sbdcsierra Chapter 1863 The Floating Whale Carcass
Chapter 1863 The Floating Whale Carcass
Chapter 1863 The Floating Whale Carcass
Even after arriving at the top, Ye Yaodong still took a closer look at the boat, and after confirming that it was just an ordinary half-dead sapling, he left it alone.
Such a large floating object, I thought I could find a corpse there.
Of course, he was thinking of fish carcasses.
This was just a minor incident. After confirming the situation, he steered the boat back to its original course, rejoined the other fishing boats, and continued on his way.
At first, you could see a few boats here and there, but two days later, you could only see one boat a day in the vast sea, and then you could hardly see any boats at all, except for their few fishing boats sailing through the waves.
Ye Yaodong marked his arrival location on the nautical chart every day, making his own mark, with the sea breeze whistling in his ears.
They paid no attention to the schools of fish they spotted during their voyage; these were all small groups. The further out to sea they went, the larger and bigger the schools of fish became.
Only when they were almost at their destination did he instruct the crew on deck to take out the fishing nets and get ready.
"Attention all vessels, we are expected to arrive at the target area in about half a day. Please make arrangements for fishing and notify the deck to prepare in advance."
"receive."
All the ships immediately perked up and began notifying the decks to prepare.
The captains were all experienced and knew exactly what to do. No further instructions were needed; each fishing boat carried out its fishing operations and reported any issues that arose.
They have many fishing boats, and their dispersed distribution across the surrounding area allows for wider sharing of detection range.
As Ye Yaodong and the others approached their destination, they continued their journey while probing for the fish.
The sonar screen emitted an eerie green light, and sound waves of different frequencies probed into the seabed hundreds of meters deep.
At the three o'clock position, eighty meters underwater, there is a blurry but dense area of sound wave reflection, which is slowly moving.
He continued tracking, and while waiting for the preparations on deck to be completed, he raised his binoculars to observe the sea.
In the distance, dozens of black-backed gulls and other unfamiliar seabirds were circling and swooping over that area of water, like aerial scouts, while the albatrosses circling the boat nearby were also flying in that direction.
He pressed the ship's intercom button, "Attention all crew, large school of fish detected, 120 to 200 meters underwater. Deck ready, net depth set to 100 to 150 meters, towing speed 3 knots, prepare to cast the net."
The boatswain shouted from the lower deck, "Roger that!"
On deck, the crew skillfully started the hydraulic winch, and the huge trawl net was slowly lowered into the sea by the crane.
When the kilometer-long fishing net is spread out underwater, it resembles a giant inverted cone-shaped maze, slowly falling silent.
Ye Yaodong watched the bustling activity on the deck and picked up a water glass to moisten his throat.
"Pah, pah, pah, finally I can start making money."
"Traveling this far must be quite costly, so give it to me."
"I'll pay for it for you?"
"Damn it, what do you mean 'pay me'? I said you get up and do the work, I'll do the work for you, you motherfucker, all you want is for me to pay you?"
"Hehe, who told you to keep saying that?" Ye Yaodong gave him his seat. "There's nothing to do now. Just carefully observe the fish and the net opening. We'll pull in the net when the critical point is reached."
"know."
He had already cast his net, and other fishing boats were also casting their nets, while others were still chasing schools of fish. The boats were scattered, and from a distance, you could only see a tiny dot, like a comma, while up close you could see particles the size of soybeans.
Over the radio, everyone was exchanging information about the size of the fish they had detected. They had just arrived at their destination and still had the desire to talk, but in a few days they probably wouldn't even bother to speak unless something important happened.
The person next to him was also talking incessantly, from schools of fish at sea to fishing boats, to their careers, and then to the Lunar New Year at home, chatting about all sorts of random things.
When it was time to change shifts, they calmly handed over the work of closing the net to the next shift.
As soon as he got back to the cabin, Ah Zheng started playing with his Motorola, and he couldn't get enough of it.
"What's the point of bringing anything useless at sea?"
"Whether it works or not doesn't matter, I'm happy just looking at it and touching it."
"Touch it a few more times, and it'll look better when it rusts by the time you go home for the New Year."
Upon hearing this, Ah Zheng quickly pulled out his handkerchief, "No, I wrapped it up properly and washed my hands before touching it."
He meticulously wiped the Motorola clean.
Ye Yaodong scoffed, "Even the air smells of the sea, and your hair smells of the sea. You think you can keep it from corroding just by covering it up? Every corner of this ship has the smell of seawater. Covering it up will still corrode you."
"That's it, we're doomed."
"Don't take it out and touch it so much, just hide it in your clean bag."
"alright."
"If there's nothing else, take a break. We can help out on deck after the nets are hauled in."
