My Manor

"Eleven and a half tons, about 30,000 fish. This is just the fish in the upper layer. If we fish some more from deeper down, there will probably be more." Looking at the numbers displayed on the hydraulic screen, Philemon couldn't help but laugh. He then controlled the robot arm to pull the fishing net to the fish pond next to it, which had been emptied for a long time. However, there was no water in the pond at this time because these fish still needed to be sorted. Some were valuable, some were not, and their fates were naturally different. As Philemon put the eleven tons of fish into the pond, Edward also walked out of the cab and followed Jiang Hai and Philemon, who put down the fishing net again and entered the pond.

Now they needed to sort the fish, placing some of the precious ones separately in the pool next to them, and discarding or killing some inedible creatures, such as caught water plants, jellyfish, sea snakes, etc.

Some creatures, like turtles, sharks, seals, sea lions, and dolphins, needed to be released back into the sea. These creatures, except for those who were crazy enough to kill them at a specific point, were rarely killed by ordinary fishing boats.

According to Philemon, the fish they caught now from the upper layers rarely contained strange creatures.

Sure enough, after the purse seine was opened, aside from a lot of water plants, most of the catch was fish.

There were all kinds of fish, with several huge red fish being the most conspicuous. These fish had spikes on their bodies and looked very scary. When Edward and Philemon saw them, they immediately ran over, grabbed them by the gills, and threw them directly into the pool next to them.

"What kind of fish is this? It looks quite festive," Jiang Hai asked, joining them as he caught a fish. He was very curious.

"This is the vermilion flathead, a very valuable fish that can grow up to about one meter. It originally lived in the Pacific Canadian region, but later the Newfoundland fishery planted it here, so we have it too. The price of this fish is very high. Not only can it be eaten, but it can also be raised as an ornamental fish. The one in your hand can be sold for about two thousand dollars." Philemon's explanation made Jiang Hai's eyes light up. A fish can be sold for two thousand dollars? That's really a big profit!

But he was actually thinking too much. It would take six or seven years for the fish to grow to the size of the one in his hand. It's possible to raise these fish for profit, but it would be difficult to make a lot of money in large quantities.

After learning how valuable the fish was, Jiang Hai became more careful and returned the fish to the pool.

After releasing the fish, Jiang Hai caught another red fish and was about to put it in the pool, but Philemon stopped him.

"This kind of fish is the vermilion flatfish, which is valuable. The one you caught is a sea bass, which is not valuable... This type of fish is also called Norwegian cod, a little more expensive than cod, but still not worth putting in." Philemon's words confused Jiang Hai. To be honest, it was difficult for him to tell the difference between these fish.

Jiang Hai then noticed that among the fish they had caught, there were many other small red fish. This time, he decided to remember them and ask Philemon about them first.

"This is a golden eye snapper, also a Pacific Ocean fish, but it's raised here. It probably came out to reproduce. This fish is also valuable. People in Japan like it a lot... This is a redfin snapper, which is not valuable. This is a bigeye snapper, which is okay, but just throw it here, and we'll sort it out later," Philemon explained while they continued sorting. Jiang Hai found that these fish were indeed special.

To him, they all looked similar, but there were several, even more than a dozen, classifications. This was only for the red ones. If they were of normal color, it would be even more confusing. The same flatfish could be black-banded flatfish, black-eyed flatfish, or file-head flatfish... At least Jiang Hai couldn't tell them apart. The prices of the three mentioned fish varied greatly. The black-banded flatfish was the cheapest, only selling for about $6 per kilogram, while the black-eyed flatfish could be sold for $11. If fishermen like Jiang Hai didn't distinguish the fish clearly, the fishmongers would not separate them and would consider all of them black-banded flatfish.

In that case, the fishermen, like Jiang Hai, the fish farm owner, would lose money.

Eleven and a half tons of fish, excluding kelp and water, meant there were about ten tons of fish, nearly thirty thousand fish.

Thirty thousand fish may seem like a lot, but in the hands of professional fishermen, sorting them was still a quick job.

