Make $500 Catching Turtles

My dad took a 3 hour road trip past San Diego, California to the shores near the Mexican border. He took his fishing gear and came home with 10-15 live turtles. What are you going to do with all these turtles? Some were big, some were the size of 5-6 inch pet turtles. These weren’t regular pet turtles though. They looked kinda different. However, they were the type of turtles Chinese people eat as delicacies!
We were a bit distraught over the possibility that these innocent turtles would be served at the family dinner table but the next day the turtles were gone.

My dad had gone to an Asian supermarket in the San Gabriel / Monterey Park area (a predominantly Chinese community in Southern California) and sold the turtles to the supermarket. Selling them at $8 per pound, he came home with $500!

Wow! Five hundred dollars for going fishing for turtles? My dad was all smiles for the next few days.