Since the last sea trial, more than half a month had passed in the blink of an eye.
During this time, Li Wei not only obtained his boat captain's license but also returned to the University of Southern California to handle the leave of absence procedures.
The 2.4 million us dollar compensation and the 8 million us dollar inheritance had also successfully been transferred to his name.
However, this also left him with over 3 million us dollar in debt.
Li Wei negotiated with the First National Bank to convert this short-term loan of over 3 million us dollar into a long-term loan.
Although the interest increased by several hundred thousand us dollar, he kept the 2.4 million us dollar compensation, as well as stocks, bonds, and real estate that could be converted into cash at any time.
If this money were used to repay the bank loan, it would just be a loan repayment; but if it were used for investment, it could become thirty million, three hundred million, or even more in the future.
Li Wei naturally knew how to choose.
So, the moment he received the inheritance, he converted the stocks and bonds into cash through the bank's channels, gathered 3 million us dollar in cash, and then purchased 120,000 shares of Apple stock at a price of 25 us dollar per share.
With 120,000 shares of Apple stock as ballast, the future could be said to be as vast as the sea for fish to leap and the sky for birds to fly.
...
March 25th, two o'clock in the morning.
Li Wei was woken up by an alarm, checked the time on the clock, and quickly jumped out of bed to start getting dressed and washing up.
Because today was his first time going fishing as the Captain of the Sea Monster.
After getting ready, Li Wei picked up his luggage, locked the villa door, and drove his F150 pickup truck to the fishing boat dock.
As for Wangcai, Li Wei had asked Jessica to help take care of him for a few days yesterday.
As soon as the F150 drove into the fishing boat dock's parking lot, Li Wei met many acquaintances.
The vast majority of them were crew members preparing to go out to sea, and some were workers working at the dock. After greeting them, he didn't stop and quickly walked towards the dock.
When he arrived at the berth where the Sea Monster was docked, he saw Jim and Jack operating the crane to move bait.
After a brief greeting with the two, Li Wei walked into the wheelhouse and asked:
"Buck, are all the supplies ready?"
"Boss, except for the ice, all other supplies are ready. Now we just need to wait for the bait to be transported into the ice hold, and then we can set off to fish."
"OK, we're definitely going to have a great harvest this trip!"
"Haha, Boss, we think so too."
"..."
Meanwhile, as the time for fishing boats approached dawn, the fishing boat dock became more lively. One by one, fishing boats loaded with dreams sailed forward towards Alaska Bay amidst the roar of their engines.
On the Sea Monster, when the last batch of bait was loaded onto the boat, Li Wei picked up the walkie-talkie and said:
"Jack, Jim, release the ropes, let's go fishing."
Jack and Jim on the deck, upon hearing the Captain's order, quickly untied the ropes and then gave an "OK" gesture towards the wheelhouse.
Seeing this, Li Wei nodded, controlled the Sea Monster to slowly leave the berth, and after sailing a distance, turned its direction and headed towards the predetermined destination.
The Sea Monster quickly left the fishing boat dock far behind and soon disappeared into the vast night.
After Li Wei confirmed that the course was correct, he casually turned on the public radio. In the originally quiet wheelhouse, "friendly" greetings between colleagues could be heard from time to time.
Li Wei had long been accustomed to this.
Fishermen making a living at sea are more or less short-tempered, often exchanging harsh words over a "territory," and pulling out "truth" (guns) to shoot at each other happens frequently.
Li Wei originally wanted to glean some insider information from it, but found nothing, so he switched the radio to a commercial channel.
This channel broadcasts news, music, weather forecasts, and fishery information 24 hours a day without interruption, and is one of the most commonly used channels by fishermen going out to sea.
While listening to the latest news, Li Wei controlled the Sea Monster to head towards the original target.
After finishing their work on the deck, Buck and the other two returned to the cabin and started eating breakfast.
The cabin instantly became lively.
However, none of this had anything to do with Li Wei. As the Captain, unless there were special circumstances, he generally wouldn't leave the wheelhouse. He needed to constantly monitor the situation at sea.
Li Wei took this opportunity to start surveying the seabed. On the virtual screen, dense blue light spots resembled a brilliant galaxy.
He directly selected an area with a relatively high density of light spots.
As the image in his view continuously magnified, various marine creatures appeared before his eyes.
Halibut, cod, black cod, rockfish, Dungeness Crab, King Crab, sea cucumbers, abalone...
