Super Zoo

Su Ming had asked Lao Gu to spread the news and buy all kinds of rare fish before, so the fishermen who caught the knife fish immediately notified Lao Gu by radio.

Fishermen would bring radios with them when they went out on the boats, so that they could communicate with each other. If any boat was in danger, they could ask for help from the surrounding fishing boats in the shortest time, and they could also use it to chat at other times.

The radios on each boat were kept on a public channel. When they heard that someone had caught a knife fish, the whole channel was filled with joy and congratulations.

"Whose family is this? You're so lucky?"

"From the sound, it must be Uncle Liao's boat!"

"I've been here for the third day, and I haven't seen a single hair of the knife fish!"

"Twelve of them weigh more than five catties. Wow, one of them weighs more than four ounces! The current price is two to three thousand per catty. Old Liao, you've made more than ten thousand with this one net. You're rich!"

"I said yesterday that it's a good thing that those cooks didn't kill the overlord turtle. The goddess of the river really blessed me today! My catch is not bad either. I caught more than four hundred catties in the morning..."

"Old Gu, are you going to take it or not? Give me a word! If you don't take it, I'll take it for two thousand and five per catty!" Some fishermen simply asked impatiently.

Knife fish is one of the four delicacies of the Yangtze River. In recent years, there has been no large-scale fishing news, and the output is very scarce. Fishermen with bad luck may not be able to catch one in the entire fishing season. The price of knife fish will fluctuate greatly with different seasons. When it's expensive, it's four to five thousand, and when it's cheap, it's only more than one hundred.

However, in the past two years, there have been news that the country will soon ban the fishing of knife fish. In other words, we may not be able to eat legal wild knife fish in the future. Therefore, the price of wild Yangtze River knife fish has risen particularly high this year. The price of knife fish weighing about one tael is over one thousand yuan. Basically, the price of fish weighing one tael is more than one thousand yuan. After reaching four or five taels, the price is rising sharply.

Knife fish are small in size, and it is considered a big fish if it can grow to four taels. Two years ago, Huayin County caught a knife fish weighing less than seven taels, known as the knife fish king, and it is said that it was finally sold for 60,000 yuan.

Old Gu looked at Su Ming, who nodded quickly and said loudly to the radio intercom: "Old Liao, right? I'm Mr. Su from Yangchuan City. I want your net knife fish. I'll give it to you at 3,000 yuan per catty. Do you think it's okay?"

The other end of the radio immediately heard a voice mixed with Jiang Feng: "Oh, it's Mr. Su. Hello, hello. We met at Old Gu's house yesterday! If you want it, I'll keep it for you. I weighed it, and it's a total of 5 catties and 2 taels, so it counts as 5 catties!"

"Okay, thank you!" Su Ming continued to say to the radio with a smile: "Everyone, I asked Old Gu to collect fish. Did you catch any fish? I have a reservoir. I'll buy it and take it back to raise."

Su Ming's public purchase made the radio lively all of a sudden.

"About fifty catties of black snakehead..."

"I caught forty to fifty catties of yellow croaker here, will Mr. Su take it?"

"Big silver carp, and bighead carp..."

"Do you want yellow eel? I'm so unlucky. After a whole morning, only one yellow eel was seen. The rest were small fish. But it's not small, almost three catties!" I don't know if this fisherman was unlucky or the yellow eel was unlucky. It was hiding in a hole on the shore and was caught inexplicably.

A wild yellow eel weighing three catties is really rare. Su Ming laughed: "Forget it, I want the yellow eel." Yellow eels that can grow this big are special cases. I don't expect to raise them. I bought them back to taste.

The radio was busy for a long time. About thirty fishing boats from Huayin County in the river reported their catches. It sounded like the harvest was pretty good. On average, each family had three to four hundred catties of fish. Su Ming selected several species with relatively high economic value, such as knife fish, black snakehead and yellow croaker.

As he was talking, someone suddenly shouted excitedly: "White sturgeon! Goddess of the River, two white sturgeons! My goodness, they are almost one meter long! President Su, will you buy them?!"

Su Ming was stunned, and then laughed: "You are too bold, you dare to sell white sturgeons publicly! They are first-class national protected animals, be careful to be caught and put in jail!"

The white sturgeon and the Chinese sturgeon are both sturgeons, and are considered close relatives, but their appearances are very different. The Chinese sturgeon's fish snout or mouth is a bit flat, while the white sturgeon is commonly known as elephant fish, swordfish, harp fish, etc. It has a long fusiform body and a long sword-shaped fish snout. The long fish snout can even account for one-third of the total body length.

Sturgeons have a common feature, which is large size, and the white sturgeon is the best among them. It is almost the largest freshwater fish. The largest one can grow to seven or eight meters long, about the same size as a great white shark. Moreover, this guy is fierce, and most of his body is covered with hard bone armor. It is not an exaggeration to describe his long snout as a "sharp sword". If he hits it hard in the water, he can poke a big hole in a small wooden fishing boat.

The value of white sturgeon is very high. The caviar made from white sturgeon roe is the most expensive caviar in the world. One kilogram can be as high as five or six thousand US dollars in the national market.

However, like wild Chinese sturgeon and Yangtze alligator, white sturgeon is a national first-class protected animal, endangered, and private trading and killing are not allowed.

"What should we do, Mr. Su, we have already fished it up?" said the voice on the other end of the radio.