"When are you going to install a color TV on the ship? Or even a black and white one would be fine. It's so boring when we're not working."
"No signal. It's still usable near the coast, but not here, however..."
"But what?"
"We can install video recorders. I'll take advantage of the holiday break and go shopping for them. I'll buy a lot of videotapes and install them on several boats."
Satellite TV isn't widespread yet; the signal mainly comes from ordinary VHF/UHF TV antennas. However, people can bring their own VCRs and buy more videotapes to watch later.
"That's fine, as long as there's something to see. If you want to load them, you don't need to load them on the near-shore ships, but you have to load them on the other dozen or so ships."
"Yeah, a decent imported video recorder costs three or four thousand. Spend sixty or seventy thousand to install it. Install everything you need, otherwise it will be really boring."
"Oh dear, this should have been done a long time ago. As a boss, you should think about the people. You don't know how boring it is if you don't go down to the grassroots level."
"I bought so many videotapes that I watch them every day, I don't even want to do any work anymore."
"You wicked capitalist!"
"I didn't say we wouldn't install them. Didn't we say we'd install them for the New Year? We'll install them on every ship, a fresh start for the New Year."
"Buy more of those videotapes, hehe..."
"Buy it yourself, buy whatever you want to see."
"Tch, if you're going to buy it, take me with you, I'll help you pick it out."
Ah Zheng reached under his pillow again, picked up a magazine with a cover featuring a busty woman posing seductively, and started flipping through it.
Ye Yaodong snatched it away, saying, "We'll talk about it when we get back. I don't think I've seen this before. Let me take a look."
He then pulled another book from under his pillow, and the two of them lay in the cabin reading it with great interest.
After the nets were set up outside and the sun had set, the two of them got up to cook, and then went to help on the deck.
The winches on the deck roared, the steel cables were taut, huge swells of water rose on the sea surface, and the fishing nets were slowly rising.
The net shimmered with silver light, as tons of fish tumbled and struggled within it. Bathed in the setting sun, the entire bag of catch resembled a living piece of silver dredged from the deep sea.
When the fishing net was emptied, there were still several large yellow croakers inside, bobbing and croaking.
Ye Yaodong grabbed a fish whose mouth was still opening and closing as it cried out, "This is it. Grab a few, we'll make fish fillet soup tonight."
"Okay, okay, I'll eat this."
"Of course you say yes."
"Of course, we'll eat whatever's expensive! And these red-eyed carp, let's dry dozens of kilograms of them? We can take them home to eat during the New Year."
"If you want to eat, just pick out what you want and let them kill and dry it."
These are all expensive items. You can dry some salted fish and bring it home to eat with porridge during the Chinese New Year.
With Ye Yaodong's approval, A-Zheng could pick whatever he wanted to eat and showed it all off as New Year's gifts!
He might only get to eat at the expense of a rich man once a year, so he should cherish it, otherwise he'll have to eat at his own expense next year.
It was still early before bedtime, so Ye Yaodong put on gloves and helped with the work.
While busy working, Ah Zheng let slip to the crew, "Your boss said that every ship will be equipped with a video camera after the Chinese New Year. After the New Year, everyone won't be bored at sea. Those who aren't on duty can go to the restaurant to watch the video camera."
"Really! This is wonderful!"
“That’s great. It’s really boring when we’re not working. There are some really good police and gangster movies in Hong Kong now. I’ll buy some of those videotapes later.”
"Those female celebrities from Hong Kong are so beautiful..."
"The movies she made were also good. I like Chingmy Yau..."
The atmosphere immediately became lively, with everyone talking about their favorite Hong Kong female celebrities.
Life at sea is so monotonous that everyone can only fantasize about it in their minds and indulge in it verbally.
Ye Yaodong worked until eight or nine o'clock, then went to bed when it was almost time, and went to take over the shift early the next morning.
It's impossible to get into deep sleep; you're always lying in a half-asleep, half-awake state, subconsciously feeling like you haven't slept, but also feeling like you have.
The next day, before dawn, he got up feeling dizzy and disoriented, and kicked the bed next to his.
"Time to get up and go to work."
"My mind was in turmoil all night, and I felt like I hadn't slept at all, but now I have to get up and go back to work, a job that pays no money."
"Motorola……"
"We have to do it even if we don't have money! If you get rich, I get rich, let's all get rich together!"
Ye Yaodong ignored his half-dead state and got up first.
Early in the morning, the sea was still shrouded in a leaden gray fog. He rubbed his face, which was numb from the cold wind, and his breath was instantly torn apart by the sea breeze. He quickly put on a mask, covered his mouth and nose, and headed to the cockpit.
That night, Chen Shi was working the night shift with the second mate. He greeted Ye Yaodong with a smile, speaking slowly, "So early, Brother Dong. Don't lie down for a while longer, it's not time to hand over the shift yet."
