If the location where the methane hydrate was discovered was not in Antarctica, Xiang Yang would definitely report the discovery to the country.
But in Antarctica, there are abundant resources of all kinds, but they cannot be mined at present.
Xiang Yang threw away the combustible ice and continued to search for the Antarctic deep-sea crayfish on the seabed.
In fact, Xiang Yang was extremely curious about this sea area.
Because the sea water around the Antarctic continent is rich in nutrients and clean, the number of life forms in the sea water is generally extremely large, while the number of life forms under this sea area is extremely scarce.
There must be a reason for this.
While Xiang Yang was searching for Antarctic deep-sea crayfish, he was also looking for the reason why there were so few underwater creatures in this area.
"Could it be because of the combustible ice?" Xiang Yang couldn't help but think of the combustible ice he had discovered before.
However, there are many places with methane hydrate on the seabed, and Xiang Yang has never heard of any impact that methane hydrate will have on marine life.
"Huh? What is this?" Xiang Yang, who was walking on the underwater beach, suddenly felt as if he was stepping on something hard. He quickly raised his foot, squatted down and looked carefully in that direction.
You won’t know until you see it, and it’s really shocking.
Xiang Yang's forehead was covered with cold sweat. He was too careless and actually stepped on this thing. Fortunately, the soles of his diving suit were also designed with thick protection, otherwise, he might have lost his life here today.
At Xiang Yang's feet, there lay a gray-black, hemispherical creature covered with bright red thorns.
The name of this thing is the thorn ball. In a very popular Chinese cartoon "The Adventures of Little Carp", the direct reason why the protagonist Bubble left Carp Bay to look for the real dragon was this thorn ball. It is the nemesis of most aquatic creatures, has extremely tenacious vitality, and does not have many natural enemies.
However, thorny balls are generally distributed in tropical coral environments in the Red Sea, Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean, and it is very rare to find them in Antarctica.
But that doesn't mean that the thorny bulb cannot grow in Antarctica.
Even if it lives in tropical waters, the ball of thorns hides under rocks or corals in cold sea water and feeds on sea cucumbers that also prefer cool environments.
Xiang Yang used his hands to pick at the thorns on the surface of the thorny ball, and he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that the thorns could not pierce his gloves.
The thorns on the surface of the thorn ball contain very strong neurotoxins. Once someone is stung by it, the poison will basically kill them. If the stingers of the thorn ball can pierce Xiang Yang's protective suit, Xiang Yang can only immediately recall all the diving crew members to prevent accidents.
However, since this thorn ball cannot penetrate Xiang Yang's protective equipment, Xiang Yang has nothing to worry about and has time to study this thorn ball carefully.
The thorny ball in front of Xiang Yang is about 20 centimeters in diameter and has fifteen tentacles.
It is said that the largest thorn ball can grow to a diameter of one meter. For such a large thorn ball, the thorns must be sharper, and it is still unclear whether the protective clothing can defend against it.
But if the crew members were accidentally stabbed by such a large thorn ball, Xiang Yang could only say that the man was blind.
After discovering this thorn ball, Xiang Yang immediately understood why the fishery resources in this sea area were so scarce.
Not only marine animals dislike the thorny ball, but also marine plants and even marine insects.
In the coral reef sea, the thorny ball eats corals. Under natural conditions, it will pose a serious threat to the coral reefs and will destroy most of the marine life in the entire coral sea except the thorny ball itself.
In waters without coral reefs, ball thorns are even more rampant. They gnaw at the roots of algae and seaweed and completely destroy all plants and animals within their reach.
In 1970, the Great Barrier Reef of Australia, which is more than 2,000 kilometers long and more than 50 kilometers wide, was destroyed by the thorn ball.
At that time, about one-fifth of the entire Great Barrier Reef of Australia was covered with thorn balls.
Those balls of thorns devour coral polyps on Australia's Great Barrier Reef, leaving behind countless white coral skeletons.
A ball of thorns with a diameter of only 20 centimeters can eat two square meters of coral in a day, which is an astonishing appetite.
Moreover, the outbreak of the thorn ball is a natural disaster with no rhyme or reason; it is not caused by human factors.
After research, scientists found that as long as the salinity of the seawater is suitable for the growth of thorny balls, they will reproduce in large numbers regardless of the environment or the temperature.
The newly born thorn ball is not spherical.
When the thorn balls are small, they are a type of plankton, and at this stage most fish can kill them to prevent future problems.
The growth process of the thorny ball is actually extremely difficult. It needs to go through the most vulnerable early stage, the second and third stages that are prone to premature death, and the final stage larvae that fish love to prey on the most.
However, once the ballfish has passed the final larval stage, it is almost invincible. In the entire ocean, except for the giant conch, there is almost no other creature that can prey on the ballfish.
If there were no natural enemies, the ball of thorns would not be scary. The ocean has a very strong self-regulating ability and there is always a way to kill the ball of thorns.
But the problem is that while it has almost no natural enemies, the thorny ball also has a vitality that even scientists find incredible.
When food is plentiful, the Ball of Thorns can eat several square meters of coral polyps, or an equivalent amount of other food, in a day.
When food is scarce, a thorn ball can go hungry for half a year without starving to death, and can still move freely and energetically.
The most important thing is that the thorn ball has a very strong regenerative ability.
Another name for the thorny ball is the thorny starfish, because it has an ability exactly the same as a starfish. When it is cut into pieces, each piece can grow into a complete thorny ball again.
With strong reproductive capacity, strong vitality, and the ability to divide like cells, such creatures cannot be controlled by nature through self-adjustment.
Even if humans want to inhibit the growth of thorny balls, it is difficult.
Someone once thought of injecting formalin into the body of the thorn ball to kill it and inhibit its growth.
But this method is tantamount to catching the mosquito and feeding it mosquito medicine.
If a certain sea area has indeed been attacked by thorny balls, humans can use this method of treating the symptoms rather than the root cause to control the reproduction of thorny balls in a short period of time. However, before the thorny balls really pose a threat to a certain sea area, it is simply nonsense to use this method to deal with the thorny balls in an entire ocean.