Agriculture Idol

Chapter 28 The Sea Urchin Threat

The scorching sun shines brightly on the sea. Looking towards the shore, the coast, mountains, rivers, and buildings are distorted by the steaming heat of the sea, and they look like mirages.

The small sampan of Li Chengxin and Brother Xiaoyong has rowed far away, and the bottom of the sea is still pale reefs and shells.

Through the lens of the live broadcast room, netizens also clearly saw the bottom of the sea.There are a few clusters of kelp and seaweed floating on the white stone beach. The rest are black and round sea urchins and shells.

【⊙⊙!So many sea urchins! 】

[This periscope is so fun, I want to go home and make one! 】

[The one who makes the periscope at home, is your home near the sea? 】

【A lot of sea urchins!Grab them all and eat them! 】

[So many sea urchins can be sold for a lot of money! 】

Li Chengxin finished his seabed observation and raised his head with a heavy expression: "These sea urchins in the sea are named purple sea urchins because of their color. They are widely distributed along the coast of China. They were originally high-end food. But due to the global Under the influence of warming, purple sea urchins will have a strong appetite. Sea urchins feed on kelp, seaweed and other marine algae, and then reproduce in large numbers. I made preliminary calculations and found that there were more than 10 sea urchins per square meter in the sea area under our boat. There should be 30 sea urchins in a circular area with a radius of about [-] meters with the ship as the center."

【Eat...eat them? 】

[Is there anything that Chinese people can't eat? 】

【let me!Eat ten sea urchins in minutes! 】

"If it's this density, there are almost no such creatures in the sea..." Li Chengxin said.

Here, Brother Xiaoyong has already caught several purple sea urchins with fishing nets.

"This is the reason why no one catches the sea urchin even though it is a high-grade ingredient." As he spoke, Brother Xiao Yong poked the mouth of the sea urchin a few times with a knife and opened the sea urchin with a slight break.

The sea urchin was empty inside, and the full sea urchin yellow that everyone expected was not seen.

【Eh?empty? 】

[The season is right, it is obviously the season of sea urchin yellow! 】

Brother Xiaoyong opened up the remaining sea urchins and turned the shells to the camera. They were all empty, or only a little yellow.

"It's because there is no food, so sea urchin yellow doesn't grow fat." Li Chengxin replied.

[Then why are there so many sea urchins without food? 】

"The reason why sea urchins cannot die even though they have no food, and continue to reproduce in large numbers, is because sea urchins can store nutrients in their body energy. After eating once, they can basically live for half a year.

"Theoretically, sea urchins have existed on the earth for 100 million years, even older than dinosaurs, and they are living fossils that have not changed in form. They can not only eat seaweed, but also dead bodies of marine organisms, and even marine garbage. Sea urchins can be eaten. The reproduction of sea urchins is simpler. Male sea urchins release sperm into the sea, and female eggs can be fertilized, and [-] million fertilized eggs can be produced at one time.

"The only natural enemies of sea urchins are starfish, sea otters and other creatures, both of which are not common here. I speculate that the cause of the matter is that the sea water has been warming in recent years, and the water temperature is 2.5 degrees Celsius higher than normal. Around this time, a disease called 'starfish blight' attacked starfish in warm waters, causing their tissues to begin to rot and their limbs to fall off their bodies like petals.

"The warming of the ocean will also make the sea urchins think that it is the breeding season and have a big appetite. Immediately afterwards, because there is no natural enemy starfish, the purple sea urchins begin to reproduce unscrupulously on a large scale, and kelp is the main food of these purple sea urchins. Until it almost disappeared, the biological chain was cut off here.

"The disappearance of kelp has also brought about a chain reaction. The number of more than 100 species of offshore organisms has plummeted because there is no kelp as food, so there are shells'graveyards' left on the seabed, but millions of purple sea urchins are like burrs. The same covers the bottom of the sea."

Li Chengxin used the knowledge he learned from his university major to explain the biological habits of sea urchins and his speculation on this phenomenon.

Brother Xiaoyong said: "For fishermen, this kind of sea urchin is impossible to make money. Because no one buys it, so no one catches it. As a result, there are more and more empty sea urchins. Now, really It’s been overwhelmed.”

[This is really a big problem! 】

[Dead knot! 】

[It's not easy for fishermen now! 】

Brother Xiaoyong continued: "In the past four or five years, the kelp and seaweed in this sea area have been eaten up by sea urchins."

Li Chengxin said sternly: "This phenomenon is called 'marine desertification' academically. The disappearance of seaweed is not only the small fish that use seaweed as a hiding place, but also all kinds of medium-sized fish that lay eggs in seaweed, and even the 100 seaweed that live in the sea. At the same time, even marine aquatic organisms that do not feed on seaweed and small and medium-sized fish that live in seaweed will die in large numbers because of lack of oxygen. At the same time, changes in the ocean will also It affects the regional climate along the coast, making it hotter and drier."

