Back to the small fishing village in 1982

Chapter 1548 Unexpected Loss
Seeing that the sorting table was already full of goods, Ye Yaodong directed the experienced workers to control the release of the fishing nets and gradually unload the fish into the large fish boxes on the ship.

The fish are then transported smoothly to the sorting table through a slide to ensure that the fish bodies are not overly squeezed or damaged.

The workers at the sorting table have clear division of labor and carry out rapid and efficient sorting, handling different types of fish separately.

For fish that need further processing, they are moved to the corresponding processing area. Some deep-sea fish need to be bled and visceral removed immediately before being sent to the quick-freezing chamber.

The mackerels are also sorted into different boxes according to their specifications and sizes, and then transported to the freezer of the fishing boat through a slide.

Other miscellaneous fish are sent to the ice-breaking tank, while less valuable goods are mixed with seaweed garbage and dumped back into the sea.

After a bag of goods is put down, a responsible person will use a long pole with a hook to hook the cable ring at the bottom of the fish collecting bag, so that the goods in the net bag can be continuously hoisted up.

Ye Yaodong walked back and forth, directing the unloading, packaging and transportation.

Counting from beginning to end, there were actually about 28 and a half bags, which means there were probably nearly 14 kilograms in one net!

The workers who were responsible for hooking and collecting fish bags and lifting the cargo also counted them and were very excited.

"Oh my god, 28 and a half bags. There are 28 and a half bags caught. This is an amazing net."

"What?"

Everyone who heard it was shocked.

After the shock, they all took a deep breath.

"28 bags, 28 bags were hoisted up! I scolded the guy next door, it's awesome."

"Fuck, 28 bags? Holy shit!"

"How much does it weigh?"

"About 14 kilograms..."

"More than 14 jin? Damn, more than 14 jin in one net, how can this be tolerated?"

"Oh my god..."

While everyone was shocked, they did not forget to sort the goods. They just talked louder and more excitedly.

"What about the other ships?"

"Oh my god, then the other ships must be no worse, right?"

"Oh my god..."

Ye Yaodong's face was also filled with joy, this was something extraordinary.

Once in the near sea, the most that could be caught in one net was 11 kilograms of plum fish. It was just a lucky coincidence that I caught a whole net of plum fish.

This was also the largest catch in his history. In Zhou City, there had never been a single catch of 11 kilograms. At most, there were a dozen bags of goods, no more than 10 kilograms. This was already much more than at home. There were many boats here and the fishing on the sea was fierce.

Back home, he once went fishing with his uncle Zhao Chengzhou, who sold him his first boat, for a while. They caught at most 10 bags of fish, and usually around five or six.

Just now the worker only took a quick look at the bottom of the water and made the usual estimate, saying there would be more than a dozen bags and 50,000 or 60,000 kilograms. He said it was more than that, and it turned out to be true.

In fact, the 50,000 to 60,000 jin that the workers said verbally was the actual 50,000 to 60,000 jin, after removing the miscellaneous fish and impurities.

This is basically what they say now. When they say a certain number of tens of thousands of kilograms, it means how many goods are actually left. When they say a certain number of bags, it means the weight is a figurative number.

"This net broke the record! It's amazing. If we pick and choose, there will be 10 kilograms left."

"Oh, what a pity! It would be great if we could process the waste on board instead of dumping it..."

"How big a ship is that?"

"Haha, I'm rich, I'm rich, I've made a fortune with just this one net..."

Ye Yaodong actually felt sorry for the goods that were dumped into the sea, but they were really worthless these days, and it would be a waste of fuel to transport them back. He couldn't count how much goods he had dumped into the sea over the years.

When offshore resources are exhausted, these things will gradually become in demand, and only after the millennium will they be able to be sold at a high price.

Even if we feel it is a pity now, we can only pick out the valuable part. Even if the rest can be taken back for processing, it is not worth it. After all, there is only one fresh fish collection boat with limited capacity. Even if we collect everything, it cannot hold it.

It is exciting to catch 28 bags of goods in one net. Never in history have so many been caught in one net.

