Xiang Yang felt that the most fundamental way to deal with the thorn ball was to protect and vigorously cultivate the thorn ball's only natural enemy, the giant conch.
Because other methods, such as improving the natural living conditions of fish, reducing the input of nutrients into the sea, or even artificially changing the temperature of sea water, have no effect on the thorny ball.
If the thorn balls can be eliminated simply by changing the sea water environment, then the thorn balls would not be considered a natural disaster. If this thing is forced into a corner, it can even leave the sea and survive on land.
Xiang Yang picked up the thorn ball and looked at it carefully.
Its spines are very long and densely packed, each spine is more than one centimeter long. At the bottom of the spines is a very smooth flesh wall. If you ignore its harm to other marine life, its appearance is still very beautiful and can be placed in a marine tank as an ornamental fish.
Of course, Xiang Yang only dared to think about this idea. If he really dared to take this thorn ball back and raise it, he would definitely be in trouble.
In January 2012, researchers discovered nearly a thousand thorny ball fish on a 300-meter-long beach on Ishigaki Island. Almost all of these thorny ball fish had crawled out of the sea water onto the beach to find food because they were extremely hungry.
In fact, even earlier, local fishermen on Ishigaki Island discovered that the number of thorny balls nearby was growing explosively.
In just a few years, the thorny balls devoured all the marine life in the waters near Ishigaki Island and then began to slowly move toward the beach.
Since the main food of the thorny balls is coral, scientists later speculated that the explosive growth in their number might have eaten up all the nearby coral polyps, so the remaining thorny balls had to move to the beach.
But scientists still don't understand the reason for the explosive growth of thorn ball football.
Xiang Yang looked around again.
After Xiang Yang's deliberate search, as expected, he soon found a lot of thorn balls.
These thorn balls are gray-black or green, and they seem to be covered with moss.
Not far away, Xiang Yang saw a pure white thorn ball with a diameter of more than 50 centimeters, like a huge spider web.
After seeing the huge thorn ball, Xiang Yang felt relieved.
The number of thorny balls at the bottom of this sea area seems to be extremely large, but in fact there are thorny balls of all types, and the numbers are relatively rare. This shows that the thorny balls are just reproducing naturally, not growing explosively.
This can also be seen from the side of the corals that are still growing around it.
Corals are relatively rare in Antarctica, but they do exist.
Although most coral reefs are distributed in tropical waters, in fact coral polyps are only suitable for living in waters with water temperatures below 28 degrees Celsius. Some can even only survive below 4 degrees Celsius. Excessively high temperatures will also cause large numbers of corals to bleach and die.
Therefore, global warming today is causing the water temperature to continue to rise, which will also accelerate the extinction of coral reefs.
Of course, most corals still prefer to grow in warm waters with a water temperature of around 20°C. 23-27°C is the best water temperature for the growth and development of reef-building corals, so corals are still relatively rare in Antarctica.
These corals that grow in extremely cold waters also have various shapes and colors in appearance. The clusters are very beautiful. When Xiang Yang sees them, he feels like he has arrived at the Dragon Palace under the sea.
Xiang Yang was worried that some crew members who didn't recognize the Ball of Thorns might encounter danger on the seabed. He didn't dare to stay on the seabed for long, let alone appreciate the beautiful corals. He stuffed the corals into the net bag, and then Xiang Yang swam quickly towards the boat.
"Captain, how did you get up so quickly?" A crew member was surprised to see Xiang Yang coming up just a few minutes after he went into the sea.
"I found this under the sea. When someone emerges from the bottom of the sea, call them over. I have something to say to them." Xiang Yang took off the net bag from his waist, took out the thorn ball and said.
When the crew heard this, they immediately became excited. They thought that something that Xiang Yang valued so much must be a great treasure.
A crew member asked: "Captain, what is this? Is it valuable?"
As he said this, the crew member stretched out his hand and wanted to touch the thorn ball.
“Pah.”
Xu Fang, who was standing by, slapped the crew member's hand back and cursed, "Can't you see there are so many thorns? And you dare to reach out and touch them? Are you looking for death?"
"I brought leather gloves." The crew member immediately said aggrievedly.
Xiang Yang shook his head. "This thing is called a thorn ball. The thorns on it are very sharp. The leather gloves on your hands are mainly used to keep out the cold. They cannot resist the poisonous stings on the thorn ball."
"This thing is called a thorn ball? Is it valuable?" asked the crew member.
"It's not worth much, but it's very deadly. I've seen this thing in the East China Sea, but I didn't expect it to be found in Antarctica." Xu Fang frowned, "Captain, are there a lot of these thorn balls under the sea?"
Xiang Yang nodded, "Yes, I found quite a few. Otherwise, I wouldn't have swum back to the boat to draw everyone's attention."
When Xu Fang heard this, his expression immediately became serious.
Others may not understand the extent of the threat posed by the thorn ball, but how could Xu Fang not understand it
Every year, a large number of diving enthusiasts die from this thorny ball.
The thorn ball contains a large amount of neurotoxins. Once a person is stung by the stinger of the thorn ball, he will immediately lose consciousness and then suffocate to death under the water.
"Captain, can the thorns of this thorn ball pierce our diving suits?" Xu Fang said with a rather unpleasant expression.
In Xu Fang's opinion, if the poisonous stinger of the thorn ball could not pierce the diving suit, Xiang Yang would definitely not come up.
However, Xiang Yang is clearly holding a thorn ball in his hand. From this point of view, the thorn ball should not be able to break the diving suits that Xiang Yang bought.
"I've tried it. Wearing my diving suit, there is generally no danger unless you seek death. But I'm afraid that some crew members may not recognize this thorn ball and treat it as a treasure. If they encounter it, they will bump into it. Just because the small one can't penetrate it doesn't mean that the big ones can't penetrate it either. I just saw a thorn ball with a diameter of about 50 centimeters on the bottom of the sea." Xiang Yang said.
Xu Fang heaved a sigh of relief when he heard this.
As long as it cannot be pierced under normal circumstances, the crew members underwater will not be in much danger.
But after hearing what Xiang Yang said, Xu Fang suddenly became nervous again. Even the leatherback turtle wouldn't dare to mess with a thorn ball with a diameter of 50 centimeters, right
Although the diving suits on their ship are said to be indestructible even to sharks, can they withstand the poisonous needles of the thorn ball