"This bag is made of ultra-light waterproof nylon material, very sturdy."
He took out the sleeping bag and placed it in the shelter, then presented the emptied storage bag to the cara.
"If we discover sothing after the tide goes out, it will be a perfect reusable shopping bag, much more efficient in capacity than using clothes to carry things."
He securely fastened the Damascus Deer Horn Hunting Knife, handcrafted by Old George, to his waist.
This knife would be the central tool for processing all the day's harvests.
Around nine o'clock, the tide had receded far, revealing large areas of slippery black rocks and shallow tide pools.
Lin Yu'an put on his high waterproof and non-slip heavy-duty hiking boots, took the sleeping bag storage sack, and walked towards the depths of the coastline.
As the tide slowly receded, a flat, brand-new intertidal world unfolded before his eyes!
He didn't waste ti on the rocks close to the land, but went straight to the area farthest from the receding tide, just erging from beneath the water.
"Look here." He pointed to an area covered by shallow sea water, filled with rubble and gravel.
"This is the real treasure spot."
He bent down and scooped a handful of items directly from the icy sea water—it was clusters of blue mussels, their shells shining with a bluish hue under the sunlight!
"Different from the kind that clings to rocks and needs to be pried off forcefully," he showed the mussels in his hand to the cara.
"The mussels on the Labrador Coast often live on the gravel beds of the subtidal zone."
"When the tide goes out, we can pick them up just like this. It's like nature feeding us directly!"
He waded through the water, repeatedly bending over to scoop up handfuls of plump mussels from the seabed and placed them in his sleeping bag storage sack.
Initially, the mussels he found were fairly ordinary in size, about five to six centiters long.
But the deeper he ventured into the receding tide's area, the more surprises he encountered!
"Wow! Look at this!" he exclaid excitedly, pulling a particularly large cluster of mussels from the water.
The largest one was nearly half a palm in length, with a thick shell, and felt very substantial.
"This is already quite a decent size, the at inside must be very plump."
He carefully placed this cluster of "trophies" into the storage bag and continued his exploration.
Underneath a large reef that had just been washed over by the sea, the water ford a backflow bay that seed to be a natural nutrient-rich area!
He reached his hand into the shadow beneath the reef and found a larger, denser mussel bed!
Here, the mussels were on average a size larger than before! Each one was like a small black treasure.
"Oh my! This place is just like a mussel buffet!" Lin Yu'an's face was filled with uninhibited, pure joy.
He stopped picking one by one and instead, with both hands together like an untiring harvester, scooped up clusters of heavy mussels, continuously filling his storage bag.
The storage bag visibly beca fuller and heavier, quickly filling up over half the bag.
"This is so addictive! This is the joy of foraging by the sea, you never know where the next surprise will be, you just want to take everything you see ho."
Lin Yu'an placed the storage bag on a rock and began to sort through it; he only kept the moderately large, tightly closed fresh mussels, tossing the small ones back.
"We only take what we need, we must not exhaust the source. This is the Law of coexistence with nature. Besides, there are so many large ones now, there's no need to eat such small mussels yet."
After sorting, his storage bag was packed with at least four to five kilos of pri large mussels.
While gathering mussels, he made another discovery.
In so tide pools surrounded by large rocks, where the sea water couldn't fully drain even during low tide, grew a large quantity of brown seaweed.
They swayed with the minor movents of the water, appearing like a miniature underwater forest.
"Kelp," he imdiately recognized this seaweed, very common along the North Atlantic coast.
He crouched down, carefully observing that the leaves of this seaweed were flat, forked, and the most distinctive feature was the small, olive-sized air bladders on the leaves.
It was these little air sacs that allowed them to float during high tide, maximizing their exposure to sunlight.
He drew the Damascus Hunting Knife, forged by Old George, from his waist. The blade easily sliced through a tuft of kelp, cutting off the lighter-colored, more tender sections at the top.
"This stuff is just like the sea vegetables of the North Atlantic." He showed his catch to the cara.
"First and foremost, it's an excellent food." He squeezed an air bladder, and a small stream of slippery liquid oozed out.
"Rich in iodine, Vitamin C, potassium, magnesium, and other trace elents. During the winter when plant-based food is scarce, this stuff is like a lifesaving vitamin tablet."
He placed the kelp into the collection bag, alongside the glossy black mussels.
"Cooking it is simple too. You can cook it with mussels in a soup, its natural gelatin makes the broth thicker and more savory."
"Or you can dry it, grind it into a powder, and use it as a natural flavor enhancer to sprinkle on roasted ats."
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