It took a little time to pick out the valuable fish, but it only took a second or two to sort out the less valuable fish. So after about two hours, they had thrown the useless sea snakes back into the sea and killed the jellyfish. Without any turtles, fur seals, sea lions, or other creatures to release, Edward and Philemon had already counted all the fish. This work was easy for them.

"Take a break, and then set the second net." Seeing that the fish were all caught and it was still early, Edward Anderson took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, lit two, handed one to Philemon, and then sat down to rest.

Since they knew that Jiang Hai didn't smoke, they didn't offer him one.

In fact, Jiang Hai had smoked long ago, probably when he was in junior high school, but later, his family conditions didn't allow it, and after smoking for a few years, he found that he didn't have any addiction. So he quit. Although his financial situation allowed him to smoke now, he had no intention of picking it up again. It was fine not to smoke.

"Come here, boss, let me introduce you to the fish we caught." The two of them were puffing away, while Jiang Hai, having nothing to do, was approached by Philemon, who smiled and offered to introduce the fish to him.

As the boss of a fishery, it would be a bit inappropriate for Jiang Hai not to know about the fish. To be honest, he had already become interested in them, and when he heard what Philemon said, he went to the side of the pond.

"I don't need to introduce these common ones. This is cod, this is herring, you should know this fish, sea bass, the greediest guy in the sea and the easiest to catch. This is the vermilion flatfish I just mentioned, this is sheep bream, this is black-banded flatfish, this is black-eyed flatfish, this is perch, this is red scorpionfish, golden-eyed scorpionfish, file-head flatfish, silver perch, brown trout, and Atlantic salmon. Like trout, I guess this fish is about to spawn..." Philemon continued introducing the fish. Jiang Hai couldn't tell them apart, so he had to memorize them. He realized that being a fisherman really required experience and vision, especially for a fishery like his, which had not been fished for several years.

Since the fishery had been unused, unlike aquaculture fisheries, the fish here were very mixed.

If you didn't have good eyesight, you could really pick the wrong ones. Jiang Hai was thankful that he had found Edward.

"I know this fish, it's a lionfish," Jiang Hai said when he saw a fish with long thorns on its body. He remembered seeing it on TV before.

"Uh, this is a sea bream," Philemon hesitated before revealing the truth.

"Well, it's about the same," Jiang Hai said, taking a closer look. They did look quite similar.

"Not at all. The scientific name of lionfish is Pterois, which belongs to the Scorpaenidae family, just like the vermilion flatfish and black flatfish over there. They belong to that family. Sea bream belongs to the Sparidae family. The most important thing is that lionfish is a harmful species. Because it's poisonous, not many people like to eat it, so its price is much lower. We don't have lionfish here. It's a Pacific Ocean fish. Sea bream is what we have here, and the price is very high." Philemon laughed as he explained.

Jiang Hai smiled awkwardly. It seemed his knowledge wasn't enough.

"Okay, that's enough. Let's cast another net and sell it. This time, let's cast deeper," Edward, who had been sitting, stood up and threw his cigarette butt into the trash can. He went back to the cabin. Meanwhile, Jiang Hai and Philemon stayed on the deck and moved the precious fish into a separate, humidified room with a sink specially used for storing seafood. Fresh seafood was the best to eat alive. Frozen seafood was never as delicious, and of course, tuna and similar fish wouldn't survive out of the water, but that was another matter.

The less valuable fish were placed in the frozen cold storage with water. With so many fish, they would survive if they could, and die if they couldn't, as long as they stayed fresh when sent to the fishmongers.

Once everything was ready, Edward's voice came over the loudspeaker. He had spotted a school of fish using sonar. Philemon immediately operated the crane arm to lower the fishing net into the water. This time, they used a longer rope. The fish they had caught earlier were from the upper layers, about five to twenty meters deep. This time, the net went deeper, targeting fish between twenty and thirty meters. They were still on the continental shelf, and at thirty meters, the net would drag along the seabed. This would catch more things!

They hadn't chosen such a depth earlier due to the reefs in the previous area, but there were no reefs in this new area.