for the number and weight of the Giant Tasmanian King Crabs, he'd already weighed and recorded everything in a notebook.
Returning to the cockpit, Chu Mingcheng called Noah, told him the approximate quantity of goods he'd caught, arranged a time, and then started the boat back.
The return trip would take over four hours. They would arrive at the pier around one in the afternoon. Including the time to count the catch, it seemed they wouldn't be able to go ashore for lunch.
Considering that Jiang Luoluo would be waking up soon, Chu Mingcheng set the boat to autopilot and prepared to go to the kitchen to make her some breakfast.
However, just as he stood up, the radar suddenly emitted a sharp warning beep.
He leaned closer and saw that a boat had appeared within a one-nautical-mile range on his navigation route. If he didn't maneuver to avoid it, the two boats would collide.
A short while later, Chu Mingcheng saw a medium-sized fishing boat from the cockpit.
His own wireless channels were all off, so he didn't know if the other boat's captain had said anything.
But he proactively steered the fishing yacht to the left to give way.
The other boat saw this and also shifted slightly to his right, and the two boats passed each other without incident.
However, this incident made Chu Mingcheng lose any sense of complacency. He had no choice but to continue sitting in the cockpit to watch out for other boats.
.
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Chapter 246: The Shortfin Mako Shark's Savior
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