Su Jing picked up the huge sh.e.l.ls and looked at it back and forth. It is about 25 centimeters long and weighed about 5 jin. It can only be taken by two hands. The sh.e.l.l is thick and looks like a dish. The left side of the sh.e.l.l is slightly raised. The right side of the sh.e.l.l is relatively flat. The front is slightly raised and the back process disappears into a round blunt shape. The sh.e.l.l surface is brown, the scales on the top of the sh.e.l.l are compact and the scales on the back edge of the sh.e.l.l are obviously free.
"This seems to be Pinctada Maxima." Su Jing"s eyes became brighter and brighter. Pinctada maxima, also known as the big pearl oyster and the mother of all Pearl oyster, belongs to the tropical and subtropical marine bivalves and is a unique species of pearl oyster in the South China Sea. Its pearl reserves account for about 90% of the total reserves of all kinds of Pearl sh.e.l.lfish in Hainan Province. The pearls produced are of great particle size, good color, and high price. They are precious ornaments and medicinal materials. They are very popular in the international pearl market and have very high economic value.
However, because of its small number and high value, it is cla.s.sified as a national level II protected animal and prohibited from catching.
"Little Hu, where did you find this Pinctada Maxima?" Su Jing asked that as he didn"t want to break the Pinctada Maxima to see if there were pearls in it, because he didn"t want to kill it. After all, it was a national cla.s.s II protected animal. It is said that some people are skilled enough to open the sh.e.l.ls and take out the pearls and the sh.e.l.ls can survive, but that technique is no doubt as difficult as surgery. Su Jing admits that he does not have that level. Moreover, there is a great chance that pearls are bred from wild sh.e.l.ls. The possibility of pearls in this sh.e.l.l is not more than one percent.
"Over there." Killer whale turned and called out to the sea.
"Take me with you." Su Jing took his net bag and diving goggles and jumped on the back of killer whale, which then sped away with Su Jing on the waves for about 20 minutes, away from the coast of Su Family Village and near an uninhabited island, which had many small islands in the sea area that had not been exploited.
When the uninhabited island was about 300 meters away, the killer whale called a reminder to Su Jing, then plunged into the sea and dived quickly. Even with Su Jing"s physical fitness, he quickly felt his chest compress and he felt unusually uncomfortable. People are not fish and it is difficult to withstand the rapid changes in water pressure.
"Slow down." Su Jing patted the killer whale and squeezed out two words in a breath. The Killer whale slows down its speed and dived slowly, 10 meters, 15 meters, 20 meters… The average person feels their ears tingling and faced breathing difficulties at 10 meters depth, some professional divers can dive down to 15 meters, even 20 Meter. The limit of dive is the limit of people"s resistance to water pressure and it is also the limit against the physiological function of the body.
In January 2000, A Cuban Diver, Francisco Ferreras set a 162-meter freediving record at the Gulf of Mexico without air bottles and adjusted his breath by his own lung capacity.
Su Jing"s current physical fitness is definitely far beyond ordinary people, so he slowly dives to more than 20 meters and still did not feel much and this continues until the depth of 50 meters or so and even then he only felt a little uncomfortable.
Su Jing looked through the goggles to the bottom of the sea and found that it was the geological reef of the rocky reef, with a small number of seabed plants and a lot of Pinctada Maxima were there, some were crawling, some were dead, lying quietly on the bottom of the sea.
Su Jing directed killer whale close to the bottom of the sea and opened a huge Pinctada Maxima in front. It was empty and turned over several times. Finally, He saw a pearl with a diameter of about 10 mm lying inside, but he could see it with the naked eye. It is not very round and the color is average.
Su Jing continued his search by going up periodically to breath and then he came down again and resumed his search. He found pearls one after another. Some of them were good or bad. Some of them were worth thousands or even tens of thousands of yuan.
