Chapter 1342

Moonfish and sunfish look very similar, but they are not the same fish at all; they are quite different.

The significance of the two fish is diametrically opposed.

The moonfish represents good luck and is considered a lucky fish, while the sunfish is a sign of bad luck; if you encounter one, you must keep your distance, and you must burn two talismans to ward off the bad luck.

Ye Yaodong looked on with delight as the large fish was surrounded by everyone, who were commenting and critiquing it.

In the middle, in front of the wheelhouse, there is a rectangular fish hold cover; the two sides are where fish are usually placed when they are brought up, with a width of about a meter or more, but less than two meters.

This moonfish lay flat on the fish hold cover, occupying more than half of it, making the large and small fish around it look exceptionally tiny and dull.

Ye Yaodong let the fishing boat continue along its established course, walked out of the wheelhouse himself, and went out to take a closer look.

As soon as he walked out, the excited expressions of the crowd became clearer, but because the fishing boat was loud and there was a strong wind and big waves, he couldn't hear what everyone was saying clearly; he could only visually estimate that this fish weighed about a hundred jin or more.

Seeing that the fishing net had just been hauled up and the cargo inside had not yet been fully hoisted and released, he estimated that there were still two or three more loads to be hoisted, so he felt relieved to first pick up his camera and go down to take a look.

At this moment, this moonfish had already been curiously lifted out of a pile of fish and shrimp by everyone, and they were excitedly talking all at once while gesturing to show its size.

"This is too awesome. The ocean is truly magical; it has all kinds of strange fish..."

"It's also because of the deep sea; the deep sea has all sorts of strange fish."

"What kind of fish is that? I've never even seen it before..."

"None of us have seen it, so who knows what fish it is? Anyway, we'll know what it is when we take it to be sold."

"If we don't know its value, we'll definitely get ripped off..."

Ye Yaodong stepped forward and pushed them aside, "Let me take a look. It's so big..."

"Brother Dong, do you know what kind of fish this is?"

"You all don't know?" he asked in return.

"How could we possibly know? Not one person out of a whole crowd knows. This fish looks a bit strange, it looks like a sunfish, but it's different. Is it auspicious or not? If it's not auspicious, let's throw it away..."

Ye Yaodong gave the person who spoke a light kick, "Throw it away, my foot! You could throw away this whole load of cargo, but you can't throw away this fish."

Everyone was surprised.

"Is it that valuable?"

"It's not a question of whether it's valuable or not. This fish is called a moonfish, it's a lucky fish. Being able to see one in a lifetime is already a stroke of great fortune. If you dare to throw it away, I'll fight you for it."

"Damn! It has such a big reputation?"

"I just said this fish was unusual. When it was first hoisted up and I really saw a little bit of it, I said there was a big catch..."

"I also said this fish looked so beautiful, it must be valuable..."

Everyone spoke up, exclaiming in wonder.

Ye Yaodong watched as they were all preoccupied with surrounding and looking at this fish, forgetting the work they were supposed to be doing.

Sure enough, novices are novices, and a makeshift crew is a makeshift crew; they are still not professional enough. Once they run far away and see something novel, they don't know what they should be doing.

"Don't just stand there looking at it. You have to do the work that needs to be done. Go and seal the net mouth again, throw the fish collection bag into the water, and continue hoisting."

This is not continuing to trawl, but letting the remaining fish in the net continue to fill the fish collection bag, and then hoisting the net up again.

Referencing the shock of catching 110,000 jin of Japanese grenadier in one net previously.

I can't guarantee how much of a catch there is from hauling up a fishing net hundreds of meters long, but to say the least, it's tens of thousands of jin; you can't finish releasing one net at a time, the hoist pole isn't long enough.

Actually, it can't be any longer, or the hoist pole would easily break.

The cargo in one fish collection bag is 5,000 jin per release, which is commonly known as releasing one load.

With tens of thousands of jin of cargo coming up in one net, it can only be released load by load like this.

He had just been specifically staring at the display screen, heading toward the area where the dots were densely distributed, so this haul certainly wouldn't be bad; there wouldn't just be one or two loads.

Yet these people were all preoccupied with looking at the big fish; their professional quality is not enough, and their experience is too shallow.

At his urging, someone hurriedly went to continue closing the net mouth and threw it into the water, letting the fish in the fishing net continue to fall into the fish collection bag.

Ye Yaodong continued, "With a dozen people all surrounding this place looking, no one is doing any work. This can't happen next time. Also, these fish still need to be sorted; those that need to be bled should be bled, those that need to be frozen should be frozen, and those that need to be kept fresh with ice should be kept fresh..."

"Understood, understood..."

Seeing the crowd about to scatter, he hurriedly called one of them back to help him take a group photo.

His camera can now take color photos; this fish is already brightly colored, so it will look even better when developed.

After taking the photo, he hung the camera around his neck again, and then held the fish with both hands, looking at it back and forth.

The others were busy working while also turning their heads to look at the fish; working with their hands did not affect their chatting and talking at all.

"Boss, how much can this fish sell for..."

"It should be over 100 jin. It's flat and wide, like a pomfret, it must be very valuable."

"Everyone says it's a lucky fish, and it's rare, so it must be very valuable..."

