Chapter 756: Strict Checks and Precautions
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
All black gold abalones were large since abalones that were allowed to be harvested were at least 10-plus centimeters in diameter!
After Li Du posted pictures of the abalones on his social media page, his classmates thought that they were extra large scallops and no one was able to figure out that they were abalones.
After all, coming in touch with black gold abalone was far-fetched for ordinary people since the difficulty of harvesting black gold abalones and their rarity determined their selling price, which then made it impossible for ordinary households to have them.
As everyone on the yacht had never eaten black gold abalone before, the group of them became excited when the black gold abalone dishes, which were prepared using methods such as cutting into sashimi, poaching, and stir-frying, were served one after another, followed by a small pot of abalone porridge.
Big Quinn and Godzilla managed to catch some fish. Even though Hans had been unable to find any black gold abalone earlier, he'd been able to find a few large scallops.
After sloppily cooking the fish and scallops, a sumptuous seafood feast appeared in front of their eyes.
"It's a pity that we don't have a bottle of wine," Hans said with a tinge of regret in his voice. "Australia's red wines are very famous. We should have bought some good vintage red wine when we were in Melbourne."
Hannah gave him a glare and said, "You still want to drink when you'll be going into the sea? Are you in such a hurry to meet mom and dad?"
"It should be fine drinking a few mouthfuls, right?" Hans argued. "We also didn't go into the sea drunk. Furthermore, we won't be going into the sea after drinking wine."
Sophie eased the tension. "Come, let's pray to God to thank him for blessing us with good food."
As Big Quinn's family, Hannah, and Stephen were all devout Christians, Sophie was not the only one praying in the group.
Li Du respected their religion and waited for them to finish praying before eating.
The dish that they all ate first was the black gold abalone sashimi as they wanted to have a taste and find out exactly what was so great about this black gold abalone that could be sold for a few thousand dollars.
After the abalone meat entered Li Du's mouth, he first felt that the meat was firm and very chewy. However, the meat became soft after chewing.
As for the taste of the abalone meat, the meat had the delicious and refreshing sweetness of seafood. The more the meat was chewed, the longer the taste lasted in his mouth.
Nonetheless, the best part was still the texture of the abalone meat. The texture of the abalone meat, which was firm and springy when it first entered his mouth and became soft, smooth, and glutinous later on, was really amazing.
After the group of them had a taste of the black gold abalone, everyone nodded their head one after another. Sophie whispered, "No wonder they are so expensive. They indeed taste pretty delicious."
Not only were these black gold abalones delicious, they were also very nutritious, or more accurately, extremely nutritious.
As these black gold abalones lived on the rocks of an underwater volcano, a mineral-rich black membrane formed on the surface of their meat. The black membrane contained a high amount of unique abalone visceral extract and abalone polysaccharides and had been verified to have the unique effects of preventing cancer and suppressing tumor growth.
Furthermore, as some parts of black gold abalone meat were rich in minerals such as polyunsaturated fatty acid, vitamins A, E, and B12, selenium, zinc, iodine, and magnesium, black gold abalone meat was effective in strengthening the immune system, lowering cholesterol levels, protecting cardiac and cerebral vessels, and significantly improving the eyesight of consumers.
The idea of healthy living had taken over the world by storm. Other than magnates in Asia, magnates in continents such as Europe, America, and Australia had started hiring professional nutritionists to create recipes for them.
In those recipes, black gold abalone was the most premium ingredient.
Li Du didn't go into the sea again after lunch. Having just gotten the yacht, it was inevitable that they were curious and wanted to have fun. As such, Brother Wolf drove the yacht and brought them to a shallow area of the sea to play.
After a day of resting, they resumed going into the sea.
Like before, Hans followed Li Du while Sophie looked out for them from an area of the sea in front of them.
For the purpose of protecting Sophie, Li Du made her wear a scuba diving suit that was equipped with equipment such as an oxygen tank. With the equipment, she did not need to continuously dive and resurface.
A short while after entering the sea, Li Du found a large abalone and pointed it to Hans.
At this moment, someone suddenly dived down and pointed something at them.
Having noticed this, Li Du and Hans were taken aback. The person seemed to be holding a short handle speargun. Instead of a speargun that didn't use gunpowder, the speargun that the person held used gunpowder.
They resurfaced one after another and saw each other's faces clearly.
There was a speedboat with a "Department of Fishing and Hunting" logo that was parked next to Sea Star 60. The man who dived over to them earlier swam toward the speedboat. Needless to say, they had encountered an officer from the Department of Fishing and Hunting.
"What's going on?" Hans took the initiative to ask.
The officer boarded the speedboat and frowned. "You guys had a total of three people in the sea earlier. Also, there was a person carrying an oxygen tank. What is going on? You guys have broken the rules!"
Once Li Du and the others heard his words, they became anxious. He's talking nonsense, right?
When harvesting black gold abalone in Australia, the price for breaking the rules was very high. The lightest punishment was having to hire a lawyer to go to court and pay the fine, while the heaviest punishment was being arrested immediately, followed by being sentenced to prison and permanently losing the right to harvest and hunt.
Li Du had checked past news articles and found there were cases every year where offenders were sentenced to a number of years in prison.
A lot of effort had been put in to protect Australia's marine resources. Besides deploying a large number of officers, the Department of Fishing and Hunting also used unmanned aerial vehicles and surveillance cameras for surveillance.
Without personally experiencing it, one would not know how much effort had been put in. As many people had the mentality that they were lucky enough not tp get caught, they did not think that they would get caught if they secretly brought their friends into the sea to help or used prohibited tools to harvest black gold abalone once in a while.
However, most of the time, the Department of Fishing and Hunting didn't fail to notice these people. More often than not, once these people went ashore, they would spot officers from the Department of Fishing and Hunting appearing in front of them before being charged in court.
To this day, there were still a lot of people taking this matter lightly as finding evidence for underwater offenses was not easy.
Earlier, the officer from the Department of Fishing and Hunting had used an underwater camera. As the camera looked like a speargun, it had spooked Li Du and the others.
As finding evidence was not easy, a lot of harvesters assumed that, without any evidence, the Department of Fishing and Hunting and the court would not be able to easily punish them.
Such an assumption was false. For matters relating to harvesting of seafood, the court would employ the rarely seen method of sentencing based on circumstantial evidence. In other words, the court would give the prosecution the benefit of the doubt.
There was a saying in the black gold abalone harvesting industry: "The local court is the home of the Department of Fishing and Hunting." The saying meant that the court would always only believe in the testimonies of officers from this department.
Once the officers deemed that the defendant had broken the rules, the court would also deem so.
After going onboard the speedboat, Li Du showed his harvesting permit and said, "We have two people that are allowed to harvest: me and my partner. This lady is diving with an oxygen tank to ensure our safety."
He took off his shirt to show his body to the officer before continuing to speak. "Yesterday, we encountered an accident when we were in the water. Hot steam shot up from an underwater volcano and injured me. We had no choice but to get a friend to help out as backup."
The officer looked over the harvesting permit before taking a look at Li Du's back and frowning.
After thinking for a while, Sophie told the officer, "Sir, we are divers trained by David Max. If you talk to him, he may tell you that we are good law-abiding people."
Hearing her words, Li Du nodded his head. Max had chit-chatted with them before and told them that he was pretty close with the local officers from the Department of Fishing and Hunting as he was the backbone of the marine rescue organization and had saved some of their people before.
Sophie words had taken effect. In a stern manner, the officer, who evidently knew Max, made a phone call. After hanging up the phone, he nodded. "Don't do anything again that will cause me to get the wrong idea!"