Chapter 69

Ye Yuan shrugged his shoulders, "Don't look at me like that. I didn't say I came here to fish; I came to catch snow crabs."

"Snow crabs here? They are quite expensive," Ma Hua blurted out his thoughts.

"Rubbish, if there weren't any, why would I call you all here? To catch a cold?" Ye Yuan rolled his eyes at Ma Hua.

All the crew members perked up upon hearing there were snow crabs. After all, Ye Yuan had said that the amount of catch directly affected their bonuses. Since they were going out to sea anyway, wouldn't it be better to catch more valuable seafood?

After resting for two hours, without Ye Yuan's instruction, Yu Hongbo began organizing the sailors to retrieve the crab traps.

Ye Yuan nodded secretly, quite satisfied with this boatswain.

The crab traps that were thrown in were quickly hauled out one by one.

"Damn, there are so many crabs here," Ma Hua exclaimed in surprise.

Ye Yuan smiled faintly, "There's a crab swarm below. We placed the traps in a good spot."

Ma Hua asked, "Boss, how did you know there would be a crab swarm here?" This question had been on his mind for a long time.

Yu Hongbo slapped the back of Ma Hua's head.

"Stop asking so many questions. Do you have a million whys?"

Then he whispered in Ma Hua's ear,

"Ask what you should, don't ask what you shouldn't."

Yu Hongbo thought his voice was very low, but it couldn't escape Ye Yuan's perception, which could now extend several meters over the sea surface.

Ye Yuan smiled and explained,

"It's nothing much. I learned this from a master. By observing the ocean currents and water temperature, you can know what's under the water. You must keep this a secret, or we'll have a lot of boats following our fishing boat in the future."

Ye Yuan didn't feel the least bit embarrassed about lying.

In the future, there would be many such things, and he needed an excuse. Whether they believed him or not was up to them, but he had explained it.

Seeing everyone stop working, Yu Hongbo loudly reminded them, "Hurry up and get the crabs in. Do you want to keep blowing in the sea breeze?"

Everyone, hearing Yu Hongbo's reminder, sped up their work.

One by one, the crab traps were hauled up from the sea, each containing many large snow crabs.

Ye Yuan walked to the crab traps, picked out a few larger female crabs with eggs, and left, leaving a message behind.

"Throw the female crabs back into the sea, and freeze the male crabs."

Then he returned to his room.

It wasn't that Ye Yuan didn't like female crabs, but the size difference between male and female snow crabs was significant, with males generally being twice the size of females. Additionally, female crabs carry eggs, and returning them to the sea helps maintain the ecological balance.

Back in his room, Ye Yuan put the selected female crabs into his spatial storage. This was one of his purposes for coming here. He planned to turn his spatial fish farm into a miniature ocean, which would require various rare marine creatures.

Stepping out of his room, he saw the crew members busy on the deck. Each time a crab trap was hauled up, there was a significant catch. The crab swarm here was vast. After cleaning the traps, they continued to bait and redeploy them.

Each crab trap had two entrances. Once a crab entered the trap, it was rare for it to leave, due to the crab's greedy nature. As long as the bait wasn't finished, they wouldn't leave. Additionally, crabs are combative. If one crab tried to escape, others would grab it, preventing it from leaving, or they would crowd together, making it impossible for any to escape.

Ye Yuan called Gong Hongzhuang to pick some snow crabs for dinner.

Gong Hongzhuang hesitated, standing still.

Ye Yuan looked at him in surprise, "Don't tell me you don't know how to cook snow crabs?"

Gong Hongzhuang patted his chest, "How could that be? A navy chef who can't cook seafood, what are you thinking, boss?"

"Then why don't you go?"

Gong Hongzhuang said sheepishly, "Snow crabs are so expensive; it would be a waste to eat them."

Ye Yuan glared at Gong Hongzhuang.

"We're all brothers. We eat what we catch. There's no waste. Everyone has worked hard today, so make a few more to improve our meal. Go, don't dawdle."

Gong Hongzhuang, grateful, looked at Ye Yuan and then happily picked out the snow crabs.

The crew members repeated the same tasks: hauling crab traps, cleaning them, baiting them, and redeploying them.

After a few hours, they had caught a significant number of snow crabs. Ye Yuan called a halt to everyone's work. These were real people, not the robots from before, and he didn't want to exhaust anyone on their first trip out to sea.

Everyone entered the mess hall, where Gong Hongzhuang was skillfully preparing the snow crabs.

Gong Hongzhuang cut some of the snow crabs into pieces and placed them in cold water. He also steamed some of the crabs.

After about five minutes, he took the snow crabs out of the cold water. The crab meat, after being soaked in cold water, would become fibrous, like pine needles, which is why snow crabs are also called pine leaf crabs.

The crew members, already hungry, swarmed over to taste the delicious snow crabs.

They quickly finished all the snow crabs Gong Hongzhuang had prepared, and Ye Yuan reminded everyone to rest well tonight.

As the boatswain, Yu Hongbo relayed the crew members' opinions to Ye Yuan. They were out to sea to make money.

Finding such a large crab swarm, the crew members believed they should continue fishing. Their suggestion was to take turns resting at night but keep fishing.

Ye Yuan looked at a few crew members and patted Yu Hongbo's shoulder,

"I understand everyone's enthusiasm, but night fishing is very dangerous. Throwing crab traps is already risky, and it's even more dangerous at night."

"Don't think about it. There will be many opportunities. Don't rush. Rest well tonight. Who knows, we might find even better catches tomorrow."

"Since you are my crew, I am responsible for bringing you back safely. Don't take your lives lightly."

Ye Yuan did not agree to the crew's suggestion for night fishing.

...

The night passed without incident. When the sun rose over the sea, the crew members, who had been exhausted the previous day, gradually emerged from their cabins. After a night's rest, everyone was in high spirits, with no one feeling unwell.

After getting up, Ye Yuan walked to the deck and saw the crew members gathered at the railing, discussing something in the sea. He walked over and followed their gaze, seeing a spotted seal floating on the surface.

The spotted seal is a marine mammal that lives in temperate and cold-temperate coastal and marine areas.

They live in the northwest Pacific of the Northern Hemisphere, mainly in the Chukchi Sea, Bering Sea, Sea of Okhotsk, Sea of Japan, and the Bohai Sea and northern Yellow Sea of China.

They have migratory breeding habits and are carnivorous, primarily feeding on fish and cephalopods.

The spotted seal is the only pinniped that breeds in Chinese waters and is a first-class protected animal in China.