In addition, there were also a large number of unfamiliar marine creatures.
At this moment, Li Wei wished he had a trawl fishing boat. With one net cast, he didn't know how much catch he would pull up.
Of course, this was just a thought.
Not to mention whether the Sea Monster could perform bottom trawling operations, just sorting the catch would exhaust Buck and the others. They would not only need to consider what could be caught but also what size could be caught. With just the four of them, it would be impossible to handle.
Just as Li Wei was marveling at the richness of the fishery resources in Alaska Bay, he suddenly noticed a dense river of blue light appearing in his view. He quickly magnified the image and found it was a large school of Chinook salmon.
Chinook salmon, also known as King Salmon, have an average size of 60-90 centimeters and an average weight of 5-23 kilograms when fully grown.
The number of Chinook salmon in front of him was not just thousands but tens of thousands, too dense to count. Unfortunately, their target for this trip was not Chinook salmon. Not only did they not bring specialized fishing gear on board, but they also did not have the corresponding fishing quota, so they could only watch the Chinook salmon swimming in the sea.
Li Wei decided to put it out of sight and out of mind, controlling the Sea Monster to continue sailing forward, searching for their target catch for this trip—black cod.
Black cod is not a true cod. It belongs to the order Scorpaeniformes, family Anoplopomatidae, genus Anoplopoma fimbria. It is a fish with high economic and nutritional value.
Adults are 50-80 centimeters long and are mainly distributed in the waters of Alaska, both sides of the North Atlantic, northern Japan, and the Bering Sea coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula. They prefer to live in high-latitude deep-sea areas at depths between 300 and 2700 meters.
Due to its long growth cycle, difficulty in catching, and limited yield, its price is relatively high, classifying it as a mid-to-high-end seafood.
Before the Sea Monster set sail, Li Wei and Buck had already discussed and agreed on the destination for this trip.
That was one of the fishing spots the original owner's father frequented the most.
Because it is in the far sea, small boats cannot go there, and large boats don't want to bother fishing there, so few fishing boats go there to fish, and each time they can have a considerable harvest.
Li Wei and his crew planned to deploy the first batch of fishing cages entirely in that sea area.
Buck then walked into the wheelhouse with breakfast.
"Boss, have something to eat."
"Thanks, Buck."
Li Wei took the breakfast, didn't stand on ceremony, and started eating heartily.
Suddenly thinking of something, he asked Buck:
"By the way, how's the recent purchase price for black cod?"
"I just inquired this morning. The purchase price for black cod is about 3 us dollar per pound, which is quite a bit higher than before."
"3 us dollar?"
Although there is still a significant gap compared to the market price, this purchase price is not low.
Fishery companies purchase whole black cod. After purchasing black cod, they do not directly sell it; they need to process it.
A black cod, simply removing the head and guts, will at most retain sixty to seventy percent of its weight. If made into fillets, it will at most retain forty to fifty percent.
So Li Wei was quite satisfied with this purchase price.
At eight o'clock in the morning, after a five-hour voyage, the Sea Monster successfully arrived at its predetermined destination.
Through the detection system, Li Wei had confirmed that this sea area had a large quantity of black cod, which meant they wouldn't make the trip in vain.
According to the situation shown on the virtual screen, Li Wei quickly selected the best deployment location, picked up the walkie-talkie, and said:
"Guys, let's get moving and drop our first cage of the year."
As Li Wei's voice fell, Buck and the other two quickly put on their waterproof work clothes, left the cabin, and started working busily on the deck.
For this trip, the Sea Monster brought a total of 100 fishing cages. Each cage was 1.8 meters long, 1.8 meters wide, and 0.6 meters high, weighing over 150 kilograms, totaling 15 tons.
Buck and the other two's next job was to deploy all these fishing cages into Alaska Bay, wait for 15 hours, then retrieve the cages, take out the catch, replace the bait, and redeploy them into the sea. The Sea Monster would only return to the dock to unload the cargo after the fish hold was filled with black cod.
Fortunately, the Sea Monster is a modern fishing boat, and most of the work is completed by equipment. Otherwise, Buck and the other two on deck would not be able to handle it all.
Seeing that Buck and the others had prepared the fishing cages, Li Wei directly picked up the walkie-talkie and said:
"Buck, Jim, drop the cages."
"Understood, Boss."
...
...
...