Chapter 760: The Yacht’s Shadows
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
King Island, which contributed over 60 percent of the black gold abalone output each year, was surrounded by a continuous stretch of black gold abalone rich areas.
As such, there were usually a lot of black gold abalone harvesters on King Island. Due to this, most of the black gold abalones in the surrounding shallow waters had been harvested and hence, harvesting a black gold abalone was not easy.
Soon after Li Du drove the yacht out of the harbor and into the sea, he encountered a few black gold abalone harvesters. Surprisingly, one of the harvesters was Cruz.
After both parties exchanged greetings, Cruz walked over and said, “Heard that you guys encountered scammers?”
Li Du replied, “We have indeed encountered scammers. Look, there’s a speedboat at the back of my boat. It’s compensation from them.”
“Why are you guys going out to sea now? Not for sightseeing, right?” Cruz asked. “I heard, mate, your harvesting permit was lost by the scammers?”
“Yeah,” Li Du replied. “They indeed lost one of my harvesting permits.”
Hearing his words, Cruz’s eyes suddenly widened. “Lost one? Mate, what do you mean? You still have another?”
Li Du shrugged. “I just got another one. God has blessed me, I have a few pretty capable friends in America who have helped me get a black gold abalone harvesting permit.”
Cruz looked at him curiously and said, “There are that many black gold abalone harvesting permits in America? Nonetheless, you didn’t need to buy one now. The black gold abalone harvesting season is about to end.”
Every year, the black gold abalone harvesting season lasted for six months, from November to April. For the other half of the year, harvesting rare seafood like black gold abalone was prohibited.
Cruz made another comment. “You are really rich. The harvesting permit must have been very expensive. Can you buy one whenever you want?”
Li Du placed his arm around Cruz’s shoulders before pointing at Hans and saying, “It’s my friend that’s rich. He is actually a playboy who was born to a magnate in America.”
Cruz inhaled a breath of cold air and said, “Good heavens.”
While they chatted with each other and walked toward the harbor, a few harvesters waved to them.
When Li Du and Cruz walked over, Li Du saw someone familiar. Brooks, the fatty who had sat in the same flight to Australia, was also here.
After both parties saw each other, Brooks snorted, “You’re here as well?”
Li Du laughed, “Very pleased to see you again, mate. No wonder you went against me the last time. We are actually competitors.”
Brooks held his head up proudly and scorned, “We are competitors? You think too highly of yourself. I have never considered you a competitor before.”
An African American harvester said, “Hey Brooks, don’t look down on this fella. He and his friends are very capable and have harvested quite a lot of black gold abalones.”
Another harvester, who had two small mustaches, spoke slyly. “He’s not just capable. Cruz’s recent harvest was also quite plentiful. I heard that he got pointers from Li Du.”
“If that’s the case, why not give us some pointers. Li, could you tell me the places that still have groups of abalones?”
“Let’s get rich together, Li. You can’t be the only one earning money, right?”
While rubbing his chin, Brooks looked suspiciously at Li Du and said, “You have harvested quite a lot? I really couldn’t tell. You don’t seem like an expert diver to me.”
Sensing his contempt and ill-intentions, Li Du smiled and retaliated, “You seem less like a diver than I do. I’m afraid you will experience more resistance when diving in the sea with a physique like yours.”
Brooks snorted and said, “I am indeed not an expert diver. My wife is.”
After raising his middle finger, Cruz said, “Brooks, you’re really not a man. You still talk in such a self-righteous manner when you let your wife do such a dangerous job of going into the sea to harvest abalone?”
As harvesting black gold abalone was dangerous, men were usually the ones who would go into the sea while women played a supportive role.
Brooks did not feel embarrassed. In a completely unconcerned manner, he said, “So what? My wife is an ama. She was born to do this. Why else would I marry her?”
As his words were very obnoxious, quite a few harvesters pointed their middle fingers at him.
Brooks, who had become angry from being humiliated, said, “You guys can humiliate me however you like. It doesn’t matter. I know this is jealousy. You guys can’t find an ama to become your wife!”
“What’s an ama?” Li Du softly asked Cruz.
Cruz replied in a puzzled manner, “You don’t know? This is one of the old professions that you East Asians have. Some women are able to dive alone into the sea to harvest seafood such as lobsters, scallops, abalones, and conches without breathing equipment.”
After hearing his simple explanation, Li Du looked amas up online and found some information.
Amas were female fishermen who harvested seafood by diving. At a point in time, they became widespread in various parts of East Asia, Northeast Asia, and Southeast Asia.
However, in the wake of mechanized harvesting and developments in artificial cultivation technology, the number of amas today had been greatly reduced and Korea was the only country that still had a few amas.
Every single ama was an expert diver. As they had been trained for a long period of time, they were adept at snorkeling and freediving and possessed excellent swimming and breath-holding skills.
With these skills, they were extremely apt for harvesting black gold abalone.
As a matter of fact, amas were initially hired for harvesting rare items in the sea such as sea cucumbers, abalones, pearl oysters, and treasures from sunken ships, etc.
Not all women were able to become an ama. Amas had a lot of fats under their skin, sturdy physiques and large lung capacities from having undergone training since youth, and were exceptionally great at controlling their emotions.
Due to underwater environments being complex and the possibility of being attacked by predators such as sharks, their jobs carried an extremely high risk and hence, required them to have the ability to work in a team and to stay calm to make good judgments.
Furthermore, because amas usually dived in coastal areas and did not dive in deep waters, they were not affected by diving illnesses such as divers’ disease.
Since amas did not have diving illnesses, they were healthy, which, more often than not, gave them extraordinarily long lives when combined with eating seafood on a daily basis.
In certain places, amas, who had long lives, had a unique status in their villages.
It was a pity that in the wake of the developments in the application and technology of machines, there were less and less amazing stories regarding amas nowadays.
Nonetheless, Li Du still felt that reading through these pieces of information was an eye-opener for him.
Evidently, Brook’s Japanese wife, who had been next to him on the airplane, was an ama who had specifically helped him harvest black gold abalone.
After the group of them chatted amongst themselves, they set out to sea one after other and started their day.
Soon after Li Du drove Sea Star 60 out of the harbor, Brother Wolf told him, “Boss, there are people following us.”
“Who?” Li Du blurted out.
It was very common for black gold abalone harvesters to follow each other. If someone was to have a plentiful harvest in a certain duration, other harvesters would realize that they had found a place that had groups of abalones and hence, would definitely follow them to harvest with them.
Despite that, there were slightly too many boats following Li Du’s yacht. When he turned around to have a look, there were over a dozen boats following Sea Star 60, going full force.
