When Ye Yaodong finished untangling the net and walked over to the gunwale, he also saw the water still churning nearby and the graceful outline of the great blue shark.
He had caught great blue sharks many times. There was no overfishing yet in those days, and these large sharks were still common in their coastal waters.
Unlike later, when they would appear only once or twice on occasion and were quite hard to come across, unless you went farther out to sea.
But now, presumably thanks to the yellowtail scads' fangs, when this great blue shark leaped out of the water, its body was pitted with bite marks. It no longer had its usual beauty, and its wounds looked somewhat like those on the battered tiger shark they had just dumped out.
When these yellowtail scad turned vicious, they certainly lived up to their name as the piranhas of the sea.
Looking at all those fish, he was a little reluctant to catch them all together while they were fighting.
If he netted them directly, the yellowtail scad would probably scatter and escape as he hauled them up, just as they had earlier.
After a moment's hesitation, he decided to cast a net around the edge first, without spreading it too wide.
His aim was excellent. The net only brushed the great blue shark without catching it, but this shark had a nasty temper too.
Although it had only been brushed, it leaped up in a frenzy and lashed its tail down at the net.
This great blue shark was much bigger than the tiger shark earlier. The blow sent the net sinking straight down. Fortunately, he had a firm grip on the rope, which was also wrapped twice around his wrist. It dug deep marks into his skin