"I'll get up as soon as I wake up. I can't sleep anyway, so I'll switch shifts early."
As they were talking, the second mate pointed to the screen and said, "It seems we've detected another large floating object, about two nautical miles to the southwest. It's not far from us; we saw it up ahead, and it's getting closer and closer."
"Let me see."
Ye Yaodong glanced at the screen, then picked up the binoculars and looked toward the large floating object that had been detected.
He squinted, and the mist on the sea was slowly diluted by the rising sun, making the outline of the object gradually clearer under his focus.
A huge, dark, and extremely irregularly shaped object, half submerged in the sea and half above the surface, slowly rolled with the waves, appearing heavy and silent, clearly not a small island or reef.
What is this thing?
"Is it the same floating object we encountered on the way here?"
"That one isn't this big. This one is much bigger. That's a dead tree. This one doesn't look like it. We'll see if we can get closer while we're moving the trawl net, and take a look."
"Row."
"Fine, give it to me. You guys go and rest. Anyway, it'll be time to hand over your shift soon, so you're just sitting around doing nothing."
"It's alright, I'll steer the boat, you can just use your binoculars to look."
Ye Yaodong leaned against the wheelhouse with binoculars in his hand, and the fishing boat slowly moved toward the floating object.
As he got closer, he could see more clearly that the water in the area with a radius of nearly 100 meters centered on the floating object was deep in color, and something was constantly churning up from below.
It wasn't the typical silvery-white surging of a school of fish, but a dense, almost boiling surge.
Many seabirds were flying around, occasionally swooping down.
He watched with some curiosity, and after a while, he saw the ripples left by the dorsal fin, which looked very much like the triangular fin of a shark, quickly darting around the floating object.
And gradually, we also saw the broad tail fins or dark backs exposed when other large fish rolled over.
He wondered, what was going on?
It looked like fish of all sizes were circling around a large floating object, which piqued his curiosity.
"Let's move the boat closer to that floating object. Something's strange; what's attracting so many big and small fish?"
"Ok."
Ah Zheng, munching on a steamed bun, walked up to the ship's tower. "I'm taking over the shift. You guys go have breakfast. These steamed buns are really good today, with lots of brown sugar..."
Chen Shi said, "The boss has spotted a large floating object and is looking at it curiously. We'll go eat later."
"What is it?"
"do not know."
Ye Yaodong was watching intently. In the lens, the details of the object were clearer. Its surface was covered with thick barnacles and dark green seaweed. He noticed that the fish, big and small, seemed to be feeding.
At this moment, the second mate said, "Boss, the fish finder has detected a large school of fish in the deep water directly below the floating object, and the sonar screen is also showing a dense echo signal."
"I understand. This looks like the carcass of a large fish, and fish of all sizes around it are eating it."
Ah Zheng asked curiously, "What kind of fish is so big that it can float on the sea even after it dies?"
Ye Yaodong carefully observed through his binoculars, muttering, "It might be a whale."
"When a whale dies, isn't it a whale fall? Doesn't it sink to the bottom of the sea?"
Now that Ye Yaodong is closer, he is certain that this is a huge, dead whale carcass that has drifted ashore with the ocean currents.
Below were hagfish and sharks feeding on the carcasses, as well as various predatory fish of all sizes. So what you saw on the surface of the sea was the churning and boiling of the fish, big and small, happily feeding.
“A dead whale will float on the surface of the sea and then slowly sink to the seabed over several months. This is called a whale fall, and all kinds of life will come from it. The fish will all gather around the whale to eat.”
"Some whales are decomposed by the organisms inside their stomachs before they can be bitten by fish outside. When it's almost done, a lot of gas is produced inside their bodies, and then they swell up and float up. That's probably the situation now. This is called a drifting whale carcass."
Ye Yaodong explained simply.
The actual reason is that a freshly dead whale has a body density greater than that of seawater. Although they have a thick layer of blubber, the weight of their massive bones, muscles, and internal organs causes them to slowly sink as a whole. This process can take several months, hence the name "whale fall."
Then, when a whale carcass sinks to the seabed thousands of meters deep, it becomes a sudden and enormous source of energy and matter.
Sharks, hagfish, and countless other microorganisms feed around whales, forming a complex ecosystem that can last for decades or even centuries.
These creatures are nourished and grow by the bodies of whales, hence the saying "When a whale falls, all things come to life."
Some whales die before they can be eaten by fish; instead, they are decomposed by microorganisms in their bodies, which produces a lot of gas.
These gases accumulate inside the body cavity, causing the whale carcass to expand dramatically, like an inflated balloon, sometimes becoming several times its original volume, greatly increasing buoyancy.
