The Fish I Catch Can Level Up-Chapter 250: A Whale Fall, A Thousand Lives
After setting the lobster pots, Chu Mingcheng grabbed his speargun, ready to hunt some coral fish. The fish turned out to be a bit of a letdown, though.
He'd originally thought he'd encounter plenty of species here in Australia that didn't exist back in China. But after arriving, he discovered that most of the coral fish in these reef areas were the same ones found in the South China Sea.
Finding something genuinely new was proving to be quite difficult. Perhaps only in the deep sea would he find some unique varieties.
Unfortunately, deep-sea fish were highly unpredictable, and encountering them wasn't easy.
Tasmania was renowned for its world-famous salmon, and Chu Mingcheng had wanted to go catch some, but what he learned left him disappointed.
Wild salmon had parasites and weren't popular locally.
What was popular was the farmed salmon from the northern part of the province. Their farming methods effectively solved the parasite problem, and the taste was no worse than wild, making them far more widely accepted.
Chu Mingcheng's cheat ability was ineffective on farmed aquatic products, so he lost all interest in salmon.
However, Australia had many excellent freshwater fish species. After he finished his quota for Giant Tasmanian King Crabs, he could go catch some of those.
Right now was a peak activity time for coral fish. Under the beam of his headlamp, fish would occasionally swim into his line of sight.
But his target was clear: Leopard Coral Grouper.
Back in China, Leopard Coral Grouper were a protected species, but not here. The price was good, too—Noah was buying them at a unit price of twenty Australian dollars.
After a short while, Chu Mingcheng finally found a few Leopard Coral Grouper.
However, the largest among them appeared green in his vision, clearly contaminated with ciguatera toxin, which was a shame.
He raised his speargun, and after a brief chase, he had all the Leopard Coral Grouper in his bag—except for the one with the toxin.
The four he shot weren't very large, averaging only five or six jin each, which would fetch a little over four hundred Australian dollars.
Chu Mingcheng didn't mind the small amount. His main targets were Giant Tasmanian King Crabs and lobsters; the fish were just a bonus.
After scouring the entire coral reef, he had shot twenty-three Leopard Coral Grouper. The small ones were still around five or six jin, while the largest was estimated to be twenty or thirty jin.
This was a decent haul, amounting to several thousand Australian dollars in income, which wasn't a small sum.
He had also located several rock lobster gathering spots. Once he retrieved and emptied his lobster pots, he could place them directly near those spots.
Unfortunately, he didn't find any particularly valuable fish in the deep trench today. Chu Mingcheng had no choice but to return to the boat and put the Leopard Coral Grouper in the refrigerated hold.
Out of the water and back on the brightly lit boat, he was surprised to find that the color of these Leopard Coral Grouper seemed off.
Some were orange-red, others a bit pinkish, and their spots weren't black, but blue. These were likely a close relative of the Leopard Coral Grouper, the Thai Coral Grouper, a subspecies.
Fortunately, their taste and price were similar, so there was no need to sort them out.
With the fish stored away, Chu Mingcheng went to take a shower, then lay in bed and played some games. Since he hadn't encountered any schools of Polyprion oxygeneios or red seabream in the deep trench tonight, and hunting coral fish required a slow search, he wasn't feeling very motivated and decided to take it easy.
The next day, Chu Mingcheng was up at five-thirty, just as the sun was peeking over the horizon.
After washing up and eating breakfast, he changed into his wetsuit to check on his crab and lobster pots.
He headed to the deep-water area first to see how many Giant Tasmanian King Crabs there were and to grab any that were outside the cages.
But as soon as he reached the bottom, he got a fright.
A massive, mangled corpse lay not far from his crab cages.
No, that wasn't right. It was more like Chu Mingcheng had, by a stroke of luck, placed his crab cages right next to this giant corpse.
Several deep-sea sharks were tearing at the carcass, shaking their heads back and forth. The flesh was clearly very tough.
There were also many strange-looking fish, crabs, and other creatures. Just the sight of this feeding frenzy was enough to make Chu Mingcheng's hair stand on end.
It was so damn creepy.
But such a grand feast had attracted a great number of Giant Tasmanian King Crabs and spider crabs. It was a pity the spider crabs were too small; if they were larger, he could have caught them to sell.
Among them, Chu Mingcheng spotted several enormous Giant Tasmanian King Crabs. They were much smaller than the ones he had caught before, but they still looked to be about thirty jin each.
How could he possibly leave with so many walking Australian dollars right in front of him?
And if he wasn't mistaken, the giant corpse before him was a whale.
Fighting back his disgust, Chu Mingcheng slowly approached. He couldn't shake the feeling that if he got too close, the seawater, teeming with bacteria from the carcass, would contaminate him. The thought made him hesitate.
But the walking Australian dollars here were just too tempting.
Once closer, Chu Mingcheng first examined the corpse and found that its mouth was still mostly intact.
From the sharp teeth and shape of its mouth, he immediately recognized it as a dead sperm whale.
Unfortunately, the sperm whale's head had been almost completely devoured, leaving only its mouth.
But the length of its lower jaw alone was about the same as Chu Mingcheng's height, which gave an idea of just how massive this sperm whale was.
He observed it for a moment, then looked away. The scene was truly unsettling.
Chu Mingcheng left the area and went to check on the nearby crab cages.