Ye Yaodong shouted happily, "Hurry up and sort it out..."

Just as everyone was happy, Lao Xiao suddenly shouted from the rudder tower, "Something happened, Dongzi."

Ye Yaodong put away the smile on his face, frowned, and hurried up to give instructions to others before leaving.

"Deal with your goods and put away the nets first."

"Hey, what happened?"

"It shouldn't be our ship..."

"That should be because something happened to another ship..."

"I don't know what happened..."

Everyone was happy for a while, but suddenly they heard about the accident. They became a little worried and started to worry about the other ships.

Ye Yaodong went up quickly.

Lao Xiao breathed rapidly and said directly: "The net of boat No. 5 is caught! The steel cable is about to break! What are you going to do? Should you just abandon the fishing net?"

With Ye Yaodong around, of course we have to ask him for permission for such a big matter. A fishing net costs several thousand dollars, which is not a small amount of money these days and is equivalent to an entire boat.

If he wasn't there, they could only discuss and sacrifice the boats to save the king.

"Just now?" Ye Yaodong asked as he walked into the cab.

"Yes, I called you as soon as I received the news. You need to make a decision as soon as possible."

A hurried call came from the other end of the shortwave radio: "Lao Xiao, Lao Xiao, what did Adong say?"

"I'm here! Stop the boat first and release the winch! Report the net position meter data!"

The former is to prevent the steel cable from breaking and injuring people or damaging the hull, and the latter is to confirm the bottom hanging position and water depth.

The No. 5 ship reported in a panic, "The water depth suddenly changed from 300 meters to 110 meters. There is a reef underneath! The net may have been cut by the reef!"

Ye Yaodong's heart tightened and he immediately grabbed the telescope to look. He saw that Ship No. 3 was not far from him. The hull was obviously tilted, and the winch cable was stretched straight, making a harsh "creaking" sound. In the surging waves on the sea, he could vaguely see that the trawl net was stuck by something.

"Have No. 2, No. 3, and No. 4 started the net yet?"

"Boat No. 2 is pulling up the net!"

"Ship No. 3 hasn't finished lifting the cargo yet, maybe half of it is still there!"

"Ship No. 4 has just finished collecting its nets."

Ye Yaodong immediately issued instructions, "Boat No. 4, lower the small boat and go into the water to check the condition of the nets! Boats No. 2 and No. 3, collect the nets as soon as possible."

"Got it!" Several captains said in unison.

More than ten minutes later, ships No. 2 and No. 3 reported that they had collected the nets.

"Number 2 and number 3 come closer from both sides and use the hook rods to help pull the net!"

"receive."

Ye Yaodong also walked out of the cockpit and looked into the distance with a telescope.

Lao Xiao followed beside him and asked, "Just now I was excited about the abundance of fish here, but I didn't expect it to be just as you said, it's dangerous down there."

"The seabed in some areas here is steep and full of reefs, so trawl nets are easily damaged. Even if there is detection, it is very likely that the depth will be 300 meters one second and only 100 meters the next. No one can predict this."

That's why he thought of leaving after finishing his job, not staying here, and not planning to work here all the time. But he didn't expect that he couldn't even catch a single net.

He was too arrogant and thought that with his experience, he would not fail.

Unexpectedly, his ship was fine, but other ships had accidents.

Alas, in fishing operations, net entanglement accidents account for about 30% of the losses of distant-water fishing vessels. This cannot be blamed on anyone and is indeed a normal phenomenon. In addition, he also knew that the risk was relatively high in this area.

Sudden changes in ocean currents can easily cause nets to drift, and there may be blind spots for sonar detection in some places.

He was being too radical. He had just come out of the deep sea and had been driving for so long. When he saw the warm current converging with the Kuroshio tributary, he couldn't help but want to try making a net first.

Now we can only try to remedy the situation.

Lao Xiao consoled him, "Let's try to see if we can save the fishing net. We'll do our best. The catch from this net is quite impressive, almost twice as much as the offshore fishing grounds. The catch from other boats will certainly not be bad either. Even if there are losses, it shouldn't be a loss."

"Let's try it first. You can also drive the boat over and take a look."