This is what he had been seeing all along: a giant floating object, part of it in the sea and the rest in the ocean. He thought it was some kind of island or reef, but it didn't look like one.
He never considered the possibility of encountering a whale, since death usually means sinking into the sea, and he never imagined he might meet a whale floating on the surface.
I'd only heard about it before, never actually seen it, so today was quite an eye-opener.
Then, when the buoyancy exceeds the weight, the enormous, gas-filled carcass, already eaten, will break free from the seabed and float back to the surface. At this point, it is known as a drifting whale carcass.
"What corpse stuff? That sounds really scary. Just say it's a dead whale. Luckily it's early in the morning." Ah Zheng also craned his neck to look.
Now that we're closer, we can see the shape of that moving reef with the naked eye.
"There were quite a few seabirds gathered there."
"We've seen it clearly. The fishing boat should change direction and not get any closer."
"Why? It would be good to get a closer look and broaden my horizons. I've never seen a whale carcass that has surfaced before, so I don't know what it looks like. Let me see through your binoculars."
Ye Yaodong handed him the binoculars, saying, "Just use the binoculars to take a look. Don't get too close. What if it explodes later? It's so big, it could blow our ship to smithereens."
It's impossible for it to be blown away; that's just an exaggeration. But if it were to actually explode, people who were close by would definitely be affected.
The floating whale carcass will continue to drift on the sea surface and be decomposed by seabirds, marine fish, and other marine organisms.
As for the extent of decomposition, that's unknown. It's possible that there's simply too much gas, and when it reaches a critical point, it needs to be released, which leads to an explosion.
After the explosion, the remaining debris may sink again, or it may be washed ashore by the waves and become a feast for coastal creatures; it's hard to say.
For safety's sake, it's best to stay away. It's enough that you've seen it.
"Wow, it's really big. The chances of it being alive are much higher. So many fish are gathered around it eating."
"Boss, we've adjusted our course and are slowly moving away from the whale carcass."
"Okay, and also tell the other fishing boats not to get too close out of curiosity."
"receive."
After watching for a while, Ah Zheng looked at the curious Chen Shi next to him and handed him the binoculars, letting them take turns looking at it.
It's quite a rare sight. Take a look, and I can brag about it when I go back home for the New Year.
"Dongzi, why don't you get closer and take a picture?"
"There's not much to film. It's only half above the water, so there's nothing to capture. It would be great if we could film it underwater."
"Ok."
"What if it explodes if we get too close? Oh well, it's fine after we've seen it."
"You can encounter all sorts of amazing things."
After they finished taking turns using the binoculars, they handed over their shifts, and the fishing boat was taken over by Ye Yaodong and A Zheng.
When the other fishing boats received the notification, they were all curious, and some slowly approached, intending to take a closer look, but knowing that it might explode, they kept their distance.
Ye Yaodong first steered the fishing boat away slowly, making room for closer proximity.
It wasn't time to set up the net yet, so the two of them were idle, occasionally glancing at the sea surface while monitoring it.
About an hour later, Ye Yaodong seemed to hear a loud noise, but it was partially drowned out by the sound of waves and wind.
"Holy crap!" Ah Zheng shouted excitedly, "It exploded, it really exploded!"
"What happened? What happened? I think I just heard a really loud noise?"
"Dongzi, it really exploded! You said it earlier, and now it really has exploded!" He was somewhat agitated.
"It exploded! The whale carcass exploded?"
Ah Zheng stared wide-eyed through the binoculars, his voice tinged with excitement, "Yes, I was acting as your eyes and sentinels, and I just saw that mass of whale carcasses suddenly explode, sending a whole bunch of fish and seabirds flying into the sky."
Ye Yaodong took the binoculars, but he could see nothing at all, only some scattered gray smoke. The whale carcass that he could detect before was gone.
Even the echoes detected by sonar disappeared, and gradually weakened.
"Nothing's left."
"It exploded, of course it's gone. Luckily, I just saw it. I heard a bang, and a large cloud of murky gas rose up. Birds and fish were blown away in all directions."
He spoke with great enthusiasm, and he noticed a hint of pride in his voice.
"Okay, I didn't see it, what a pity."
"I saw it, wow, it's amazing. If we got closer now, we'd probably only see fish floating belly up on the surface, maybe not even a carcass left."
At that moment, a startled cry came from the walkie-talkie.
"The whale carcass we just saw exploded."
"An explosion? No wonder we heard a loud bang. We were still looking for the source of the sound, thinking there was a malfunction on the ship. We were almost scared to death."
"I heard it too, it sounded like something..."
"The boss was right, it might explode. Luckily we're far away..."
Ye Yaodong said, "So we shouldn't be too curious."
"It's quite amazing, this whale fell into the sea, floated back up, and then exploded..."
(End of this chapter)