本集內(nèi)容

Hunting for the missing great white sharks 搜尋失蹤的大白鯊

學(xué)習(xí)要點(diǎn)

有關(guān) “crime（犯罪）” 的詞匯

邊看邊答

Which industry has been badly affected by the disappearance of the great white shark?

文字稿

On a hillside overlooking False Bay [South Africa] – shark spotters are keeping a close watch on the waves.

在俯瞰南非福爾斯灣的山坡上，鯊魚觀察者們正在密切關(guān)注著海浪。

After all, this coastline near Cape Town has long been home to hundreds if not thousands of the world’s most famous predator. Until now.

畢竟，開(kāi)普敦附近的這片海岸線長(zhǎng)期以來(lái)都是數(shù)百甚至上千頭舉世聞名的食肉動(dòng)物的家園。然而，今非昔比。

South Africa’s great white sharks – the stuff of nightmares and of nature documentaries – have gone mysteriously missing.

南非大白鯊，這種通常出現(xiàn)在噩夢(mèng)和自然紀(jì)錄片中的動(dòng)物，神秘地失蹤了。

Monwabisi Sikweyiya, Shark Spotters
Wherever you go, if you put your feet into the water, you expect to encounter white shark, but that’s not the case no more. I don’t even remember the last time I saw the shark.

蒙瓦比西·錫克維耶亞    鯊魚觀察者組織（Shark Spotters）
“過(guò)去，不管你走到哪里，如果你把腳伸入水中，你可能就會(huì)遇到大白鯊，但現(xiàn)在情況不同了。我都不記得最后一次看到鯊魚是什么時(shí)候了。”

It’s two years now since they vanished, and the economic impact has been devastating. The great white tourism industry has collapsed.

自大白鯊消失以來(lái)，已經(jīng)兩年了，對(duì)經(jīng)濟(jì)造成了毀滅性打擊。該地區(qū)靠大白鯊吸引游客帶動(dòng)的旅游業(yè)已經(jīng)崩潰。

But why did they disappear? This amateur footage shows the arrival of two suspects, a pair of orcas – killer whales – could they have scared off all those great whites?

但大白鯊為什么會(huì)消失呢？這段由業(yè)余人士拍攝的錄像記錄了兩名嫌疑犯的到來(lái)，一對(duì)虎鯨，別名逆戟鯨，是它們把大白鯊都嚇跑了嗎？

Sarah Warries, CEO, Shark Spotters
To us, the arrival of these orcas and then the reduction in shark activity does all seem to be correlated. It appears that the orcas arrived and the sharks just are aware that they are no longer the apex predator any more.

莎拉·沃瑞斯     鯊魚觀察者組織首席執(zhí)行官
“對(duì)我們來(lái)說(shuō)，這些虎鯨的到來(lái)和鯊魚活動(dòng)的減少似乎都是相關(guān)的。看來(lái)是虎鯨一來(lái)，鯊魚就意識(shí)到自己不再是食物鏈頂端的掠食者了。”

But here is another theory. Local fishermen have been catching smaller sharks to export to fish and chip shops in Australia. Those sharks formed part of the great whites’ diet.

但還有另一種理論。當(dāng)?shù)貪O民一直在捕撈較小的鯊魚，出口到澳大利亞的炸魚和薯?xiàng)l店。而這些鯊魚正是大白鯊的食物之一。

But other shark detectives see a more complicated crime scene. Dr Sarah Andreotti used to study great whites here. Now she’s using a harpoon to scrape DNA from smaller species.

但其他的鯊魚偵探認(rèn)為犯罪現(xiàn)場(chǎng)的真相更復(fù)雜。莎拉·安德烈?jiàn)W蒂博士曾經(jīng)在這里研究大白鯊。她正在用魚叉從較小的鯊魚物種身上刮取DNA。

Her view is that the great white population has been shrinking unnoticed for many years because of climate change, pollution, overfishing – a range of human activities.

她的觀點(diǎn)是，大白鯊的數(shù)量多年來(lái)一直在悄聲無(wú)息地減少，原因是氣候變化、污染和過(guò)度捕撈這一系列人類活動(dòng)。

Dr Sara Andreotti, University of Stellenbosch
It is not just frustrating, it’s the feeling that that happened under our watch, you know, we saw the sharks, we saw the numbers were not great, and the work we did wasn’t enough to get the environment better protected in a way, or maybe it was just too late.

莎拉·安德烈?jiàn)W蒂博士     斯坦陵布什大學(xué)
“大白鯊的消失不僅令人沮喪，同時(shí)也給人一種事情就發(fā)生在眼皮底下，卻無(wú)能為力的感覺(jué)，我們看到鯊魚數(shù)量的下降，但所做的工作卻不足以讓環(huán)境得到更好的保護(hù)，也許一切為時(shí)已晚。”

Her conclusion is that the great whites didn’t move elsewhere, they simply died out – their turf taken over by these copper sharks.

她的結(jié)論是：大白鯊并沒(méi)有遷徙到別處，只是在這個(gè)地區(qū)滅絕了，它們的地盤被這些短尾真鯊占領(lǐng)了。

Nothing in this great white mystery is certain, except for the knowledge that we humans are, as usual, prime suspects.

在大白鯊消失的謎團(tuán)中，一切都是未知數(shù)，但有一點(diǎn)可以確定的是，一如既往，人類是頭號(hào)嫌疑犯。

詞匯

mysteriously 神秘地

suspects 嫌疑犯

detectives 偵探

crime scene 犯罪現(xiàn)場(chǎng)

prime suspects 頭號(hào)嫌疑犯

問(wèn)題答案

The great white tourism industry has been badly affected – it has collapsed.