"Wow, it"s big." Su Jing suddenly saw a sh.e.l.l which was more than 30 centimeters long, he let the killer whale swim with him and opened it. Inside it lay a white pearl with a diameter of more than fifteen millimeters. It was very round, shiny, and he could not see a single flaw in it. Although Su Jing was not knowledgeable, he could see that the Pearl was absolutely valuable.
Su Jing searched again for a while. He searched almost all the nearby Pinctada maxima and found fifty or sixty pearls. Besides the perfect pearl, there were more than a dozen pearls of good quality. Others were very ordinary.
"Let"s go and look around."
Su Jing didn"t go back right away and he let the killer whale take him around the sea and enjoy the scenery of the sea through his goggles. Although he lives at the seaside, he didn"t dive so deep. It was the first time that he could play freely in the deep sea like this.
Su Jing can see all kinds of corals, seaweeds, fish, sh.e.l.lfish, crabs on the seabed. Seabed World can definitely be described as grotesque and strange. Once Su Jing accidentally encountered a cl.u.s.ter of corals. Unexpectedly, the coral suddenly moved, and then a black ink sprayed out, which was originally disguised as an octopus.
Su Jing encounters weird sh.e.l.ls, blood corals and other things, and puts them into net bags. This time, he doesn"t want to sell them. After all, they are not worth much but want to take them back home for his collection.
Su Jing thought to himself that there were not many ancient wrecks on the sea floor. If he could find one full of ceramics, gold, silver, and jewelry, he would make a lot of money, but unfortunately, none of the wrecks could be found.
"Well? That fish is…"
Su Jing suddenly noticed a fish, a little like some kind of precious fish, but before he could see it clearly, he saw it get into the coral reef.
Su Jing directed killer whale to swim quickly and squeeze into the coral. The fish continued to hide, but Su Jing saw clearly this time and it was a Humphead Wra.s.se. It had a high raised forehead, like Napoleon"s hat, so it was also called "Napoleon".
Humphead Wra.s.se belongs to Wra.s.se Species. It is the largest and longest-lived coral fish and can generally live for more than 30 years. For a long time, it has been regarded as an economic fish. Its meat is fresh and tender. It is a famous delicacy. However, due to its small quant.i.ty and high price, a Humphead Wra.s.se can be sold for 200 USD and a plate of the fish lip can be sold to 300 USD.
However, studies in most regions have shown that the population of Humphead Wra.s.se declined by as much as 90% because of the gradual decline in commercial trade. Many juveniles are caught before reaching reproductive age, resulting in fewer and fewer reproductive adults, and improper fishing practices threaten not only the survival of species but also vulnerable coral reef ecosystems.
Humphead wra.s.se was listed as an endangered species in International Union for Conservation of Nature in 2004. At the 13th CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) Conference held in October 2004, Humphead Wra.s.se was listed as CITES APPENDIX II and was strictly protected by CITES Convention.
"Well, it"s an endangered species again."
Su Jing still won"t break the law because of his great interests, but it"s always OK to watch the Humphead Wra.s.se. Many people only know that Humphead Wra.s.se is delicious, but they forget that Humphead Wra.s.se itself is a kind of ornamental fish.
Su Jing controls killer whale to shuttle among coral reefs. Because killer whale is big, it can only pick up places with large gaps. Four or five Humphead Wra.s.ses have been found successively in coral reefs, ranging in size from a few small Jin to a dozen or twenty large jin.
"I am going to go, Is that a Humphead Wra.s.se, too?"
Su Jing suddenly saw a huge figure with big eyes and directed killer whale to swim quickly.
The huge figure was frightened and drilled into the coral reef.
Su Jing directed the killer whale to catch up quickly. Although the killer whale was much faster, there were too many coral reefs to track. It took a long detour to get close to the giant figure. Su Jing finally saw that it was really a Humphead Wra.s.se, which was about two meters long. The largest Humphead Wra.s.se found so far is only 2.5 meters and a Humphead Wra.s.se of two meters or so this length is absolutely rare.
