Xu Fang nodded immediately, "Okay Captain, I'll go to the cockpit now."
After saying that, Xu Fang ran towards the upper cabin without looking back.
"Old Xu is really impatient." Chen Qingsheng said with a smile.
Xiang Yang shook his head. "Master Xu doesn't trust others to drive the boat. Besides, I think he wants to take advantage of the opportunity of starting the fishing boat and use the power of the fishing boat to resist the wind."
"Let it be. The snow has stopped. Since it's called a blizzard, the wind won't blow for long." Xiang Yang said with a smile.
Chen Qingsheng looked out the window when he heard this, then forced a smile and said nothing. He didn't have the same good attitude as Xiang Yang, and he was upset now.
“Bang!”
Just then, there was a loud bang from a collision on the window.
There was something strange about the noise. It didn't sound like something heavy hitting the glass, but rather like someone was slapping the window hard.
Xiang Yang and Fang Youqun quickly looked out the window.
"What is this? A piece of green rag?" Chen Qingsheng asked in surprise.
Xiang Yang looked out the window carefully. The green rag-like thing was covered with small holes. There were tiny bone needles inside the body, and there were things like silk threads wrapped around the bone needles.
"This is a bowl of sponge." Xiang Yang said confidently.
The body structure of a bowl sponge is simpler than that of an ordinary sponge. It does not even have obvious tissue differentiation, and its entire body is generally composed of two layers of cells.
"A kind of sponge?" Chen Qingsheng asked.
Xiang Yang nodded, "Yes, bowl sponges generally like to live in oceans with big waves and fast currents. They look like a piece of rag, but if you look closely, you will find that they actually have a well-streamlined body shape, which can adapt well to the impact of waves and currents."
As he spoke, Xiang Yang shrugged his shoulders, “However, the wind and waves on the sea were too strong this time, so this bowl of sea surface inevitably suffered misfortune, and was blown from under the seabed by the wind and waves and smashed on the glass of our cabin.”
Chen Qingsheng touched his head and said, "There are actually such strange sponges. The sponges I have seen before are usually shaped like upright."
"That's because those sponges live in slow-flowing or calm seas. No matter what their body shape is, it is determined by the environment," said Xiang Yang.
The bowl sponge is an extremely rare sponge that can survive in the extremely harsh environment of Antarctica.
Xiang Yang said: "Inside the body of the bowl sponge, there are a large number of sponge filaments and filter-feeding water channel systems, which makes the bowl sponge unique in the animal kingdom. It can lie quietly in the cold waters of Antarctica, without eating, drinking or exercising, and live for a very long time."
When humans first discovered the bowl sponge, they mistakenly thought it was a plant.
Because the divers stayed at the bottom of the water for a long time, they did not see the bowl sponges eating, drinking, or moving. The bowl sponges lay one after another in the cold sea water, like huge flowers.
Actually, it’s no wonder that the diver misunderstood.
Because bowl sponges really look like plants, even their colors are like flowers, colorful, including bright red, light green, brown, and so on.
Chen Qingsheng was quite puzzled and said, "No need to eat, no need to drink, and no need to exercise, isn't this a plant?"
Xiang Yang shook his head. "No, it's just that humans haven't seen it. In fact, even if the bowl sponge doesn't have a nervous system, it definitely can't be classified as a plant."
Although the bowl sponge does not have a nervous system, if a worm or other small fish or shrimp touches the water outlet of the bowl sponge, the muscles of the bowl sponge will contract instantly, making the water outlet smaller or even closed, so as to prey on it.
In addition, bowl sponges are also very dangerous marine creatures.
When the bowl sponge is attacked by other marine creatures, it can release a highly toxic substance to protect itself.
"Now that this bowl sponge is dead, will it leave toxins on our ship?" Chen Qingsheng asked, pointing to the bowl sponge outside the window that was blown out of the seabed by the blizzard and then hit the cabin glass heavily, breaking into pieces.
"Dead?" Xiang Yang looked at Chen Qingsheng strangely, "You don't think the bowl sponge dies so easily? If the bowl sponge died so easily, it would have been extinct long ago."
"It's impossible. His whole body was broken into pieces after being hit by such a heavy weight. How could he not die?" Chen Qingsheng asked.
Xiang Yang shook his head. "The vitality of the bowl sponge is stronger than that of ordinary sponges. It has a jaw-dropping immortality function. Not to mention that its body is just cracked. Even if you go out now, tear it into pieces, and throw it into the sea, it will not die. Instead, each piece can grow a new body and become a complete bowl sponge again."
"What?"
Chen Qingsheng took a breath and said, "So, this thing can also split and reproduce?"
Xiang Yang nodded.
Like other sponges, the bowl sponge can reproduce into a whole new individual if the smallest fragment of it is found.
In the Red Sea, there are fishermen who cut the bowl sponge into small pieces, tie them up with ropes, and throw the fragments into the sea. After a year or two, they pull up the ropes and they can get a complete bowl sponge.
In the last century, many fishermen in the Red Sea used this method to artificially cultivate bowl sponges and made a huge amount of wealth.
“Bang!”
Just then, another loud noise was heard outside the cabin window.
Xiang Yang and Chen Qingsheng immediately looked out the window.
I saw an extremely ugly anglerfish with a lantern on its head crashing heavily onto the deck.
"It's actually a monkfish. If it's not blown away by the strong wind, I'll take it. This fish can't be sold for much." Chen Qingsheng said with a smile.
Xiang Yang also smiled when he heard this, "Yes, but it's delicious."
"It seems that this snowstorm has blown a lot of marine creatures into the air. Now the wind is gradually getting weaker and is no longer strong enough to blow these large marine creatures away." Xiang Yang said with a relaxed look.
"That's right, the wind outside is getting weaker, and our fishing boat is no longer shaking. The blizzard is getting weaker." Chen Qingsheng said excitedly.
"Don't be happy too soon. Look at those three cargo ships. They are not drifting now, but their hulls are still shaking violently. We are not out of danger yet." Xiang Yang's face suddenly became serious again.
Chen Qingsheng also nodded carefully. He didn't say anything stupid like the three cargo ships had nothing to do with him and others.
Not to mention that everyone is a fleet, even if those three cargo ships have nothing to do with Xiang Yang, according to the Convention on the Law of the Sea and the Navigation Regulations, as long as there is a shipwreck at sea, everyone around must lend a helping hand. This is not a virtue, but an obligation that must be followed when going out to sea.