Xiang Yang found it a little funny. The more someone refuses to admit his age, the more it proves that he is old.
However, Xiang Yang did not mean to look down on Gao Chuang just because he was old. Xiang Yang thought that one day, when he was old, he would insist that he was not old just like Gao Chuang.
After properly dealing with the emperor penguins, Gao Chuang gave orders to the surroundings: "Okay, from now on, start breaking the ice."
"Yes, Mr. Gao."
A group of people immediately took action, some carrying shovels and harpoons, some pouring hot water, and some simply using burners to burn it.
There are more than a dozen ships and more than a dozen different ways of breaking ice. This made Xiang Yang, who was in a learning mood, dumbfounded. So this is how Gao Chuang's team breaks ice
Gao Chuang looked at Xiang Yang strangely, "Xiang Yang, why aren't you and your men moving? It's time to break the ice."
Xiang Yang held it in for a long time before finally saying, "Boss Gao, your people really have many different ways of chiseling ice."
Gao Chuang was stunned for a moment when he heard this, and then he burst into laughter. "What are you thinking? This is just to break the thick ice on the surface. Chiseling ice is also a way. Even an icebreaker can't drive through this several-meter-thick ice. Do you really think you can break it with hot water or a flamethrower?"
Gao Chuang patted Xiang Yang on the shoulder and said, "Come on, work hard. Break the ice with one wave. There is a surprise waiting for us underneath."
After Gao Chuang left, Chen Qingsheng looked at Xiang Yang, "Captain, where do we cut the ice?"
Xiang Yang looked around. The locations where the ice was cut seemed to have no pattern at all, but in fact, there was at least a hundred meters between each two locations where the ice was cut.
Xiang Yang looked at Chen Qingsheng and said, "You choose the place. You should have more experience than me in ice-cutting."
Chen Qingsheng shook his head. "I have chipped ice before, but that was for ice fishing on a lake. This is my first time chipping ice on the sea, so I don't know how to do it."
Xiang Yang became interested, "How do you dig on the lake surface?"
Chen Qingsheng said: "On the lake, the first thing to look at is the color of the ice. If the surface of the ice is turquoise or light blue, it means the water is deep or there are aquatic plants under the water. If the ice is a little yellowish, it means there are many fish under the water. Then look at the ice cracks. On the lake, due to the constant change in temperature, the ice surface will form all kinds of cracks. The cracks in the ice have good air permeability and are the favorite places for fish to live."
"But how do you look at the ice here? It's all white, without a single crack." Chen Qingsheng said worriedly.
Xiang Yang thought for a moment and said, "Since there is no way to see it, let's just find a random place and chisel the ice directly."
In fact, until now, Xiang Yang still doesn't know why Gao Chuang has to come to the ice to chisel it.
Wouldn't it be nice to fish right at the edge of the ice floe
Thick ice is not so easy to break through.
Fortunately, this time the fleet came with special cutting machines.
After two days, Xiang Yang finally carved out a half-meter-long and -wide square ice cave on the ice surface.
Through the ice cave, Xiang Yang glanced at the water surface.
Krill.
Lots of krill.
They were densely packed and constantly churning under the ice cave, looking like a huge sandstorm.
“Is this Antarctic krill?”
Xiang Yang had someone lower a fishing net, and then had someone drag the net up. The net was filled with densely packed krill, and there was no way to pull it up through the ice cave. After releasing the krill, the crew even had to spend a lot of effort to get the net out of the ice cave.
There are still a few krill left in the net.
Xiang Yang picked up one of them and took a closer look. He saw that the shrimp was about two centimeters long, with a transparent body. It looked a bit like a large prawn. The strange thing was that its gills were directly immersed in the water.
What's even stranger is that this krill actually glows.
There are more than 80 species of krill in the world, and more than 70 of them are bioluminescent.
The Antarctic krill, which is the most numerous among them, can also glow, but it cannot produce luminescence by itself and needs to absorb luminescent substances from algae.
Biologists cannot give a standard answer as to why krill glow. It is generally believed that this is a social activity for krill, but this is obviously not in line with the theory of biological evolution of survival of the fittest and natural selection.
"Have you seen the krill?" At this time Gao Chuang strode over and asked Xiang Yang.
Xiang Yang nodded, "Yes, I saw it, and I was just about to fish some out."
Gao Chuang grinned, "Catch more. Even if the shrimps die, we can use them as feed when we bring them back. We don't have to worry about them taking up space on the boat."
Gao Chuang then took a look into the ice cave that Xiang Yang had dug. "Hmm, not bad. There are indeed a lot of krill. Let's catch them quickly."
Xiang Yang asked curiously, "Boss Gao, did you know that there would be krill under this ice cave?"
"Nonsense, otherwise why would I waste two days digging an ice cave here? I have thousands of people eating on the boat, and I think I have too much money?"
After Gao Chuang's explanation, it turns out that krill have an unknown secret.
That is, Antarctic krill have a vertical migration route. They dive to very deep waters during the day and only float to shallow waters close to the water surface at night.
There are usually a large number of krill living under the large ice floes.
Gao Chuang has always found a method that works well: breaking the ice and catching the krill.
Of course, this just means that there are usually krill under the ice, which does not mean that there are no krill where there is no ice.
Antarctic krill is one of the most numerous biological groups in the world. 24 hours a day, whether on the surface or under the water, there will be large or small groups of Antarctic krill hunting or breeding.
Gao Chuang looked at the krill in Xiang Yang's hand and said with a smile, "The krill under this ice cave are all very plump. Almost half of them are two centimeters long. Such krill are the most valuable. Catch more. If you can't find a market for them when you go back, you can sell them to me directly."
It is not easy for Antarctic krill to grow to two centimeters in size, which takes at least two years.
On average, each Antarctic krill lives only about six years.
Xiang Yang nodded, "Don't worry, Mr. Gao. I came here specifically for this Antarctic krill."
Any fishing boat that comes to Antarctica is basically targeting Antarctic krill.
Antarctic krill is the most abundant fishery resource in the entire Antarctic. For example, in the Weddell Sea where Xiang Yang is now, the krill under the ice floes are like sandstorms in the desert. On average, there are more than 10,000 krill gathered in every cubic meter of water. Looking under the water through the ice cave, the shrimp school that looks like a whirlpool has a radius of almost several hundred meters, which is very shocking.