Chapter 765: Maui Dolphin Conservation Area
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The two speedboats traveled one behind the other. A bearded man was smoking in the co-pilot's position. He put his legs on the side of the boat and enjoyed the splash of water from the bow on his feet.
The driver, a beefy, middle-aged white woman, complained, "Where the h*ll is that Chinaman? Why haven't we found the signal after such a long search?"
"Don't worry, he can't get out of King Island. I bet he's not far from us," the bearded man said lazily.
The speedboat in the back caught up, and a middle-aged man name Ralph, who was almost in the same age range as the bearded man, shouted, "Chris, is the signal detector still silent? We've been all around the island!"
"Don't worry, keep looking. Let's go outside. This is a civilian tracker, after all. It's useless when it is too far out of range."
The woman driving the boat asked, "Could it be that the Chinaman found the tracker? He may have thrown it away. What should we do then?"
"It's impossible," said Chris confidently. "Who's free to open the outboard and see what's going on inside? I put the tracker in there, and it won't be found."
As the speedboat approached, Ralph said, "Even if he doesn't find it this time, won't he realize it next time? We can't always find him. He might get suspicious."
"Suspicious that we're using a tracker?" Chris asked. "No, no, this isn't a spy movie. Who would think that?"
"As long as he's not stupid, he'll guess something's up," Ralph insisted.
Chris laughed. "But what if he's just so stupid? Listen, man, these yellow people, especially the Asians, are stupid, just like the Maoris in New Zealand."
"The yellow skin race is really stupid. The Maoris belong to the yellow race," the woman sailing the ship agreed.
Ralph was still wondering. "But we haven't found them yet. Don't you have any doubts?"
"You're too paranoid, Ralph. We just haven't found it yet," Chris said carelessly.
"Well, let's keep looking for him. This time, we'd better negotiate with him and see if we can work together," said Ralph.
"How can he work with us? Who will work with others?" The woman immediately contradicted his proposal.
Ralph snorted. "Why do you have to follow them? We'll go where we found them yesterday."
"Didn't you go down into the sea yesterday? There aren't many black gold abalone there. We have to chase them," said Chris.
"It's possible there is a lot of black gold abalone out there, but we can't find them," he said. "The Chinese may have some unique methods."
Hearing this, Chris sat up and asked, "You mean, he used some kind of device?"
"It's also possible that he's from the United States, and maybe they've invented some kind of small device to search for something underwater."
"Then we'll have to keep an eye on him. If so, it'll be interesting. We will catch them in the act and ask them to work for us or we will report them to the police," said Chris.
The two speedboats widened their search and circled the island again.
Turning to the southwest corner of King Island, Chris' speedboat suddenly had a flashing red dot on the screen, but the red dot appeared for only a second and then disappeared.
Chris and the woman on board were excited. They looked at each other and Chris said, "Ha, I found him."
The two fast-moving speedboats slowed down, and Ralph caught up to them and asked, "Did you see anything?"
Chris said, "Yeah, they must be in the area. I just saw the tracer react."
Their boat continued to sail to the southwest, and the red dot reappeared. Chris cheered up. He looked around and saw a speedboat on the far shore. "There it is. How did the bastard get ashore?" Chris waved and ordered, "Go and see him."
The woman was about to start the boat and speed up when Ralph said, frowning, "It's not right, Chris. It's not supposed to be here."
"Why?" asked Chris.
Ralph said, "This is the Maui dolphin conservation area. Look, there's a line of buoys in the water ahead!"
The Maui dolphin was an endangered subspecies, very rare and precious.
They were the smallest dolphin species in the world. Even in adulthood, they could only grow up to 1.7 meters long. They were the smallest dolphin in the world.
Due to the nylon net fishing methods heavily used by humans, this kind of dolphin was caught in large numbers, and the existing population dropped sharply. According to statistics, the number of adult Maui dolphins was only 55, with not even 20 breeding females.
The species was found only in the southern hemisphere, mostly in the shallow waters around New Zealand, but had also been found in shallow waters southwest of the island in recent years.
The Australian Marine Department and the fishing and hunting bureau had set up a conservation area to protect the Maui dolphin.
In addition, the Australia and New Zealand governments' whale-science committee held annual meetings on the protection of the Maui dolphin.
After a recent meeting, they jointly released a report expressing "grave concern" about the "serious danger" the Maui dolphin was in.
The report called for the Australian and New Zealand governments to immediately ban fishing in the waters of the Maui dolphin conservation area and to focus on potential threats to the species from human activities such as undersea mining and seismic observations.
They were also asking non-government workers, such as tourists and fishermen, not to enter the conservation area and to do their best to protect the dolphin.
Australia's conservation efforts in general were quite strong. Due to their work in protecting the black gold abalone, there were still about 10,000 large and small black gold abalones.
Regarding the Maui dolphins, Australia may only have had less than five!
Chris reacted to Ralph's words by standing on the speedboat and glancing around, frowning and muttering, "This is bad luck. This is it. This is the Maui dolphin conservation area."
"We can't go into the conservation area," Ralph said. "If the Chinaman is there, we can call the police."
At this point, he smirked.
Chris turned quickly, then slowly shook his head. "No, no, we're not going to call the police. What did I say? Get hold of him. Now he's in our hands!"