I See through Everything

Chapter 276: Chapter 146: Return from a Long Voyage

Jiang Miao checked the condition of the sockeye salmon through the appraisal panel.

Despite the high-quality care they received, the sockeye salmon were generally in poor condition after a bumpy sea journey of several thousand kilometers.

To ensure the sockeye salmon survived, Jiang Miao immediately went to the breeding farm’s specially equipped laboratory. There, he quickly mixed various medications and nutrients.

After seeing off Lu Deqing and the others, Zhang Xincheng returned to the breeding farm. He saw Jiang Miao busy mixing medications and nutrients, so he didn’t disturb him.

It wasn’t until three o’clock in the afternoon that Jiang Miao finished his work. He stretched, then instructed the breeding farm’s staff on how to feed the fish.

Seeing he was finished, his brother-in-law walked over.

"Ah Miao, here’s the species inventory. Take a look." Zhang Xincheng hadn’t been idle all afternoon. He and his team had been taking stock of the salmon, counting the number of each species.

The inventory clearly listed the counts: 3,257 Chum salmon, 2,809 Sockeye salmon, 4,585 Coho salmon, 3,671 Pink salmon, and 2,960 King Salmon.

The total came to 17,282 fish.

All of these were salmon species native to the North Pacific Ocean.

The King Salmon that is currently farmed commercially was originally introduced to New Zealand from the North Pacific.

Although Jiang Miao planned to develop a salmon farming industry, he didn’t make a big show of purchasing broodstock from other countries.

Domestically, the technology for breeding traditional salmon hadn’t been mastered. The only established breeding technique for any salmonid was for the controversial rainbow trout.

If he tried to purchase broodstock from aquaculture companies in places like Norway, Chile, Denmark, or New Zealand, they would notice Hailufeng Company’s intentions. Hailufeng would then either be extorted with exorbitant prices or be rejected outright.

That was why, last November, Jiang Miao had sent people to Qilu Province. He was looking to partner with a fishing company that had its own specialized fishing boats and live-haul vessels, and which frequently operated in the waters near Hokkaido. The plan was to have them catch various species of salmon in the North Pacific Ocean.

The reason for the high contract fee of 18 million yuan was that the North Pacific Ocean is extremely dangerous in the winter. Without a significant payout, the company wouldn’t have been willing to take the risk.

They chose to fish in the winter to avoid high sea temperatures, using the cold weather to increase the salmon’s survival rate during transport.

But even with favorable weather and round-the-clock care from the crew, more than half of the salmon still died en route.

The salmon that died along the way had been frozen in the transport ship’s cold storage. They had all been unloaded and were set to be distributed to employees as a Spring Festival bonus.

Obtaining this batch of live salmon, and managing to collect all the core species of Pacific salmon at once, involved a fair bit of luck for Hailufeng Company.

But now that the salmon were at the specially prepared breeding farm, and with a "cheater" like Jiang Miao on hand, the mortality rate would be kept extremely low.

The next step was to let them rest and recover while supplementing their diet with various nutrients. Since the salmon caught this time were all nearing sexual maturity, they could begin spawning as early as this year.

Under normal circumstances, Chum salmon will start migrating back to their birth rivers to spawn in late summer and early autumn, which is between July and October.

Sockeye salmon’s main spawning time is from July to August.

Pink salmon’s spawning time is earlier, around June to August.

Coho salmon generally spawn in the autumn, from October to December.

King Salmon’s spawning time is usually in the autumn, around September to November.

In terms of timing, the spawning order would be Pink, Sockeye, Chum, King, and then Coho salmon.

These species differ not only in their spawning times but also in their egg counts. Each female typically lays between 1,000 and 5,000 eggs.

Pink salmon produce the fewest eggs, between 1,000 and 2,000. Chum salmon lay around 2,000 to 3,000. Sockeye salmon lay approximately 3,500 eggs, while Coho salmon lay about 4,000. King Salmon are the most productive, with each female laying around 5,000 eggs.

In other words, even if Jiang Miao could achieve a hatching success rate of over 95%, it would take at least two generations of artificial breeding to secure enough broodstock and achieve large-scale fry production.

Furthermore, the growth cycles of these species also varied.

For example, King Salmon have a life cycle of five to seven years.

Pink salmon, on the other hand, only have a two- to three-year life cycle.

Of course, these were their life cycles in the wild. With artificial intervention and a sufficient supply of nutrients, the farming cycle could be significantly shortened.

For example, if New Zealand’s King Salmon are raised to be brought to market quickly, the farming cycle can be compressed to around 30 months.

Jiang Miao planned to start by raising a batch of Pink salmon. Their life cycle was already relatively short, and with proper artificial intervention and sufficient nutrition, he believed he could shorten it to about eight months, at which point they could begin to spawn.

「That evening, as the sun began to set.」

A sea breeze rustled the casuarina trees that formed the windbreak.

Not far behind the Nanhu Breeding Farm stood the villa where Jiang Miao and the others lived. A few of them were having a barbecue in the backyard.

He Youwei and her younger brother, He Dangdao, still required further observation, so the two of them hadn’t returned to the Capital City for the Spring Festival. They joined the barbecue today as well.

Shuya looked at the fish on the grill. "So these are the salmon you spent twenty million on?"

"Teacher, these few fish cost twenty million yuan?" He Youwei was stunned. A few fish worth twenty million... Even with her family background, she’d never seen anything like it. It was truly beyond her comprehension.

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