I Can Turn into a Fish

After they set the route, Sword One and Sword Two let the trawler down slowly; the bottom was a rectangular iron pad that sank quickly as the fishing ship slowly sailed forward.

During this process, the trawler gradually expanded into a net and began scooping up all kinds of fish.

The trawler of the Mermaid mainly focused on the upper layer of the sea. Among other species, it caught Spanish Mackerels, Caranx Kallas, Brown-Striped Mackerel Scads, different types of bass, and small yellow croakers that lived in the upper regions of the water.

The fishing ship sailed along, dragging the fish net behind it like a heaven net that caught all the fish and shrimp in its wake. [1]

The trawling method used a lot of fuel, but it was incredibly efficient and very terrifying.

Standing on the deck, Chu Xian looked out and watched as the trawling net scooped up all kinds of fish; no matter big or small, they were all caught.

That’s right – with just one net from start to finish, all the fish in their path were captured.

Usually, when ships trawled, they needed to pull up the net every two or three hours, but if the fish population was particularly high and dense, fishermen would need to raise the net every hour or so.

Chu Xian was in a very average area, and the fish weren’t densely clustered at all.

Even so, the progress was evident even to a casual observer; an ever-growing swarm of fish gathered in the net, and after four hours, the whole trawling net was filled with all kinds of fish.

Chu Xian’s fishing ship was a small ship less than thirty meters long, and the trawling net wasn’t particularly large either, with a max capacity of five tons. After hours of relatively calm sailing, the net was full.

The majority of the fish were small yellow croakers, with the bigger fish around forty cm and the smaller ones down to a little over ten cm. There were also many lobsters, crabs, and regular fish like hairtails.

“Raise the net!” Old Huang called out.

Sword One and Sword Two immediately started the machine that slowly raised the trawling net out of the water.

“Boss, we got a decent haul!” Old Huang said excitedly as he watched the rising net. “Although the fish are mostly cheaper stuff like croakers and hairtails, with the load we got… that’s four tons at least! That’s around seven to eight thousand catties of fish!”

Seven to eight thousand catties! Even if every single fish was cheap, the haul was still worth thirty to forty thousand RMB!

The net was raised and positioned over a storage tank. With a mechanized release, Sword One dumped the fish.

Chu Xian watched as the fish spilled out into the storage tank, frowning slightly.

He was seeing the huge disadvantage of trawler fishing first-hand – eighty percent of the fish would die during the netting and storing process.

When they raised the net, literal tons of fish were piled on top of each other as the net rapidly broke through different water pressure layers – most of the fish would suffer damage to their internal organs or just get crushed from various outside weights, and even the fish lucky enough to survive didn’t have long to live.

“Pa!” A crisp sound different from the rest rang out as something fell onto the deck.

Chu Xian turned to inspect the noise.

A turtle was laying on the deck, about half a meter long. It lay still and was obviously dead from the netting process.

Many smaller baby-sized fish fell on the deck along with some half-meter-long octopi and sturgeon.

Some of the fish they netted weren’t even edible.

“Big fish, small fish, every sort of creature… as long as they make the home their sea, the trawling net will capture and kill all of them. No wonder some countries ban trawler fishing. How terrifying.”

Chu Xian pondered what he knew and saw and thought back to the different forums and articles he read on trawler fishing.

Fishing with a trawling net was the most efficient method available, and that was why he bought the ship, but trawling was also the cruelest method and caused the greatest environmental damage.

One of the bigger, specialized long-journey fishing ships could catch enough fish to fill 13 Boeing 747s.

And still, even with the most professional ship, the net didn’t discriminate and caught all fish, big or small.

For example, they could net sharks, dolphins, turtles, albatrosses, and various precious and protected creatures. Every year, there was up to an estimated million mixed in cast fish unintentionally scooped up along with the rest. A million!

“One trawling net of fish is only worth some ten thousand RMB, and most of the fish already died. I can’t even make use of most of these remains. I won’t fish like this in the future.” Chu Xian decided.

Chu Xian was only interested in large or expensive fish, and cheap and small fish were nearly useless to him.

How much could one net reap from the waters? Some tens of thousands of RMB at most. Meanwhile, it would destroy the ecological balance of the sea.

A single one of his aquariums was worth more than ten thousand RMB; he didn’t need to use such a method.

“If necessary, it would be best if all countries forbade this fishing method that indiscriminately kills large and small fish alike,” Chu Xian thought pensively before shaking his head with a chuckle.

Obviously, it would never happen with so many businesses and enterprises dependent on such a fishing method.

After watching the trawling process, the seven to eight thousand catties of fish didn’t make Chu Xian happy, and the whole experience weighed on his heart.

He already thought of the ocean as his private domain, and just having the knowledge that others were sailing around rampantly destroying the ocean made him unhappy.

But even though he was upset, he couldn’t do anything about it.

“Since we already caught them, let’s not let things go to waste. We should cook something good to eat!” Chu Xian cleared his head and turned to look at the turtle.

“Old Huang, cook that turtle. Let’s not waste such a precious thing!” Chu Xian called out to Old Huang.

He wasn’t a saint, and with the turtle already dead, he didn’t plan to dig a hole and bury it. It was dead and he wasn’t going to sell it, so he would eat it himself.

“Okay boss!” Old Huang nodded. He picked up the twenty to thirty catty turtle and brought it into the kitchen.

“Now let’s see if we caught anything else good!”

Chu Xian walked over to the fish pile and looked around.

There were no major fish schools nearby, so the net scooped up an assorted mix of fish.

The majority was still small yellow croakers, and the runner ups were hairtails and Spanish Mackerels. These fish were relatively small, and there weren’t many larger, full-length fish.

“Old Huang can cook up this squid for us. I’ve never had squid before!” Chu Xian laughed, picking up a large squid. [2]

“What’s this? A crab?”

As he retrieved the squid, Chu Xian noticed a big creature over a meter long.

“What’s that? A killing crab?” Chu Xian looked on in befuddlement, but he still carefully moved the live crab away from the other fish debris.

Chu Xian took out his phone and did some quick research.

“Huh, there really is a killing crab. The Japanese Spider Crab. This is very rare!”

Chu Xian watched the crab moving around. It was like some strange mutated giant spider with legs over a meter long; all in all, it looked quite horrifying.

“Since two of your claws are broken, you can be my dinner tonight,” Chu Xian declared, reaching over to grab the crab.

But suddenly, one of the Spider Crab’s claws jerked and stabbed at him.

Chu Xian backed away quickly with a smile. “It really deserves its name – killing crab. So aggressive!” [3]