The rise of nanometers

Time is like the rolling Yangtze River, rushing towards the future.

Unconsciously, it has arrived in August of the 2021 lunar calendar. With the rise of the Federation, the lunar calendar has become more and more important around the world.

Southern Ocean.

This is an ocean that has only been officially named in recent years. It is located around Antarctica. The federal development in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean is mainly protective development.

As one of the few areas that has not suffered too much from the global cooling process, it has also become lively this year.

A 150,000-ton nuclear-powered ocean-going fishing vessel is currently on the Amundsen Sea in the Southern Ocean. The average water depth here reaches 600 to 1,000 meters, making it a large ocean basin.

At this time, it is the Mid-Autumn Festival in the northern hemisphere, but it is the beginning of spring in the southern hemisphere. Due to the impact of the Yellowstone volcanic event, the previously expanded ice sheet in Antarctica has shrunk again, but it has not returned to the ice sheet line before 2016.

Fishing boats come here not to catch Antarctic krill, nor to catch whales, seals and penguins, but for king crabs.

That’s right, it’s for the king crab.

Perhaps many people are very confused, isn’t it said that king crab is native to the Bering Sea? Why is it also in the Southern Ocean?

In fact, there are king crabs not only in the Southern Ocean, but also in the North Atlantic. The king crabs in the North Atlantic were brought from the Bering Sea by researchers during the Lao Maozi period.

As for the king crabs in the Southern Ocean, the reason for their appearance is not yet certain, but there are only two possibilities. One is artificially stocked; the other is caused by the strange warm current brought from the North Pacific during the previous global warming process.

Regardless of how they arrived, king crabs are a classic invasive species in the Southern Ocean.

This nuclear-powered fishing ship named "Xinghai 15" is also one of the few fishing ships designed after the Federation entered the agricultural factory era.

In fact, all the major aquatic products companies in the Federation now focus on large-scale breeding, and the number of fishing for natural aquatic products at sea is decreasing year by year.

As for large fishing ships like Xinghai 15, even if they are fishing, they still need to obtain a quota from the Ministry of Oceans, otherwise they cannot catch wild marine animals at will.

This time, the king crab fishing quota obtained in the Southern Ocean is actually a sign that the king crabs in the Southern Ocean are flooding.

The captain and fishing manager were in the cockpit, looking at the data fed back by the reconnaissance submarine. There were many king crabs in this basin.

Fishing manager Wang Hanbiao took the investigation report from the Ministry of Oceans and said with a helpless expression:

"Survey data from this autumn (in the Southern Hemisphere) show that there are about 750,000 to 900,000 king crabs in this basin. Now looking at the distribution density, it is estimated that there are no less than 1.5 million."

"It seems to have climbed more than a hundred meters." Captain Zhang Peng reminded.

In fact, the growth area of ​​king crabs is usually on the seabed at a depth of 800 to 1,000 meters. Unless the seawater temperature in the Southern Ocean rises, they will develop upward.

At present, traces of king crabs have been found in seven basins in the Southern Ocean, but the sizes of the populations vary.

King crabs, which have no natural predators in the Southern Ocean, once they take root here, will eat up most of the animals and algae on the seabed.

Therefore, it is necessary to artificially reduce the number of king crabs and suppress the size of their population in the Southern Ocean to a relatively reasonable range.

In fact, the Xinghai 15 fishing boat came to fish in the Southern Ocean, which was a loss-making business.

There are now king crab farms in the Bering Sea and the South Pacific, with an annual output of 1.5 to 2 billion kilograms of king crab. On average, the total population of the federation is about 0.7 kilograms per person.

The cost of catching natural king crabs is actually much higher than farming.

The current market retail price of king crabs in the Federation is only 3 to 5 credits per kilogram. However, Xinghai 15 can successfully fill up the 100,000-ton freezer compartment in one trip and also wholesale it smoothly. The total income Up to 150 million credits.

The problem is that ship depreciation, employee wages, supplies, equipment depreciation, packaging and secondary transportation all add up to about 130 million credits.

It looks like you can earn around 20 million.

But the problem is that naturally growing king crabs vary in size, and coupled with problems such as road damage along the way, market saturation, and the fact that they cannot catch 100,000 tons of king crabs at all, losses are basically obvious.

In fact, Xinghai 15 does not make money from the sale of king crabs, but relies on financial subsidies from the Ministry of Oceans and the Ministry of Ecology.

Otherwise, there are only 9 to 12 million king crabs in the Southern Ocean at most, and the total number of fished out may not be 100,000 tons.

After the reconnaissance submarine detected the number of king crabs in the sea basin, fishing manager Wang Hanbiao picked up the walkie-talkie and ordered:

"Start the operation, anchor point C136, lower the net."

"receive."

The robotic arm throws a huge fishing net into the seabed, and then quickly deploys the fishing net made of high-strength materials after reaching the seabed.

In order to protect the ecology, traditional fishing nets have been banned on federal fishing boats and high-strength fishing nets have to be used instead.

The reason for this is that traditional fishing nets often break and remain in the ocean. These fishing nets are not easy to degrade quickly and can easily become entangled in marine animals.

When the net is successfully laid on the seabed, the staff presses a switch, and the fishing net carries some spherical objects. These objects will emit a special sound wave that can induce the surrounding king crabs to gather here.

At the same time, the staff will put in some specially prepared bait to further attract king crabs.

More than two hours later, tens of thousands of king crabs were crowded in the fishing net.

Wang Hanbiao knew it was time to close the net: "Close the net!"

The motor of the robotic arm started, pulling up the cable connected to the fishing net, and a large net of king crabs was pulled from the seabed 720 meters to the surface.

The weight display shows that this net caught 62 tons of king crabs. Subtracting some seawater and impurities, it should be about 50 tons.

At this rate, Wang Hanbiao estimates that he can catch 80% of the king crabs in this basin in about a week.

At that time, you can call the Dapeng ground-effect transport plane to come over and deliver the king crabs to nearby Australia, and then transport them by air to various parts of the southern hemisphere of the Federation.

In fact, based on the efficiency of federal fishing boats, if subsidies are sufficient, king crabs will be eaten into protected animals in minutes.

As for why king crabs in the North Atlantic are flooding, this actually has something to do with the operation of capital.

The fishing agreement signed between Nordic and Lucia that year limited the annual fishing quota for king crabs.

On the one hand, it is overflowing with disasters, but on the other hand, it is tightly restricted. What kind of trouble is this?

Of course it's money that's to blame.

You must know that the fishing cost of king crabs is relatively high, and there is an upper limit on the total consumption of the consumer market. Once the production of king crabs increases significantly, the market sales price will inevitably plunge.

In this case, it is necessary to control production volume, create the illusion that scarcity is more valuable, and maintain high sales prices to ensure profits.

Just like producing 10,000 tons, the total turnover is 5 billion, and the net profit is 2.5 billion; the production of 100,000 tons, the total turnover is 10 billion, and the net loss is 10 billion.

If you were an operator, which one would you choose?

This is actually the same as choosing to pour milk or tea after overproduction.

This is also a problem that is difficult to change in the era of capital. They know that king crabs are flooding in the North Atlantic, but they are just unwilling to catch more because if they catch too much, they will lose money.

Thank you for your support (ω｀), and I wish you all a happy Mid-Autumn Festival!