"Such a large Humphead Wra.s.se, I don"t think that the Zhongyun Oceanarium has any of this size. I don"t know if they want it or not?"
Su Jing"s mind suddenly moved, and the idea of Zhongyun Oceanarium came up again. Since Zhongyun Oceanarium is expanding the two exhibition areas, it naturally needs a lot of marine life. They don"t necessarily have a huge Humphead Wra.s.se of about two meters. They should want it. In Ye Bo"s words, it"s not selling, it"s delivering, and Zhongyun Oceanarium isn"t buying, it"s subsidizing.
Su Jing takes the killer whale with him. It"s very easy to catch the Humphead Wra.s.se. He can shoot the Humphead Wra.s.se unconscious when it leaves the reef, but he doesn"t want to hurt the Humphead Wra.s.se. He hesitates and takes out a meatball from his sealed bag, He intends to attract it with the Magical Beast meatball. The main reason why he dares to do so is that he is protected by the killer whale, even if sharks come, it"s not very scary. Of course, he did not dare to publicize it too much, he is always alert and once the situation is bad, he will quickly throw down the meatball and withdraw.
Su Jing grabbed the Magical Beast meatb.a.l.l.s in his hand and quickly attracted a variety of fish. Several small Humphead Wra.s.se were also attracted. The two-meter Humphead Wra.s.se also emerged from the coral reef and approached slowly.
Su Jing saw the giant Humphead Wra.s.se approached and did not rush to grab it. Instead, he gave a meatball to the giant Humphead Wra.s.se and touched it with his hands. Humphead Wra.s.se had a mild personality, coupled with the delicious temptation, it allowed Su Jing to touch it without evasion.
Su Jing continued to feed Humphead Wra.s.se two meatb.a.l.l.s and p.r.i.c.ked a needle in its tail, dropping blood on Ten Thousand Beasts Tablet. Then he heard Humphead Wra.s.se"s voice: "It"s good, I still want to eat more."
Su Jing smiled and used the meatb.a.l.l.s to lead Humphead Wra.s.se to the surface.
Humphead Wra.s.se kept calling: "I want to eat, please give it to me."
Su Jing smiled and said: "If you want to eat, just come with me."
Then he directed the killer whale and swam to the sh.o.r.e. The Humphead Wra.s.se was greedy and whenever it didn"t want to follow, Su Jing would give him some Magical Beast meatb.a.l.l.s to eat and the Humphead Wra.s.se followed. Su Jing chatted with Humphead Wra.s.se all the way. Although the content of the chat was very childish, it gradually dispelled Humphead Wra.s.se"s defense and Su Jing was able to establish a friendly relationship with the Humphead Wra.s.se.
Up to the sh.o.r.e of the backyard, Su Jing went ash.o.r.e and immediately called Fan Weishen, curator of Zhongyun Oceanarium, the phone number he left when he traded Hammerhead Shark.
"h.e.l.lo, Mr. Su. Is there anything wrong?" Fan Weishen asked, obviously remembering Su Jing.
"Curator Fan, I"ve got a Humphead Wra.s.se. Would you like it?" Su Jing said.
"Young man, It"s illegal to catch a Humphead Wra.s.se," Fan Weishen said.
"I know, but I caught it carelessly. You want me to let it go." Su Jing smiled.
"How Big." Fan Weishen asked casually.
"I measured it, two meters long." Su Jing said bluntly.
"What, how long did you say?" Fan Weishen jumped out of his chair.
"Two meters long," Su Jing said.
"Where is it, I"ll bring someone over immediately." Fan Weishen is thrilled. The two-meter-one Humphead Wra.s.se is more precious than the common shark. Humphead Wra.s.se is a very good ornamental fish, and its treasure makes it absolutely popular to join the aquarium. Moreover, Humphead Wra.s.se has great research value, if it can be artificially reproduced, it may be able to solve the crisis of endangerment.