"it is good."

When he got closer, he could clearly see that the boatmen were trying to pry the fishing nets with long hooks.

The workers on the deck of their ship also saw clearly what had happened.

The workers below were pointing ahead and whispering, each of them staring ahead with worried looks on their faces.

At this time, Ship 4 reported: "There are many reefs on the seabed, and the net has been torn open. Part of the sinker is stuck in the cracks of the reef."

Oops!

Ye Yaodong frowned. The tide began to change direction, the hull was pushed and swayed by the ocean current, and the pressure on the steel cable became greater and greater.

Lao Xiao said nervously: "No! If we pull the net any further it will break!"

He knew that dragging it any further might cause the steel cable to break, sweeping the deck and causing casualties, or the ship might become unbalanced and capsize in the ocean current.

We can't delay any longer. Ye Yaodong said with a stern face, "No. 2 and No. 3, there's no need to pull the net anymore. No. 4, get back to the boat. No. 5, activate the emergency release device! Abandon the net!"

"receive."

After a while, there was a muffled "bang!"

The hydraulic cutter cut the steel cable in the middle, and the entire trawl net sank to the bottom of the sea in an instant. The net worth thousands of dollars was gone just like that.

There was a depressing atmosphere on the decks of several ships, and Ship No. 5 was particularly quiet.

He died before leaving the army.

Ye Yaodong was silent for a while, and then he said, "I was too radical. The ocean currents converge here, which is dangerous in itself. It is easy to cause sudden changes in the currents, and many places on the bottom cannot be detected by sonar. We should go to the destination to fish according to the original plan."

"This is also an accident. No one expected this. Although the risk is high here, the rewards are also great. We received 25 bags of goods in this network. We have never received so many before..."

"We have about 26 bags in this net. We were so excited just now..."

"We also have 25 and a half bags. This is where the ocean currents meet, so the resources are really rich."

"It was my fault for not conducting a thorough investigation, which caused the fishing boat to suffer heavy losses..."

Ye Yaodong sighed, "Let it be. I can't blame anyone. Everything at sea is risky. Fortunately, we only lost our fishing nets. We can earn them back. It's okay as long as the people are fine."

"I suffered heavy losses right after I came out. I..."

"No need to say more, just let's get over it and report the losses first."

Boat 5: "All the nets were damaged, and the winch gear was damaged. The nets had already caught nearly kilograms of sea bream and kilograms of Spanish mackerel, as well as a lot of bonito, but all of them were lost."

"It's good that everyone is okay. The terrain under the Kuroshio is complex and there are places that cannot be detected by sonar. So let's leave it at that. Your ship will follow the seafood collection ship first, and then we can load the cargo and return together at the destination."

He was a little worried at first, as it would take a week for that fresh-food ship to make a round trip, and they could collect so much goods on one network, but they would not be able to load them all in a week.

Although he suffered heavy losses now, he no longer had the concerns he had before and didn't know what to say.

"After we get to the shore, it will take at least a month to customize the fishing nets..."

Their big fishing nets are often 400 to 500 meters long and it takes a lot of time to customize one, so they are not available for purchase directly.

"It's okay. Go back and explain the situation to my father and ask him to customize it. During this period, your boat will be like a fresh-harvesting boat. It's your turn to go out to sea and collect the goods."

"Originally, I was a little worried that the one fresh-water ship could not carry so much cargo as five ships, after all, it takes five or six days to go back and forth. Now the two ships take turns, with one leaving every two days, to ensure that the cargo can be transported back."

The captains of several ships breathed a sigh of relief. It was good to have arrangements. They were afraid that they would suffer heavy losses right after they came out, which would undermine everyone's self-confidence and they would have to be fined and take responsibility.

Just when everyone had collected the goods, they heard that the ship had an accident. They were too busy to be happy or think about it. Maybe one fresh-food ship could not carry so many ships and so many days' worth of goods.

After hearing this, everyone felt relieved.

However, morale was inevitably hit.

There is nothing we can do about it. Unexpected things happen and it is normal to have accidents.

Lao Xiao asked, "So should we continue on our original route?"

