After Jim and the other man finished the preparations, Li Wei told them to return to the cabin to rest.
Working on a fishing boat is different from working on land; crew members don't have fixed working hours. As long as there's work, even if it's in the early morning or in their sleep, they have to get up immediately and get to it.
The so-called 996 and 007 of his past life were nothing compared to the life of these crew members who spend years drifting on the sea; there was absolutely no comparison.
Besides the extremely unstable working hours, they also had to overcome the extreme weather at sea.
Inside the wheelhouse, Li Wei soon heard snoring coming from the cabin.
However, that had nothing to do with him.
As the Captain of the Sea Monster, he couldn't rest yet. Someone had to be in the wheelhouse at all times, constantly monitoring the surrounding waters to prevent accidents.
Thanks to his strengthened body, Li Wei didn't feel tired despite working continuously for a whole day.
While steering the Sea Monster, he used the detection system to search for suitable fish schools to catch.
Because the detection system's coverage was limited, Li Wei could only check the fish situation within a three-kilometer radius, which didn't make his efficiency in finding fish schools very high.
To expand the detection range, he would have to change course.
Li Wei didn't plan to do that; at sea, time is money, and the fuel consumed by the Sea Monster alone was not a small sum.
If they couldn't reach the number one fishing area within the estimated time, the black cod in the fishing cages were likely to be injured or die.
If that were to happen, their loss wouldn't just be a bit of fuel cost; they might end up with nothing.
As for the small range of the detection system, he wasn't too worried.
Because through observation and measurement during this period, Li Wei discovered that the detection distance was not static; the original 3-kilometer detection radius inexplicably increased by 2 meters.
To verify his hypothesis, he even went to the road and measured it with a tape measure.
Although a 2-meter detection distance wasn't much, the significance it brought was completely different.
As for whether the detection range would continue to expand like this until it covered the entire Blue Star.
Li Wei had also fantasized about it, but the final conclusion was that it was impossible.
The diameter of Blue Star is approximately 12,742 kilometers.
Even if the system increased the detection range by two meters every day, that would be 730 meters in a year. He was currently 21 years old, so in a hundred years, it would be 57,670 meters.
"Hiss—"
Thinking of this, Li Wei couldn't help but take a deep breath.
Don't want to think about it, don't want to think about it...
...
In the early morning, as the sunlight illuminated the entire sea surface.
Li Wei successfully arrived at the number one fishing area with the help of the GPS locator on the buoy.
The buoys used on the Sea Monster were all specially customized by a company; they consisted of three floats, two large and one small. The large floats had a diameter of one meter, and the small float had a diameter of half a meter. They were equipped with GPS locators that could track the location of the fishing cages in real-time, making it convenient for the Captain to quickly find the fishing cages.
Li Wei checked the location, picked up the walkie-talkie, and said:
"Guys, we're almost at the fishing area."
Buck and the other two, who were sound asleep, instantly woke up upon hearing the broadcast, quickly put on their clothes, ate some high-calorie food, and rushed to the fishing boat deck.
As the Sea Monster gradually approached the fishing cages, Li Wei already knew the catch inside the fishing cages through the detection system.
The Sea Monster began to slow down, gently approaching the buoy.
He needed to control the Sea Monster to maintain a suitable distance from the buoy; getting too close could easily cause the rope to get tangled in the propeller.
If such a situation were to occur, Li Wei could only hope there wouldn't be big waves and call the coast guard to send a helicopter to rescue him.
Fortunately, these worries did not materialize, and the Sea Monster successfully sailed next to the buoy.
Buck, who was already prepared, held a special three-claw hook in his hand. The moment they got close to the buoy, he threw the three-claw hook violently and then quickly reeled in the rope.
The three-claw hook dragged the buoy onto the boat, and Buck skillfully hooked the rope onto the winch.
As the winch kept turning, the rope connected to the fishing cage instantly became taut, and the sound of the rope rubbing reached everyone's ears.
The rope was continuously pulled out of the water, and the fishing cage finally revealed its true appearance.
At this moment, Buck and the other two were uneasy; the amount of catch was closely related to their wages.
When the fishing cage was pulled out of the sea, Jim and Jack cheered when they saw the catch inside.
"Wow! Jack, we're rich this trip!"
"So much black cod, a great harvest, a great harvest!"
