Pi was surprised, because Zhang Zian had never revealed the idea of going out to sea on a boat.
Even Zhang Zian himself was surprised.
It was an occasional whim. In fact, he didn't have a reason to sail out to sea. However, after seeing the huge whale, he had an almost unstoppable curiosity. It was very dangerous for a whale of that size to come to the coastal waters. If it wasn't careful, it could get stranded. What really belonged to it was the deep blue sea.
What made it go against its survival instincts and come to the coastal waters? Was it Sihwa's song? Or was it injured?
Since the content of Sihwa's song was to let whales that had been hunted in Northeast Asia come to the coastal waters of Binhai City to seek refuge, theoretically, it could have also been hunted and escaped here after hearing Sihwa's song. But this brought up a new question — Sihwa had let the whales come to the coastal waters of Binhai City and not let them get close to the shore. The previous minke whale's stranding was an accident after it was injured.
So, the giant whale was also injured?
Based on the current situation, he had to be suspicious.
When he caught a glimpse of it at the beach, it was too far away and there was no reference nearby, so he couldn't accurately estimate the size of the giant whale. But even at a rough glance, its body length was at least ten meters, and its weight could be more than ten tons. It was an adult giant whale through and through.
For such a huge whale, once it was stranded on the shore, there was almost no way to get it back to the sea in a short period of time. One could only watch it die. Even when it left the water and was stranded, when it lost the buoyancy of the water, its bones and internal organs would have been crushed by its own weight. Even a god couldn't save it.
If it really risked approaching the shore because of its injury, then things would be serious — it couldn't be as lucky as the minke whale, stranded on the shore and found and rescued. It could only wait for its injury to heal itself, or wait for someone to discover its injury.
Zhang Zian wasn't impulsive. He knew that it was very dangerous to take a boat close to a giant whale that weighed more than ten tons, and it could also be a giant whale that was unconscious because of its injury.
Even if the giant whale didn't want to hurt him, as long as it inadvertently turned over, it could sweep him and the boat into the sea, and with a swing of its tail, it could break his bones and the boat apart …
That was the difference in size and level. There was no room for resistance.
In front of the giant whale, he was like an adult man facing a newborn kitten or puppy. The difference in weight was more than a hundred times, and he was reduced to ashes in the blink of an eye.
What's more, ten tons was just a conservative estimate. It wouldn't be surprising to say that the whale actually weighed twenty tons.
Any sane person would not touch a strange dog rashly to prevent being bitten. If even a dog was like this, what would a strange whale do? People in their right minds should keep their distance.
What's more, the only way he could get close to the giant whale was with an inflatable boat with an electric motor. It was provided for fishermen to go out to sea to fish. If he wanted to save money, he might not have an electric motor and would have to row by hand …
Even oceanographers who specialized in cetacean research would not approach an unfamiliar giant whale in an inflatable boat. That would be a standard suicidal behavior.
Be that as it may, were they just going to leave the whale to fend for itself?
There was a very strange phrase called "whale fall", which meant that when a whale died, its body would slowly sink to the bottom of the sea, turning itself into nutrients to feed the many undersea creatures.
Many marine creatures that lived at the bottom of the sea and never saw sunlight for their entire lives relied on whale fall to survive.
Whale bones were huge, and whale meat was rich in oil, which decomposed slowly. It was estimated that when a giant whale died, its body could feed many undersea creatures for a few years or even more than a decade.
It was said that cherry blossoms fell at a speed of five centimeters per second, so what was the speed of a whale fall?
After a giant whale died, it would not immediately sink to the bottom of the sea. Instead, it would float on the surface of the sea for a period of time, first being eaten by seabirds, sharks, and polar bears. In the process of sinking to the bottom of the sea, it would also be torn apart by other fish. After reaching the bottom of the sea, the motionless body would attract more creatures such as blind eels, sleeping sharks, and deep-sea crabs, followed by bristles and crustaceans, and finally, anaerobic bacteria.
During this process, its flesh and blood would be torn apart and decomposed, forming "ocean snow" that would be blown further away by the ocean currents, feeding even more life.
Every time a giant whale died, many new lives would be born as a result.
Even when the giant whale's flesh and blood completely disappeared, its grayish-white bones would still stand at the bottom of the sea for a long time, forming a strange and mysterious spectacle. When human deep-sea submersibles entered the deep sea for scientific exploration purposes, they would often see a forest of whale bones, like a monument to a giant ocean beast. Strangely shaped marine creatures shuttled between the whale bones, hurriedly hiding after being disturbed by the lights of the submersibles, stirring up muddy sand from time to time.
However, due to whaling activities and industrial pollution, the number of giant whales was decreasing, and the number of whale falls had also decreased. No one knew how many creatures in the deep sea that relied on whale falls had quietly disappeared because of this.
When there was life, there was death. Birth, aging, illness, and death were part of the cycle of reincarnation. Humans and whales were no exception.
The giant whale that Zhang Zian saw could also die, but it was not worth dying like this. It was not worth dying in the shallow sea. It was meaningless. Its final destination should be the distant deep sea, turning into a whale fall like other giant whales and feeding on all creatures. Of course, this should only happen after a few decades. Whales had a very long lifespan.
So, he wanted to take a boat out to sea and try to find the giant whale.
If it was really injured or sick, he would try his best to help. Even if his own strength was not enough, he could ask for help from Ke Shaohui, the fishery officer that he had just met. After all, this should also be within the scope of the fishery officer's work. If that did not work, he could also ask Liu Ying, a reporter from the local TV station, for help. She could call on the community's compassionate people to donate money and strength, and try their best to save the giant whale's life.
The power of a single person is insignificant, but the power of everyone is great. Even if it was the stranded minke whale, without the help of Huang and Xiao Zhi, he would not be able to carry out surgery on his own and send it back to the sea. Compassionate people were always in the majority. Most people were full of respect for the giant beast, and they did not want to see it die with regret.
However, the premise of all of this was that it was really injured or sick, and it had not come to the shallow sea for other reasons, such as Sihwa's singing. This required him to take a boat and confirm it with his own eyes.
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