Galactic Garbage Station

Chapter 63: Treasure hunt under the sea

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Su Jing picked up the huge shell and looked through it. It is about 25 centimeters long and weighs about five kilograms. Most people can hold it with two hands. The shell is thick and looks like a saucer. The left shell is slightly raised and the right shell is flat. The front ear is slightly protruding and the back ear is slightly protruding. The ear process disappears into a rounded shape. The shell surface is brown, the scale layer on the top of the shell is tight, and the scale layer on the rear edge of the shell is obviously free.

"This seems to be the white butterfly oyster." The more Su Jing looked at it, the brighter her eyes became. The white butterfly oyster, also known as the giant pearl oyster and the white snail pearl oyster, is a bivalve shellfish in tropical and subtropical oceans. It is a unique pearl oyster species in the South China Sea in China. . Its pearl reserves account for about 90% of the total reserves of various types of pearl oysters in HN Province. The pearls produced have large particles, good color and high price. They are valuable decorations and medicinal materials. They are very popular in the international pearl market and have extremely high prices. economic value.

However, due to its small number and high value, it is classified as a national Class II protected animal and is prohibited from capture.

"Xiaohu, where did you pick up this white butterfly shell?" Su Jing asked. He didn't think about breaking open the white butterfly shell to see if there were any pearls inside, because he didn't want to kill it. After all, it was national level II. ANIMAL CROSSING. I heard that some people are so skilled that they can open the shells and take out the pearls, and the shells can still survive, but that method is undoubtedly as difficult as surgery, and Su Jing doesn't think she has that level of skill. Moreover, there is a great deal of chance in producing pearls from wild shells, and the probability that there is a pearl in this shell is no more than one percent.

"Over there." The killer whale turned its head and called out to the sea.

"Take me there." Su Jing put on her mesh bag and diving goggles and jumped on the back of the killer whale. The killer whale then carried Su Jing and galloped away through the waves. After swimming for about twenty minutes, they were far away from the coast of Sujiacun. We approached an uninhabited island. There are many small islands in this sea area, which have not been developed.

About three hundred meters away from the uninhabited island, the killer whale called out to remind Su Jing, then dove into the sea and dived quickly. Even with Su Jing's physical fitness, she quickly felt the pressure on her chest. Extremely uncomfortable. Humans are not fish and cannot withstand rapid changes in water pressure.

"Slow down." Su Jing quickly patted the killer whale and exhaled out two words. The killer whale then slowed down and dived slowly, ten meters, fifteen meters, twenty meters... Most people will already feel eardrum stinging and difficulty breathing after diving 10 meters. Some professional divers can dive 15 meters or even 20 meters. . The limit of diving is the limit of resistance to water pressure and the limit of resistance to physiological functions in the body.

In January 2000, Cuban Francisco Ferreira set a 162-meter free diving record in the Gulf of Mexico without carrying an air bottle and only adjusting his breathing and holding his own lung capacity.

Su Jing's current physical fitness is definitely far superior to ordinary people, so she slowly dived to more than 20 meters, but still didn't feel much. When she reached the bottom of the sea at a depth of about 50 meters, she only felt a little uncomfortable, but nothing serious.

Su Jing looked at the bottom of the sea through the diving goggles and found that the bottom of the sea was composed of rocky gravel and a small number of seafloor plants. There were many white butterfly shells, some crawling and some dead, lying quietly on the bottom of the sea. .

Su Jing directed the killer whale to move closer to the bottom of the sea. He opened a huge white butterfly shell in front of him. It was empty. After flipping through several shells, he finally saw a pearl about ten millimeters in diameter lying inside. Unfortunately, it could be seen with the naked eye. It can be seen that it is not very round and the color is average.

Su Jing continued to rummage, and when he couldn't hold his breath, he turned to face to breathe, and then came down again. He found pearls one after another. The quality of them was good and bad, and some of them should be worth thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars. Yuan.

"Wow, it's so big." Su Jing suddenly saw a shell, which was more than thirty centimeters long. The killer whale swam over with it. When he opened it, his eyes widened. There was a white pearl lying inside. , more than fifteen millimeters, and very round, full of luster, with no flaws visible. Although Su Jing is not very knowledgeable, she can also see that the value of this pearl is definitely not low.

Su Jing rummaged for a while, searching through almost all the nearby white butterfly shells, and found fifty or sixty pearls. In addition to the flawless one, there were also a dozen others of good quality. Others are very average.

"Let's go and look around."

Su Jing did not go back immediately. She let the killer whale take her and shuttled across the seabed, appreciating the scenery of the seabed through the diving goggles. Although she was at the seaside, she had not dived so deep. Playing freely in the deep sea like this was still... first.

Su Jing could see all kinds of corals, seaweeds, fish, shellfish, and crabs on the seabed. The underwater world can definitely be described as bizarre and bizarre. Once Su Jing accidentally encountered a cluster of corals, and she didn't expect that. The coral suddenly moved, and then a ball of black ink spurted out. It turned out to be an octopus in disguise.

When Su Jing encountered strange shells, blood corals and other things, she put them into mesh bags. This time she didn't want to sell them, after all, they weren't worth much money, but she wanted to take them home and collect them.

Su Jing was still thinking, aren't there many ancient sunken ships on the seabed? If she could find one filled with ceramics, gold, silver, jewelry, etc., she would make a lot of money, but unfortunately not a single piece of the wreckage was found.

"Huh? Could that fish be..."

Su Jing suddenly noticed a fish, which looked a bit like some kind of rare fish. Unfortunately, before she could see it clearly, she saw it getting into the coral reef.

Su Jing directed the killer whale to swim over quickly and squeezed into a piece of coral. The fish continued to hide, but Su Jing saw it clearly this time. It was indeed a fish with a high bulge on its forehead, just like Napoleon's head. hat, so he is known as "Napoleon".

The wrasse belongs to the family Wrasses and is the largest and longest-lived coral fish, generally living for more than 30 years. It has been traded as an economic fish for a long time. Its meat is fresh and tender, and it is a famous delicacy. However, due to its small quantity, it is expensive. A kilogram of sumei fish can be sold for 200 US dollars, and a plate of fish lips can be sold for 300 US dollars. .

However, studies in most areas show that the population of Sumei fish is gradually declining due to commercial trade, and its proportion of decline was once as high as 90%. Many juvenile fish are caught before they reach reproductive age, resulting in fewer and fewer adult fish that can reproduce. Improper behavior during fishing threatens not only the survival of the species, but also fragile coral reef ecosystems.

The sagefish was listed as an endangered species in the 2004 "IUCN Red Book". At the 13th CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) conference held in October 2004, the sagefish was listed as ( It is listed in CITES Appendix II and is strictly protected by the CITES Convention.

"Hey, it's an endangered species again."

Su Jing still won't break the law because of the huge profits, but it's okay to go and watch the Su Mei fish. Many people only know that the Su Mei fish is delicious, but they forget that the Su Mei fish itself is also an ornamental fish.

Su Jing controlled the killer whales to shuttle through the coral reefs. Because the killer whales were big, they could only choose places with large gaps. They successively found four or five fish in the coral reefs, ranging in size from a few kilograms to more than a dozen. Twenty pounds.

"Let me tell you, is that also a squid?"

Su Jing suddenly saw a huge figure, her eyes widened, and she commanded the killer whale to swim over quickly.