Fan Weishen took seven or eight people to the beach in Su Jing"s backyard and they were all stunned. In their astonishing sight, Su Jing was playing with a huge Humphead Wra.s.se in the seawater on the sh.o.r.e. Fan Weishen and others couldn"t help rubbing their eyes and suspecting that they were hallucinating.
"Old Xue, Can Humphead Wra.s.se become this intimate with people?" Fan Weishen turned to a middle-aged man with a beard.
"Humphead Wra.s.se has a gentle personality and is not angry even when touched, but it has never played with people on its own initiative." Xue Zhonghong shook his head and his face was incredible. As Beast Tamer, an animal doctor in the ocean museum, he knew animals like the palm of his hand and dared to approach all kinds of dangerous marine organisms. However, at this moment, he had to bow down to Su Jing.
"So what is going on?" asked Fan Weishen.
"I don"t know." Xue Zhonghong grinned bitterly.
"Young man, can you help me put it in the water tank?" Fan Weishen turned to look at Su Jing in the water and asked very politely.
"Yes, but let"s talk about the price first." Su Jing smiled.
"How about 10,000? It should be able to make up for your fishing costs and labor costs?" Fan Weishen laughed.
"No, you don"t know the value of this Humphead Wra.s.se. It can help you attract a lot of tourists." Su Jing shook his head.
"Do you know that the Humphead Wra.s.se is a protected animal?" Fan Weishen said.
"Of course I know, I"ll never sell it as food or hurt it, but if your price is not right, I"ll let it go." Su Jing laughs.
"…" Fan Weishen was speechless for a while. The young man seemed to be a good talker, but in fact, he was very refined. Nevertheless, when Su Jing said that even if he let it go, it would never be sold as food, he still had some good feelings.
"You may also know the true value of Humphead Wra.s.se, but we are short of funds recently. I"m afraid we can"t afford that price. After all, we have to take good care of it and spend a lot of money. Let me make a quick and direct offer. If you think so, let us have it. If you don"t think so, please let it go. Fan Weishen said sincerely.
"Okay." Su Jing nodded.
"Fifty thousand." Fan Weishen put out his palm
"Deal." Su Jing readily agreed, After listening to Fan Weishen"s words and appreciating Fan Weishen"s style, he didn"t intend to raise the price too hard. Moreover, according to Fan Weishen"s att.i.tude, the price increase will only put everyone in a bad mood.
Su Jing helped Fan Weishen, Xue Zhonghong and others to trap the Humphead Wra.s.se in a water tank. Although he is a little sorry about this Humphead Wra.s.se, it can also live comfortably in the ocean hall. If the ocean hall can develop a method of artificial reproduction of Humphead Wra.s.se, it"s a credit to the species of Humphead Wra.s.se and it"s worth it.
"Mr. Su seems to know a lot about oceanic fish. Do you know anything about dolphins?" Before leaving, Xue Zhonghong asked.
"I know something, why did Mr. Xue ask this question?" Su Jing wondered.
"Well, there"s a very popular dolphin in the aquarium. Some time ago, It started to lose its appet.i.te. He was depressed all day and didn"t listen to the commands. It"s been more than half a month. We can"t check the problem. We tried countless ways and didn"t work. I don"t know if Mr. Su can help us to see it." Xue Zhonghong asked.
"Well, I"ll take some time to visit tomorrow." Su Jing says that and although it"s not his business but since he happens to know it, it"s okay to go and see it. Although Su Jing doesn"t necessarily know better than professionals, there are some advantages he posses that no one else has. In addition, it is also good to visit the ocean hall by the way. He can first know some species he has never seen before and then he can see them on the sea after understanding them.
"We will be waiting." Xue Zhonghong"s eyes lit up.
"Mr. Su, You are welcome to the Ocean Pavilion anytime. With this card, tickets are free." Fan Weishen handed Su Jing a card, which obviously meant to be a kind gesture. Su Jing provided the Nautilus, hammerhead shark, Humphead Wra.s.se for the ocean museum, and a free card would not go too far. Besides, Su Jing seems to have a high level of accomplishment in taming fish. If he could really restore the dolphin, it would be even more worthwhile to pay him a lot of money to work in the aquarium.