【This is too scary】

[Is the sea in Zicheng’s little brother’s house still safe? 】

[Is it useful to donate money? 】

"The flood of sea urchins at this level is already difficult to suppress. When the houseboat is built first, I have time to study and circle a piece of land to see if I can improve the environment of the seabed desert. Let me think about it again, I remember before When I was studying, I seemed to have seen a paper on the mass reproduction of sea urchins." Li Chengxin thought about it, and then searched on his mobile phone.

I did a search with keywords such as "sea urchin", "threat", and "destruction of the ecology". The titles that appeared on the Internet seemed sensational, but they were actually real.

"Tiny sea urchins invade Australia and turn the seabed into a desert" "Warming seawater encourages sea urchins to devour kelp forests" "The only national coral reef reserve suffers catastrophic damage"...

Because his parents died in a shipwreck, Li Chengxin seldom paid attention to the news about the ocean, and even returned to his hometown without going to the sea for several months.

"There really is this article! It's a paper written by a professor of Oceanology in Dongying Country about the purple sea urchins flooding in Dongying Country and finally turning to artificial breeding." Li Chengxin held his phone in front of the camera.

【Meow meow meow?English? 】

[It's so long, I can't read it anymore...]

[A bunch of unfamiliar words, why do I have to read English literature to watch a live broadcast? 】

【I just remembered that little brother Baipi is a marine environment major...】

【⊙⊙?Isn’t the white-skinned little brother an idol? 】

"The general idea is that if you feed sea urchins cabbage leaves for 30 days, the sea urchin yellow will increase by more than 10%, and the sea urchin yellow will become very sweet."

【Amazing old man! 】

[Hey cabbage?Are you tricking me into eating your cabbage again? ! 】

"There is a picture here." Li Chengxin continued to show his mobile phone, which was a photo of an aquarium.In the photo, there are pieces of cabbage stuck to the seaweed in the aquarium.There is also a comparison photo of the inside of the sea urchin at the back. The former is as empty as the sea urchin that Brother Xiaoyong just opened, while the latter can clearly see the orange sea urchin yellow, but it is much thinner than the ones usually seen in the market.

【I do not believe!I do not believe! 】

[I really found this paper!After flipping through the machine, that’s pretty much what it means! 】

[Oh my God! 】

"This paper says that the parts of sea urchins that people eat are their sperm-nests and egg-nests. Therefore, sea urchins will suddenly become very plump before the spawning period in June. This professor is in the most suitable place for cultivating sea urchins. During April and May, the sea urchins were fed more than 100 overproduced or discarded foods such as radish leaves, bread crusts, oranges, enoki mushrooms, sea cucumber excrement, mint, broccoli, and cabbage. In the end, it was found that only cabbage was available. The urchins will keep eating them.”

[This Japanese professor is so funny! 】

[What is sea cucumber poop?Is the host really right? 】

Brother Xiao Yong suddenly had an idea: "Xin Wa'er, how about we give it a try? Anyway, there are leftover cabbage leaves everywhere. If not, can we ask Sister Ding to express it for us?"

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"Can you really raise sea urchins to turn yellow?" Uncle Donghai asked in surprise, "If this kind of thing can be raised, how come no one fishes it?"

Hearing that Li Chengxin and Brother Xiaoyong wanted to try raising sea urchins, the old fishermen in the village came to join in the fun.

"We also plan to try according to what is written in the book. It is not certain whether it will succeed." Li Chengxin explained.

"If this is really possible, the village will give you the first credit!" An energetic voice rang out from behind the crowd.

Everyone looked over there, and saw that it was a fat old man walking briskly with a cane on his back. The sun shone on his silver hair, and he looked radiant.

"Village Chief Qu!"

"Cun Chief Qu is here too!"

The person who came was the current village head of Hongming Village.

Village Chief Qu said: "The sea urchins on the seaside are really a big problem for our village. First, all the fish in the offshore area have disappeared, and the ecology has been severely damaged; secondly, several other farms in Donghai Family have also been destroyed. They are turning yellow; and last year several children were stung by sea urchins while playing in the sea.

"I heard from people in the village that the live broadcast of the two of you has done a good job. If you can really solve the problem of sea urchins, our village may be able to develop marine tourism again. At that time, the whole village Thank you all!"

Brother Xiaoyong quickly waved his hand: "We really just try it first, and the horoscope has not been written yet."

"It's okay, you young people can just try it. Xin Wa'er still studied this major and it's just right to put it to use. I just came here to tell you that raising sea urchins requires people and efforts in the village. Then let Lin Calculate the village's budget for this year one by one and see if we can allocate some for you. You can use the place near the boat house as you like, so you don't have to come to the village to apply for approval. Everyone is here, so I will tell this matter in person. "

"it is good!"

“Support Xinwaer in raising sea urchins!”

"If this is really successful, is it afraid that no one will pick sea urchins?"

"You don't think that Xin Wa'er, a college student, is studying the marine environment. Xin Wa'er will definitely be able to solve this problem!"

Everyone suddenly became excited, as if they had seen the day when sea urchin breeding was successful.

　The paper on sea urchin farming is real, and now many places are developing in this direction to slow down the ocean desertification caused by sea urchins. The papers were written by mud bombers, but most of them are implemented by Chinese people.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)