"Well, it's time to sort the fish. The boat should continue to move forward. The fresh fish boat and boat No. 5 should continue to follow."

"receive."

Just as the fleet was preparing to continue, a cry from Ship No. 3 suddenly came from the VHF: "Dongzi! The sonar shows a huge school of fish in the southeast!"

"Go southeast and use sonar to detect the seabed conditions in advance. If boat No. 5 can't tow the net, go ahead and use sonar to detect the seabed terrain ahead. Report at any time. Don't drop the net yet, track first."

The southeast direction is also the direction they are heading, which is just right for them to follow the school of fish and leave this area where the ocean current suddenly changes.

"receive."

Several boats started moving.

As soon as his fishing boat started moving, the display screen detected a large number of fish migrating to the southeast.

Ye Yaodong looked at the surging sea in the distance and squinted his eyes. The sea is like this. It just takes away your net and brings you new opportunities.

He originally didn't want to fish in this area anymore and wanted to rush to the destination immediately, but he encountered a huge school of fish, which is something you can't ask for easily.

But it is indeed not safe here. To be on the safe side, of course we should chase the school of fish and leave this sea area first.

"It's squid. We've detected it. A large number of squid are heading southeast."

Ye Yaodong gave another order, "Don't drop the net yet, continue to sail forward and track, wait for my order before dropping the net, and Ship No. 5 will detect ahead in advance."

"receive."

The workers below were still discussing what had just happened. Although he had not gone down to speak, he had seen everything he should have seen.

He asked Lao Xiao to go down to the deck to direct the packaging arrangements of the fish and prepare for maintenance work, while he himself focused on the images scanned by the fish finder.

Based on the detected images of the school of fish, the fishing boat was steered forward while listening to the report information on the VHF radio.

An hour later, after leaving the Kuroshio tributary, the sonar detected the seabed and everything was normal.

He also pressed the alarm button on the bridge. A short whistle rang throughout the fleet. The workers instantly knew that it was time to lower the nets again and immediately began to prepare the nets.

At the same time, he issued instructions to other fishing boats, "Prepare to cast the nets, use sonar to detect in advance, this time the fishing boats must ensure that nothing goes wrong."

He gave orders only after everything on deck was ready.

"Lower the net."

The hydraulic boom at the stern immediately started moving...

After the lesson just now, everyone was extra careful this time.

Ye Yaodong also picked up a telescope to observe the distribution of several boats and the situation of the nets, and was ready to receive reports at any time.

But I didn't forget to keep an eye on the net position meter, watching the fishing net slowly sink to the predetermined depth. At the same time, I also paid attention to the real-time monitoring on the dashboard, and maintained the height of the net mouth above the target fish school.

This wave of fish is somewhat different from the previous one detected. Not only is it more dense, but they are also of the same species.

He speculated that the ocean currents brought these squids together, resulting in such a large base and such a wide coverage.

Now is the squid spawning season, and it is also the season when squid resources in the East China Sea are the most abundant.

Squid was originally one of the four major economic fish in the East China Sea.

"This large school of squid is quite widespread..."

"The batch is a bit large. I detected densely packed here..."

"It's the same here."

"It looks like this net might be full of squids."

The advantage of encountering a school of fish is that all the fish you catch in one net are of the same type, rather than a hodgepodge of all kinds of fish.

The previous net also detected a school of fish, but they were small ones, and as they were dragging along, they encountered other fish, so they caught a bit of everything.

However, he had been dealing with urgent matters when he came up, and then he encountered a school of fish. He had not yet gone down to see how the catch he had just caught was being handled.

After he adjusted the operating speed of the fishing boat to 3 knots, Lao Xiao knew that the operation had begun, and came up after finishing the work on the deck.

He asked, "How is the ordering going?"

"We are still packing. The quantity is too large to be finished quickly. I think we need to arrange four or five more people on the boat next time, otherwise we will not be able to sort the goods in time and we may not be able to do so."

Ye Yaodong nodded, "I see. I know what's going on. I'll go take a look. You can watch over here."

"Hey, okay, have the other boats lowered their nets?"