Fan Weishen and Xue Zhonghong were worried about Humphead Wra.s.se and did not dare to wait. They drove the Humphead Wra.s.se back to the aquarium.
"Little Hu, go out and play with your companions." When Fan Weishen and Xue Zhonghong and others took Humphead Wra.s.se away, the killer whale emerged from the sea, Su Jing patted killer whale"s head and said. The Killer whale lovingly arched Su Jing"s hand and turned around reluctantly.
"A"Jing, A"Jing." Just then, Su Liang"s anxious shout rang out in the distance. Su Jing looked around and saw Su Liang and Shi Qing trotting over. Shi Qing was sweating heavily, her face was anxious, her eyes were slightly red and tears were gathering.
"What"s wrong?" Su Jing asked.
"Shi Yun sailed out for fishing and didn"t return for one day. It is dark in the evening and he is still missing. Shi Qing wanted to borrow our fishing boat and go out to find him." Su Liang quickly said.
"A"Jing, can I borrow your boat?" Shi Qing"s voice had a slight cry.
"Of course, let"s go, let"s go," Su Jing said and suddenly turned and said to the sea, "Little Hu don"t leave yet, help me find someone."
"Crash-bang" The killer whale hasn"t traveled far and when he heard Su Jing, his head popped out, his tongue was spitting out and he looked happy. He obviously preferred to stay with Su Jing.
"Tiger… Killer whale?" Shi Qing was startled and stared.
"I"ll explain to you later. Now I"m going to find your brother. Next time you encounter this kind of thing, don"t ask me, just take the boat." Su Jing said to Su Jing, a ship of 200,000 is far less important than life, let alone the life of Shi Qing"s younger brother.
Su Jing first ordered killer whale to go out and find him. Then he ran to the wharf with Su Liang and Shi Qing. Su Xiaolin and Su Hu were waiting. Others stayed at the fishing ground. The three broken net cages had been replaced. It was enough for them to keep a few guards.
"Little Lin, you stay and ask a few more people to help you use all the fishing boats that can be used in the village. If anyone refuses, rent it for three thousand yuan for one day and I"ll pay for it." Su Jing told Su Xiaolin.
"Good." Su Xiaolin nodded and ran back to the village with the two men to pick up the rescuers. In fact, Shi Qing"s father and Shi Family Village"s fishing boats have set off, but their fishing boats are too poor and dangerous in the sea, especially today"s waves are very big, small fishing boats are not easy to sail and they have to mainly depend upon Su Jing"s boat.
"Let"s go." Su Jing and others sailed fishing boats and went to sea to find people.
"How many people did your brother go to sea with? Did he say where he was going to go fishing? Su Jing turned to Shi Qing and asked, she was dressed in a casual T-shirt and had a good figure, but she smelled like scallops. Su Jing could smell it. Besides occasional part-time tour guides, she was helping to dry scallops at home all the time. Her Family Head wanted to do scallop business. Ordinary people may be concerned about the fishy smell of scallops, but Su Jing, who is on the beach, is used to it, not to mention that he has just caught a fish and smelled more heavily.
"There are three of them, but I don"t know where they went fishing." Shi Qing shook her head.
"Don"t worry too much. You know your brother is good at the water and will be fine." Su Jing consoled.
"Yeah." Shi Qing nodded, but the worry on her face did not alleviate much. People at the seaside knew that if they went out of the sea, being good at the sea would not be helpful. Especially today, the wind and waves are very strong and even the best swimmers and divers would not be able to save themselves at the sea.
Because no one knows where Shi Yun went fishing, they can only take chances. First, they went to the area where Shi Yun often went. In fact, it is also the area where the villagers around Shi Yun often went. After all, there are some areas where there are more fish, and everyone knows it. Unfortunately, Shi Yun was not found. During the search, several Shi Family Village fishing boats were seen looking for people, but neither of them was found.
