Due to El Niño and global warming, the world's wild hard corals were facing extinction. Some people even joked that buying some hard corals now and raising them might be worth more than gold in 40 years …
Coral is a kind of strong and fragile creature.
They were strong because they constantly replicated and split, and could survive for thousands of years. After they died, the coral reefs formed by the accumulation of bones would gradually rise and eventually float to the surface of the sea, forming strings of pearl-like reefs and even islands in the vast sea. For example, the Spratly Islands and the Paracel Islands were composed of coral reefs.
Without corals, China's territorial sea area would be much smaller than it was today.
They were fragile because although most of them lived in tropical oceans, they could not withstand water temperatures above 30 degrees for a long time. Otherwise, they would expel the symbiotic zooxanthellae in their bodies and quickly die.
However, the intensification of the greenhouse effect caused the global seawater to continue to heat up, and corals could not swim to cool waters like fish. In less than 40 to 20 years, there would probably be no wild hard corals in the world.
In addition to rising water temperatures, seawater acidification and eutrophication were also important reasons why hard corals were facing extinction. These two were completely attributed to the discharge of human sewage and industrial wastewater.
The seabed of Dapeng Bay in Shen City was an underwater paradise with dense corals and rich species more than a decade ago. Now, it was a large underwater desert.
Against this background, the country decided to vigorously rectify the aquarium market and prohibit the mining and trade of wild hard corals, especially in the South China Sea. Currently, most of the hard corals circulating in the aquarium market were farmed in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Australia. In theory, that was the case, but in reality, because coral mining was profitable, in addition to farming, fishermen in Indonesia would also go into the sea to increase production. Anyway, they were sold together, and it was difficult to distinguish whether they were farmed or wild.
There were not so many taboos for soft corals. Because soft corals had a higher tolerance to temperature, there was no risk of extinction for the time being. Therefore, there were obviously more types of soft corals in this shop than hard corals.
The female customer from before browsed through the shop and did not seem to find the corals she liked. She could not help but show a disappointed look. She shook her head and seemed to want to turn around and leave.
The owner of this coral franchise wanted him to stay. He raised his chin and pointed to the 'Coral Import Permit' hanging on the wall. He said proudly, "I have a permit to operate here. It took a lot of effort to get the permit. Those colleagues who laughed at me before are now in jail. You've come at the right time. Why don't you wait for a while? A new batch of corals will be delivered soon. "
"Oh?" The female customer suddenly became interested. "How often do you bring in a new batch of corals here?"
"I'm not sure. Probably around three months." The boss replied, "Usually, when they're almost sold out, they'll bring in new ones. Then, they'll bring in the ones that sell well. At the same time, they'll bring in a small number of new ones for trial sale."
The female customer frowned. "Your way of doing business is too conservative. There are too few varieties and colors, so people can't be interested at all, okay? For example, the Large Disc Coral is only gold, and the Brain Coral is basically only green. Whether it's the Figure 8 Brain Coral or the Australian Doughnut, they're all green — dark green, light green, dark green. Do you really like to add green to your brain? "
Puff!
Snowy couldn't help but laugh. The netizens in the live broadcast room also laughed until their stomachs hurt. They just hated the fact that there were no pictures to watch.
The female customer's words were sharp. She sounded like an experienced aquarium player. The shop owner was embarrassed, and he defended himself with a bitter smile. "I also want to bring in more varieties, but corals are too delicate. Even I can't keep many kinds of corals alive. After bringing them in, I have to sell them as soon as possible. Otherwise, they'll be wasted."
The shop owner dared to run a coral specialty shop, so he was definitely an expert in raising corals. His level of raising corals was definitely higher than the female customer's. However, he had to take care of too many corals, and each coral had different requirements for water temperature, light, and other environments. After a long time, he would definitely be exhausted, and if he wasn't careful, he would suffer heavy losses.
Zhang Zian deeply sympathized with him, but he didn't intend to get involved in this mess.
He focused his attention on observing the corals currently displayed in the shop. Indeed, as the female customer said, although there were many varieties, they were all common goods. Although the colors were rich, they often lacked the rare color. The few tanks that were used to raise the Brain Coral were all green.
The color of the coral was an important factor in determining the price. Even if it was the same type of coral, as long as the color was different, the price could be a few times or even a dozen times different.
The rarer something was, the greater its value. Everyone wanted to raise corals with rare colors, so corals with rare colors were often sold out as soon as they appeared in the aquarium market. Corals with common colors were not so popular.
Zhang Zian had originally planned to go to other coral shops to take a look, but after hearing that a new batch of imported corals was about to arrive, he and Snowy decided to stay and wait for a while.
Snowy wanted to broaden her horizons, while he and the female customer looked at each other. They both had a tacit understanding that they wanted to find treasures. If they could find rare corals or corals with rare colors, it would definitely add a lot of color to his aquarium.
However, this meant that he would have to spend a lot of money on his wallet.
Snowy asked tentatively, "Boss, photos are not allowed in the display area of the aquascaping tanks outside. Is it okay here? I'm a streamer. If it's okay, maybe I can help promote your shop to a certain extent … "
The boss pondered for a moment. Seeing that Snowy was a beautiful woman, he reluctantly nodded and agreed. "Just take photos in the shop. Actually, I don't expect any promotional effect. After all, corals are raised in a small circle. Those who buy corals in the city can only buy them here."
With his permission, Snowy could finally openly take out her phone and use the camera to look around the shop. The bizarre and dazzling coral tanks immediately attracted the amazement of the netizens in the live broadcast room.
Some netizens heard the boss's words and were dissatisfied. They said that they would come to the shop in two days to buy corals, and they even specifically said that they came to the shop after watching Snowy's live broadcast …
Ding!
The elevator stopped on the second floor. It was not a normal elevator for customers, but a freight elevator for employees. The entrance and exit were wider than normal elevators.
"Flash! Flash! Flash! The one in front, please make way! "
As soon as the elevator door opened, an employee in an aquarium market uniform appeared in the elevator pushing a delivery cart. He spoke loudly to the customers who were blocking the way.
The trolley was piled high with huge incubators that looked quite heavy.
"Coming." The boss perked up and exited the mobile game he was playing.
Zhang Zian and the others were also looking forward to it.
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