He found the catch was dismal—they were basically empty. The sperm whale carcass must have drawn away the Giant Tasmanian King Crabs.
It looked like he had a lot of work ahead of him.
Chu Mingcheng returned to the side of the corpse and began moving the feeding Giant Tasmanian King Crabs.
This time, however, he was mostly moving the smaller ones. He left the large ones for now; he had other plans for them later.
The twenty-meter-plus sperm whale had attracted countless predators.
Combined with the fact that this was a gathering place for Giant Tasmanian King Crabs, by the time Chu Mingcheng had cleared the crabs smaller than ten jin from one side of the carcass, the crab cages were already full.
He ignored the cages and, picking up a huge Giant Tasmanian King Crab, headed back to the boat.
A thirty-something-jin Giant Tasmanian King Crab was a perfect fit for the live well, saving him the trouble of letting it crawl around on deck.
From his tackle bag, Chu Mingcheng took out a five-hundred-meter length of braided line and tied one end to the crane's cable.
Clearly, he planned to take the line down, tie up the Giant Tasmanian King Crabs one by one, and then use the crane to pull them up.
Compared to the sheer number of Giant Tasmanian King Crabs, the cost of a spool of braided line was nothing.
Returning to the bottom, this time Chu Mingcheng not only had to tie up the Giant Tasmanian King Crabs but also face several large sharks that were feeding.
He had recognized these sharks when he first arrived—they were six-gill sharks.
This species of shark can grow to over five meters and is a large deep-sea predator.
However, the ones before him weren't that large, looking to be only about three meters long.
As long as you didn't provoke these sharks, they wouldn't attack humans, which was why Chu Mingcheng had been able to confidently move the king crabs on the other side of the carcass earlier.
But now, he had to face them.
Because if he got too close, the sharks might see him as a competitor for food and attack.
After all, who knew when they would finish eating, and who knew if other sharks would show up after they left?
Chu Mingcheng hadn't brought his speargun, but he had his diving pole and a fish spear. He didn't hesitate, immediately swimming over.
He activated the diving pole and swung it hard at the head of a six-gill shark. A series of bright electric arcs flashed, and the shark, in pain, immediately released the whale meat it was biting and turned to flee.
The nearby six-gill sharks also stopped feeding and began to circle Chu Mingcheng, as if assessing the danger of this strange creature.
He had no intention of waiting for the sharks to leave. He continued to raise the diving pole and struck another six-gill shark on its side.
A series of electric arcs flashed. The pained six-gill shark immediately turned and bit at him, its reaction incredibly fast.
But no matter how fast it was, it wasn't faster than Chu Mingcheng, who was already prepared.
The moment he dodged with his hind legs, the diving pole struck the shark's head again, sending it into a full-body tremor.
This six-gill shark was scared now. It instinctively bit again, missed, then immediately turned and fled, just like the first one.
Then, in the dark deep water, electric arcs flashed from time to time, until only one stubborn six-gill shark remained, refusing to leave.
A surge of water rushed toward him. Chu Mingcheng sidestepped with agility, dodging the six-gill shark's charge.
Then he immediately followed, and before the six-gill shark could turn, he reached out and grabbed its tail.
With its tail attacked, the six-gill shark immediately began to twist and struggle violently.
A three-meter-plus shark had considerable strength. Even the current Chu Mingcheng couldn't easily control it. Perhaps in the future, he'd have a chance to grab a shark and slam it onto the sand.
But that wasn't his goal. To avoid this stubborn shark causing him any more trouble, he held its tail with one hand, letting it drag him along, while he picked up the fish spear with the other.
Aiming the tip at the shark's belly, he pressed the switch and plunged it in fiercely.
Six-gill sharks weren't a protected species, and since he didn't plan to take it back, killing it was no big deal.
This thing wasn't worth any money anyway, aside from some research value. But Chu Mingcheng was in Australia now. What did their research have to do with him? It wasn't like he was back in China.
After the fish spear pierced the shark's belly, Chu Mingcheng immediately released its tail, then grabbed the fish spear with both hands and, with a forceful pull, yanked the tip out.
The barb pulled out a large chunk of flesh, and blood immediately began to pour from the wound.
The shark, severely injured, was already terrified. The moment the fish spear was pulled out, it immediately fled without a second thought. As for whether it would survive, that was up to fate. It would most likely die.
Having finally driven off the troublesome creatures, Chu Mingcheng could now return to the sperm whale carcass in peace and tie up the Giant Tasmanian King Crabs one by one.
On a fishing line almost invisible in the water, the bound Giant Tasmanian King Crabs looked utterly helpless.
They were of all sizes. It was clear he had basically caught all the king crabs around the sperm whale carcass in one go, leaving only the small ones.
After finishing his work, Chu Mingcheng grabbed another thirty-something-jin Giant Tasmanian King Crab and began to swim back to the surface.
Back on the boat, he placed the king crab in his hands into the live well, then started the crane, walked to the side of the boat, and grabbed the fishing line.
The line was slowly pulled back. The speed wasn't fast, and wearing gloves, he wasn't afraid of getting injured.
There were about five hundred jin of Giant Tasmanian King Crabs on the line, and with the water resistance, it was not a light load.
It was a good thing Giant Tasmanian King Crabs couldn't struggle like fish; otherwise, this braided line might not have been able to handle it.
Chapter 250: A Whale Fall, A Thousand Lives
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