"I just finished reporting, and they said they've put it all down."

"You have to be more careful this time."

"I have already told you."

"Then go eat first. I just saw that they have finished cooking."

Ye Yaodong nodded and went downstairs to check on the condition of the goods.

The conveyor belt was still transporting the fish, and the workers around the sorting table were pulling them with both hands at the same time.

The slaughtering table was piled with offal and stained with fish blood.

The workers used a knife to scrape a batch of freshly cut offal into the sea. At this time, a group of seabirds swooped down to grab the offal.

Ye Yaodong looked at the amberjack being bled and warned, "You have to bleed it as soon as possible, otherwise if it takes too long, the fish meat will become sour."

"I understand, but they have to be picked out and sent over so that we can bleed and remove the internal organs in time."

The person on the other side said, "I can't choose... we are all working..."

"try your best."

Now he understood what Lao Xiao meant when he said he wanted to add more manpower.

There is too much goods to sort out and we can’t even clean them out in time. If it takes too long, it will also be a loss.

This is today during the day, everyone has rested and all the manpower is mobilized. If it were night, when everyone takes turns on duty and rest, it would probably be even more difficult to do.

He thought that once the net was pulled in, he would redeploy the personnel on Ship No. 5. Anyway, the people on board were not hauling the net and were just sitting there doing nothing.

Make some temporary emergency arrangements first, and then when he returns, ask his father to mobilize a few logistics personnel to go on board.

Fortunately, he had arranged extra replacements.

After checking the situation on the deck, he carried the cargo into the freezer.

In the freezer, various types of fish are stacked in layers and neatly placed on the shelves according to their variety.

To ensure good air circulation and freezing effect, they will start the refrigeration system to quickly lower the temperature to a suitable storage temperature.

It’s a pity that they don’t have quick-freezing equipment. The fish caught in Korea are more delicious than ours because of the quick-freezing preservation technology.

Otherwise, the bluespot mackerel should be frozen.

However, his thousand-ton fishing boat was equipped with it.

The mackerels are now being spread out on the top layer of the stainless steel plate, the middle layer is the sorted sea bream; the bottom layer is baskets of squid and cuttlefish, their tentacles curled into strange spiral shapes due to the low temperature; the bottom layer is covered with crushed ice mixed with salt to prevent hardening, and various shrimps are placed on it.

Not only the temperature but also the humidity must be controlled in the freezer. After storing the fish, the chief engineer will inspect it every 2 hours and use wood chips to absorb the condensed water.

Otherwise, if excessive frost causes a short circuit, half of the fish in the hold will rot and stink.

The low-temperature white mist from the freezer cabin spread over his frosted eyebrows. He took a look and went to the live water tank again.

He was dealing with an emergency incident before and didn't know whether he had caught any valuable goods.

After taking a look, the worker next to him told him that they had caught twenty or thirty groupers, half of which were still alive, each weighing 3 to 5 kilograms, and were being kept in the live water tank.

The circulating seawater system has to use the ship's bottom water pump to continuously inject fresh seawater, which can ensure the freshness of the fish. A living grouper is much more valuable than a dead one.

Ye Yaodong looked around all the storage rooms and estimated that about 30,000 to 40,000 kilograms had just been sorted out, and there was still work to be done. There was indeed a shortage of manpower.

Previously, 15 people were enough for a boat in the near sea. Now it seems that this is not enough for the deep sea, and it needs to be equipped with about 20 to 25 people.

Anyway, this trip is just to gain experience and test the waters. After trying it out, we will know how to arrange the next trip.

The times are different, the fish products are naturally different, and the labor required is naturally different. These can only be adjusted after putting yourself in the other person's shoes.

After he finished his inspection on the deck, he went up to ask Lao Xiao.

“Have other fishing boats complained of being short-staffed?”

"Yes, Ship No. 2 just mentioned it, and several other ships also mentioned it. No one expected that so many goods would be shipped online."

"Well, wait until this net of cargo is hauled up and redeploy the personnel on Ship No. 5."

Don't wait recently, it's a waste of time, and you may have to wait until the early morning