What should we do? This is nonsense. If you fish it up, can't you put it back in the water? Su Ming laughed, and the other party was obviously a little unwilling.

Putting himself in his shoes, Su Ming could understand. This is like picking up a piece of gold and suddenly telling him to hand it over to the country. No one would be willing to give it up, not to mention that he lives on fishing.

"Let's do this. You can keep the two fish on the boat and protect them first."

"Are there any rewards?" asked the other side.

Everyone on the radio was laughing, and Su Ming also chuckled, and said generously: "Don't worry, I will help you ask for the reward from the relevant departments. I dare not tell you if it is more than 20,000 to 30,000 yuan!"

"That's great, I'll treat them like ancestors!" The fisherman who caught the paddlefish laughed.

They are all honest and law-abiding people. If the country does not give them a dime in reward, the fishermen might take the risk and secretly sell the two paddlefish for hundreds of thousands, but since they can get a reward of twenty or thirty thousand, there is no need to risk going to jail. The risk is to traffic in national first-level protected animals.

Su Ming hung up the radio and quickly called Liang Shi. Before the call was dialed, he stopped.

"Are you thinking about how to get those two paddlefish to the zoo to keep?" Zhao Yun saw through Su Ming's thoughts at a glance.

Zhao Yun's guess was correct. Protecting the paddlefish was the first priority, but it could be decided which company would protect it. Su Ming is now the director of the zoo, and his butt determines his head. Of course, he wants to get more resources for the zoo.

Su Ming thought for more than ten seconds before making a decision. First of all, he had to protect the paddlefish. As for who would get it, he could just slowly argue with Professor Chu later. If it didn't work, he would use the same trick as the finless porpoise. Come out and use it. Don’t be afraid of old tricks, as long as they work.

"What?! Paddlefish, or two? A one-meter-long adult paddlefish?!" Liang Shi's excited voice on the other end of the phone made his ears explode.

Su Ming held the phone a little further away from his head and said, "What's your name? I'm not deaf!"

"Brother Su, you don't know. We haven't found wild paddlefish in several years. There is only one remaining paddlefish in the conservation center. If we can't find another one that can breed, even the paddlefish will become extinct! God bless, God. Bless you! Professor Chu is next door, don’t hang up the phone, I’m going to tell him the good news now..."

Half a minute later, Professor Chu's voice rang on the other end of the phone: "Xiao Su, this is Professor Chu! Liang Shi didn't speak clearly. Please tell me the specific situation again!"

Su Ming could only repeat it again.

"Good, good, good! That's great!" Professor Chu said five good words in a row, and added a short sentence of exclamation. It seemed that it was not enough to express his joy. He said happily and urgently: "Such a small child Su, you must protect these two white sturgeons. I will bring people here now, and they will be there in the afternoon! You must protect those two sturgeons, and I will give you credit!”

"Professor Chu, I can't take credit from others. It was fishermen from Huayin County who caught it. I told them to give them a reward of 50,000 yuan!" Su Ming deliberately doubled the promised reward.

Lao Chu, I can't say he is stingy. It is because the research and protection funds allocated by the authorities are too little. Last time for a family of three finless porpoises, the authorities only allocated a bonus of 100,000 yuan, which was divided among several units. Su Ming quoted a high price to give Lao Chu room to bargain.

Unexpectedly, Lao Chu agreed without hesitation this time: "Okay! The boss won't give it to me, so I can pay for it myself! No more, I'm going to Huayin County now, you must protect me!" "

"Understood." Su Ming hung up the phone and made another call to Director Song. Director Song is currently in the provincial capital, attending the 'Baiji Dolphin Memorial Service' with Liang Shi and others.

After Lao Song retired, his temper became stronger and stronger. When he heard about this situation, he said at the time: "What fifty thousand yuan! The zoo offers one hundred thousand yuan. Xiao Su, you are also a leader now, so you are more courageous! Let's The aquarium in the zoo is still empty. I came here with Lao Chu and talked to him about it on the way. Why should I save them money when I find good things? Our zoo is not unconditional. In short, you should take care of it first! Protect the two fishes!”

"Yes, I know what the leader has to say about you!" Su Ming said.

After confirming the bonus, Su Ming spoke on the radio again: "I'll get the reward for you, 50,000 guaranteed. I'll come to your boat now to take a look at those two paddlefish."

He himself had never seen a living paddlefish, so he was quite curious.

"Old Shen, if you make a fortune this time, you will have harvested for a year!"

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, Mr. Su, next time we catch a first-level protected fish, can we also apply for a bonus?" someone asked.

"OK, no problem!"

Su Ming was about to let Lao Gu sail the boat and approached the fishing boat of Lao Shen's family. He saw two speedboats suddenly rushing out from behind the sand mining boat in the distance, causing large splashes of water on the river. The troops split into two groups.

The speed of the speedboat was astonishing. Lao Gu's fishing boat had just turned around, but within two minutes, the speedboat had already arrived at two fishing boats from Huayin County. Several people on the speedboat jumped onto the fishing boat.

"Huh? Isn't that the boat of Lao Liao and Lao Shen? Why are the people on the sand mining boat looking for them?" Su Ming was stunned. Lao Liao caught the saury, and Lao Shen caught the white sturgeon.

"It's broken!" Lao Gu slapped his forehead, "The public radio channel is not encrypted. Boats on the river can receive it!"