"..."
Inside the fishing cage, there were a large number of black cod. Because they were out of the seawater, all the black cod were squeezed together, occupying one-third of the fishing cage's capacity.
Although Li Wei knew beforehand how much black cod there was, seeing this scene with his own eyes still made him feel a surge of excitement.
This was the first cage he had caught in both of his lives.
Buck and the other two had a clear division of labor: Buck was responsible for bringing the buoy onto the boat, Jack was responsible for operating the crane, and Jim was responsible for opening the fishing cage.
Soon, the fishing cage was pulled onto the deck.
Jim unlocked the fishing cage door, and the black cod tumbled onto the sorting platform with a "whoosh whoosh whoosh" sound.
The black cod, having left the deep sea, did not instantly die like other fish; they were still lively and jumping on the sorting platform.
Buck and the other two quickly began sorting the catch. They discarded fish with roe, fish that were too small, and other types of fish, finally only keeping black cod over fifty centimeters in length.
These compliant black cod slid down the chute into the fish hold filled with a mixture of ice and water.
"32!"
Jack, who had counted the number of compliant black cod, signaled "32" towards the wheelhouse.
Although Li Wei had psychological expectations, he was still shocked when he saw this number.
32 black cod over 50 centimeters. Each black cod weighed over 8 pounds. Calculating an average of 8 pounds per fish, that's 256 pounds. Multiplied by the purchase price of 3 us dollar per pound, that's 768 us dollar.
(1 pound = 453.59 grams)
Of course, this was just the catch from the first cage; it was impossible for all cages to have such a good harvest.
On the deck, after sorting the catch, Buck and the other two quickly replaced the fishing cage with new bait and then threw the fishing cage back into the sea.
This is also a habit of fishermen: as long as they catch a large amount of fish in a certain area, they will continue to work in that area until the catch drops sharply before moving to a different area to redeploy the fishing cages.
Li Wei also supported this.
There were still a large number of black cod in the area visible in his view, enough for them to redeploy the fishing cages several times.
Perhaps the harvest from the first cage stimulated Buck and the other two; the fatigue they felt from not resting well instantly disappeared, and they all became energetic.
If every fishing cage had such a harvest, they swore they could work until the end of time.
Every Franklin earned by the Sea Monster, they got ten percent of it. This wasn't working for someone else; this was clearly working for themselves, and they wished for as much harvest as possible.
While Buck and the other two were talking and laughing, the Sea Monster had already arrived next to the second buoy.
Following the same process, Buck pulled the buoy onto the boat, used the winch to pull the fishing cage out of the sea, Jack operated the crane to pull the fishing cage onto the boat, Jim opened the fishing cage, and finally, the three of them sorted the catch together.
What surprised the three of them was that the harvest from the second cage was even more than the first; there were 45 compliant black cod, including one large one weighing over 20 pounds.
If they could continue to have such harvests, they would only need to collect this string of fishing cages to return to the dock and unload the first batch of goods.
Unfortunately, they could only fantasize about it.
As the fishing cages were successively pulled onto the Sea Monster, the catch was significantly less than at the beginning. In the last dozen or so fishing cages, there were only a few compliant black cod.
After discovering this situation, Li Wei also continuously adjusted the deployment position of the fishing cages, trying to place them in the areas where the fish schools were most concentrated.
Even though the subsequent catch decreased, each fishing cage still caught an average of 27 compliant black cod.
Weighing over 10.8 tons, valued at 71,000 us dollar.
(Result rounded to one decimal place)
When Li Wei calculated this result, he was also startled by the number.
He had only been out at sea for two days and had already earned 71,000 us dollar. Was this Franklin really that easy to earn!
Thinking about the cost of the fishing boat purchased by the original owner's father, he wasn't too surprised.
In his memory, the original owner's father spent 1.2 million us dollar to purchase the Sea Monster.
This did not include the various equipment added later.
Taking the fishing cages used on the Sea Monster as an example, each cage cost as much as 2,000 us dollar. There were a total of 230 such fishing cages, with a total value of 460,000 us dollar.
If you add the annual insurance, maintenance, fuel, and other expenses, the investment had already exceeded 2 million us dollar.
Calculating it this way, earning 71,000 us dollar on one trip didn't seem like too much.
...
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