"Su Family boy." A small fishing boat came up and was so b.u.mpy in the storm that it looked like it was about to turn over. One of the skinny, tall middle-aged men on the boat shouted.
"Uncle." Although the caller was not polite, Su Jing was polite because it was Shi Qing"s father, Shi Guanglu.
"Shi Yun may have been gone out to the sea, our boat can"t get out, so… May I trouble you? Shi Guanglu was a little anxious at first, so no matter how polite or impolite he was and Su Jing and Shi Qing were a gossiping material in high school, which made him angry at Su Jing, but now he"s talking and realizing that he"s asking for help. What if he is not happy and disagrees? Is it important to worry about minor issues, or is the life of his son is more important?
"Uncle, don"t say much. Come on up." Su Jing lowered the ladder and asked Shi Guanglu and two other middle-aged men to climb up. The boat was tied to the boat with a thread and towed along. The other two middle-aged men are the fathers of the other two young men who went to sea with Shi Yun.
"Dad." Seeing her father, Shi-Qing couldn"t help crying.
"It"s all right." Shi Guanglu patted Shi Qing on the shoulder.
Su Liang took the helm and Shi Guanglu came to show the way to more offsh.o.r.e places. Generally speaking, people would not sail a boat to such a far place offsh.o.r.e. But Shi Yun was brave enough to go out so far with good water.
Ten minutes later, the sky had darkened, which made Shi Guanglu and Shi Qing more anxious. Once it was dark, it was harder to find, and the longer it was delayed, the more dangerous it was.
"Boom" Suddenly, on the left side of the fishing boat, a killer whale rose.
"Killer whale!" Shi Guanglu, who had never seen him and two other middle-aged men, were suddenly shocked.
"Don"t worry, It"s mine, I raised it," Su Jing said.
"You raised it?" Shi Guanglu stares, a killer whale can still be raised privately? But at this moment, he is not in the mood to ask more questions.
"Little Hu, did you find anything?" Su Jing asked and the killer whale shouted.
"What, did you find someone?" Su Jing"s eyes lit up.
"Found them?" Su Liang said happily, stopping the boat and coming. Shi Qing, Shi Guanglu and others are stunned, they do not know why but does it seem that Su Jing not only raised this killer whale but also trained it to be obedient and it knows how to find people.
"Little Hu said he saw three people standing on a rock and they were shouting." Su Jing said a word to the crowd and then told killer whale, "Little Hu, take us over there."
The killer whale shouted and swam south and to let Su Jing see him it naturally exposed its dorsal fin to the surface, which was like a pointer. Su Liang did not use Su Jing"s instructions to change the direction of the ship and followed the killer whale.
"A"Jing, do you understand what the killer whale means? Did it really find someone? Shi Guanglu frowned and asked, "Of course, he wants to find his son as soon as possible, but he doesn"t want to pin his hopes on a killer whale. He doesn"t trust killer whale very much. What if it delays time?
"It"s not a surprising thing for a killer whale to find people. Killer whales have outstanding intelligence and are domesticated to accomplish some special tasks, such as the US Navy Hawaii Submarine Operational Center, which spends millions of USD every year to train an animal army. Killer whales are one of the main members of the team and they can do deep diving, navigation, demining and so on." Su Jing said.
"Is there still such a thing?" Shi Guanglu stared, and Shi Qing listened to Su Jing"s calm words with a little rea.s.surance.
"In addition, the killer whale can emit ultrasound to find fish by echolocation and judge the size and swimming direction of fish by ultrasound, so strictly speaking, they are very good at finding someone. Besides, believing a killer whale once is better than to b.u.mp around like a headless fly." Shi Guanglu nodded with two other middle-aged men to Su Jing words.
"Look, there seems to be someone ahead?" About three kilometers ahead, Su Liang suddenly shouted.