145: Discovering the pearl oyster colony

He gazed at the blood-red coral, his heart filled with awe and reverence.

No wonder so many people risked everything for it, because it was truly magnificent!

Most blood-red coral products on the market now are imported; wild ones domestically are rarely seen, after all, its status as a first-class protected animal makes people hesitate.

After watching for a while, Chen Xiangbei reluctantly left the blood-red coral. Seeing it was enough to satisfy his eyes; he couldn't dance on the edge of a knife.

At this moment, he was doubting his life a bit. If you said he was lucky, he hadn't found any pearl oysters. If you said he wasn't lucky, he encountered precious embroidered lobsters and blood-red coral!

Chen Xiangbei put away his depressed mood and swam through the seabed, sometimes interacting with the small fish and shrimp, and sometimes reaching out to touch a sea turtle's shell.

Just then, a disturbance came from behind Chen Xiangbei. A massive great white shark was swimming rapidly towards him.

This scene scared him so much he broke out in a cold sweat. This big guy was practically a little tyrant in the water, with almost no natural predators, and great white sharks are very curious, wanting to take a bite out of anything they see.

Chen Xiangbei tried his best to calm his nerves and swam towards the coral reef nearby.

However, when he tried to move, the great white shark also changed direction, still targeting him.

Chen Xiangbei knew that the great white shark was greatly curious and had its eyes on him, after all, it was rare to encounter someone brave enough to dive in the vast ocean.

At this point, the distance between them was less than 50 meters. Chen Xiangbei remained calm, observing the great white shark's movements while swimming at full speed, searching for anything nearby he could hide behind.

Time passed little by little. The great white shark was slightly faster than him, and the distance between them was constantly closing.

Chen Xiangbei had already taken out a sharp dagger from his personal space at this time, gripping it tightly in his hand, hiding behind a coral reef, ready to fight it at any moment.

However, just as the great white shark was less than 3 meters away from him, it suddenly changed direction, fleeing frantically as if for its life, stirring up the seabed mud.

For safety, Chen Xiangbei remained still, quietly staying in the shadows of the coral reef.

Just then, two huge black and white figures were seen swimming from a distance at extremely high speed, flashing past him without showing any interest in him.

Seeing this, Chen Xiangbei quickly came out from behind the coral reef, his eyes fixed on the two figures that had just passed.

Looking closer, wow!

It turned out these two massive figures were two Orcas, known as the "Ocean Bully"!

Orcas, the apex predators of the ocean, their figures like ghosts in the water. They are large and elegant, with black backs and white bellies, their unique markings making them particularly striking in the ocean.

Sharp teeth are their deadly weapons, capable of easily tearing prey, and they are also the only natural predator of the great white shark!

Orcas are highly intelligent and social; they live in family units and have complex ways of communicating with each other.

Their speed and agility are astonishing, allowing them to quickly pursue and catch prey.

In the marine ecosystem, Orcas play an important role, maintaining ecological balance.

Whether it's the spectacular moment they leap out of the water or their mysterious figures lurking in the deep sea, Orcas are captivating.

Orcas are also known as "killer whales," and its English name translates to killer whale, but on the contrary, Orcas have a very high degree of friendliness towards Humans.

Even though Humans often hunt them, these smart "ocean wanderers" generally don't easily harm Humans and may even actively seek help from Humans.

As the population of Orcas decreases, Humans are gradually becoming aware and slowly stopping the hunting of these Human-friendly big guys.

Those two Orcas must have been foraging nearby and happened to spot the great white shark trying to approach Chen Xiangbei, so they excitedly chased after it.

The great white shark's nose is extremely sensitive; it smelled the Orcas' scent from afar, causing it to flee for its life in a panic.

Chen Xiangbei felt a bit regretful that he couldn't interact with these "wanderers" up close; he had only seen them from a distance at the Ocean Park.

This area of the sea now carried the scent of Orcas, so the great white shark wouldn't dare to approach again. Without the harassment of the great white shark, Chen Xiangbei began to continue searching for pearl oysters.

Just as he was about to turn around, he noticed an unusual spot in the seabed mud not far away, which showed a white light under the midday sun.

Chen Xiangbei approached for a look and was surprised to find a white shell!

He quickly reached out and grabbed the shell, then used his dagger to pry it open. A mass of white shell meat appeared before him.

Putting the dagger away, he discarded the half of the shell without meat and carefully felt its smooth skin with his hand. Suddenly, a hard, curved bulge made his heart race!

Carefully using the dagger to cut open the meat on the surface of the bulge, a flash of brilliant black light pierced Chen Xiangbei's eyes. A translucent black pearl emerged from the shell meat.

He took out the black pearl and examined it carefully in his hand, discovering it was a large black pearl.

Ninety-five percent of the world's black pearls are produced in Tahiti, while the one in his hand belonged to the other five percent.

Looking at its shape, it was close to perfectly round, with a bright luster and no visible flaws to the naked eye. Its size was around 18 millimeters, making it a high-quality, high-priced pearl.

Chen Xiangbei wasn't familiar with the price of black pearls. Although black pearls weren't mainstream in the market, they shouldn't be too far off, after all, the advantages like size and shape were apparent.

After putting away the large pearl, Chen Xiangbei continued to feel around the remaining shell meat. Soon, he pulled out three pearls of varying shapes from inside, but unfortunately, they were all ordinary pearls, worth a few hundred yuan each.

It was possible for a single shell to produce pearls of the same quality, but the probability wasn't high. Having found this one high-quality black pearl, he was already very satisfied.

After clearing out this pearl oyster, Chen Xiangbei continued searching for others in the mud. Generally, pearl oysters live together in groups of two or three.

He reached his hand into the mud and felt around. Before long, he indeed found new pearl oysters!

And there were several of them. They were all hidden in the mud, likely having hidden because they sensed danger. Generally, they grow in sunlight.

Chen Xiangbei cleaned them out one by one, put them into the net bag on his waist, and then floated up towards the surface.

The moment he surfaced, the familiar oxygen molecules made him take a deep breath.

He swam to the back of the fishing boat, climbed up from there, shook off the seawater from his body, and then took the net bag to the live well for storing live creatures.