Ye Yaodong replied, "It depends on the situation. We have to see if there is anyone who knows its value. If we don't encounter anyone who knows its value in the short term, then we're finished; we can only try our luck to see how much it can sell for."

"A few hundred yuan, right?"

Before he could answer, someone next to him said, "Nonsense, of course there is. It's so rare..."

"But a few hundred yuan can't make up for this load of cargo..."

Everyone looked at Ye Yaodong in confusion.

Ye Yaodong said, "I said, it depends on the situation how much it can sell for; at the very least, it's a few hundred yuan, there's no need to doubt that. As for the most important thing, it's because it's lucky, you know? You might not even be able to see one in a lifetime, and didn't you notice anything different about this fish?"

"What's different? Where is it different?"

"There's nothing different, right? Isn't it just a fish?"

"No, this fish feels warm to the touch..."

"Yes, it has a temperature; we already mentioned that once just now."

Ye Yaodong nodded, "This is the only constant-temperature fish species discovered so far. You'll know how rare this fish is just by touching it, so at the very least, it's a few hundred yuan; for more, it depends on the boss who buys it."

"Awesome, I've learned something new..."

"Hurry up and work, hurry up and hoist the second load of cargo up, don't just keep talking."

"Oh, okay..."

I won't popularize science for them anymore, lest it distracts them and they don't do their work properly.

After all the loads of cargo are hoisted down, I'll see the situation and then talk about popularizing science for them.

The origin of the name moonfish is not because it looks like the moon.

The reason it is called a moonfish is because this fish lives 20 meters deep in the deep sea; it cannot be seen during the day, and only floats to the surface around the 15th of the lunar month when the moon is full, and mostly between 12:00 and 1:00 at night.

Because it belongs to the moonfish family, and it has spotted patterns on it, looking like stars in the sky, it earned its beautiful name.

Ye Yaodong calculated silently in his heart; the Lantern Festival had just passed, and today is still the 17th of the lunar calendar, which indeed falls around the 15th of the lunar month.

The timing of this trip out to sea was chosen well; I didn't expect to catch a moonfish.

Up to now, most moonfish have been caught by accident; it's like winning the lottery, no one expected it.

Because they don't travel in schools, commercial fishing is not realistic.

Not being able to see one in a lifetime, this weight is heavy, which is enough to show his good luck.

This must mean that he will have smooth sailing, be safe and sound, and make a lot of money in the future.

The fishermen by the sea are just that superstitious.

Ye Yaodong looked at this moonfish back and forth with delight, preparing to bleed it himself.

He wouldn't feel at ease letting others do it; he'll let people carry it back to the freezer for storage after he finishes processing it, and then sell it for a good price after returning.

At this time, the second load of cargo was also hoisted up, a full load, and the mast was even bent.

"Damn, too awesome. I've never seen so much cargo in my life..."

"There's still more in the fishing net, and several more loads need to be released. How can this boat catch so much..."

"There's... there's a display... screen..."

"Where are we even at? The most we've seen in one net was 110,000 jin, and it was all Japanese grenadier, unlike this pile of miscellaneous stuff..."

"Damn, you have such good luck, following the boss so early..."

"No, look, look, there's another moonfish..."

Hearing this, everyone raised their heads, looking at the load of cargo hoisted high, and they really saw a small part of the color exposed, which was really very similar to the moonfish just now.

Ye Yaodong, who was originally holding a knife and bleeding the moonfish to process its internal organs, was also surprised and looked up.

Just as they pulled the pole out and opened the net mouth wide, an identical fish instantly slid out from the net mouth.

He swore happily and stood up, "Damn? What the hell, there's another one?"

"We're rich..."

"Does this one look even bigger?"

"Brother Dong, look quickly, I didn't expect to catch two in one net."

"Didn't you say this fish is very rare? That you might not even be able to see one in a lifetime?"

Ye Yaodong laughed and scolded, "Are you questioning me? Do I know more, or do you know more? This shows that I have good luck, not that there are many of these fish, you know?"

How did he know that he could suddenly catch two in one net?

This makes it seem like he was just bragging.

It clearly should show that his luck is off the charts.

"Hahaha..."

"Can you speak? If you weren't following Brother Dong, you might really not be able to see one in a lifetime."

"Exactly, Brother Dong's luck at sea is strong, didn't the village know that a few years ago?"

Ye Yaodong said, "Carry this second fish down together, put the two fish together to compare and see; the second fish does indeed feel a size bigger."

"I think so too, the weight when carrying it is different..."

"There's no scale, which is a pity."

An old fisherman smiled and said, "What do we need a scale for? We can just carry them and get a rough estimate by hand."

"Yes, this one is about 140 or 150 jin, and the one just now was about 120 or 130 jin. We can still estimate a rough amount; the difference in weight is so much, we can still feel it."

Ye Yaodong also tried lifting it and felt it was indeed about the same; he smiled until his eyes disappeared.

"Awesome, a great start."

"When we went out to sea, Uncle Ye San's offerings were not thrown in vain; he fed the Dragon King, and the Dragon King sent us a big catch."

"Couldn't it be Goddess Mazu?"

"Yes, yes, yes..."