Chapter 767: Land of Idyllic Beauty
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
After reading the ocean weather forecast and determining that the weather in the offshore area was relatively calm in the middle of April, Li Du prepared to leave the island for another area.
His harvest on King Island was almost complete. There was plenty of black gold abalone around, but after years of harvest, there was not much left that was of legal harvesting size or that was easily accessible by freediving.
Most of the rest of the abalone was in relatively deep waters. He wouldn't dare harvest them by freediving.
Money was precious, but life was worth more!
King Island was located in the Bass Strait, with Melbourne and Victoria to the north, and Tasmania to the south.
The Bass Strait was very long, and there were many islands around King Island. These islands were often very small or were wildlife preserves, so they were uninhabited by humans.
Li Du speculated that there was definitely black gold abalone living in those waters.
This was not just a guess. It was a fact that many fishermen had caught black gold abalone around the islands.
However, it was more difficult to catch them in those places. First, they were less populated, and second, there were more aquatic creatures and more dangerous conditions.
For Li Du, that was not a problem. He was not afraid of there being fewer abalone because he wasn't like the regular fishermen who used their eyes to look for abalone while diving.
The little bug could locate abalone for him. He just had to follow it.
Around mid-month, the SeaStar 60 sailed out to sea pulling along the speedboat.
This time they started at noon, and as usual, they were followed.
Mostly they were followed by speedboats or small boats. They could not go too far out to sea, or the fierce waves would destroy their boats.
The SeaStar 60 was a yacht with a length of nearly 20 meters. It had a large displacement and could withstand much stronger waves.
Their yacht went far out to sea, and the boats following them couldn't keep up.
The black gold abalone fishermen were very unfriendly, and when they saw Li Du sailing out to sea to get rid of them, they shouted, "You want to get rid of us? Dream on. You'll be back, and we'll be here waiting for you!"
"Go on, go on! Be careful. You're going to get hit by a wave out there and die!"
"Next time, I'll come in a big boat. I'm warning you, don't keep the harvest to yourself!"
The insults came in fits and starts, and when Li Du and Hans could stand it no longer, they raised their middle fingers to the boats behind them.
Lu Guan was also angry and said, "I really wish I had the ability to control the ocean. I would raise a big wave and dump them into the sea so that they would experience the consequences of being jerks!"
"I wish that, too," said Hans. "But powers only exist in movies and television. How could they actually exist?"
"Doesn't Boss have powers?" asked Big Quinn suddenly.
Li Du was startled and looked at him in surprise. "What do you mean?"
Big Quinn grinned with a row of white teeth. "You can see beyond what the average man can. Isn't that a power? Lu Guan can hear more than an average person, which is a power, too."
"It's a power that tortures me," Lu Guan said gloomily. "But there's no chance of it making me rich."
Li Du breathed a sigh of relief. "You don't use it the right way," he said with a wry smile. "Otherwise, it could help you a lot."
"I still want to be like you. Having amazing observation and eyesight," said Lu Guan.
"So do I. But if you can give me amazing hearing, the boss is right. That is a gift, and you're not using it right," said Big Quinn.
"How can I use it to make money?" Lu Guan asked earnestly.
They all began to discuss the topic.
Li Du, who was not involved in the discussion, took a chart of the rip current distribution in the Bass Strait and Tasman Sea, and compared it with the large map to find the location of the possible distribution of the black gold abalone.
According to his experience, he was looking for places that fit these criteria: small islands or reefs around the edge of a rip current, surrounding seaweed, and underwater volcanoes.
The small islands or reefs around them meant shallow water, as they could only survive in shallow water.
The surrounding seaweed was a key part of the black gold abalone's food source, which could be transported by the rip current. The underwater volcanic belt was often a favorite habitat for the black gold abalone.
Soon, he determined a few positions and told Brother Wolf to set sail.
To avoid being followed, they made a big curve and drove half a day at sea before reaching the first target area.
The area was located between King Island and the southeast corner of Australia, where there were several small islands.
Li Du released the little bug to search, but the result was not very optimistic. There was indeed a black gold abalone habitat, but the number of abalone was too small.
The SeaStar 60 continued eastward into the Tasman Sea.
Close to Cape Barren Island, they reached another possible destination.
There was no way to get into the sea. Cape Barren Island had a large population of sea lions and seals, some of which swam upstream to find food.
Seals and sea lions were the natural enemies of abalone fishermen. Although these guys were cute and slow on land, they were worthy beasts of prey in the water.
These beasts were always hungry, and humans could easily be mistaken for big fish and be attacked. It was dangerous there, so Li Du couldn't stay.
They stayed on Cape Barren Island for the night. Li Du was actually not disappointed.
Their purpose was to travel, and making money was just icing on the cake.
As the name suggested, Cape Barren Island was an island that one would expect to be small. However, it wasn't. Australia was quite large, and Cape Barren Island was just an "edge" relative to the Australian mainland. However, it was quite large for an island.
The island was 42.3 kilometers long, 22.7 kilometers wide, and covered an area of 464 square kilometers.
They came ashore from the east coast, where the island's first attraction, the lagoons, were an important wetland in Australia and around the world.
Sand dunes and beaches on the lagoon coast covered 4,370 hectares and were home to many waterbirds.
They came ashore in the late afternoon during the warm autumn evening. Many seabirds had not yet left the southern hemisphere or were preparing to cross for the winter at the equator.
So when they got into the coastal dunes, they saw something spectacular.
There were numerous large and small seabirds in the wetland including pelicans, anhinga, cormorants, black swans, various kinds of wild ducks, masked lapwings, purple pheasants, dusky moorhens, coots, African stonechat, Australian white ibis, Australian silver gull, and more. Li Du and the others were amazed.