科學(xué)家暢游太平洋“鯊魚高速公路”

科學(xué)家暢游太平洋“鯊魚高速公路”

For the first time, scientists have videotaped sharks traveling a 500-mile-long "shark highway" in the Pacific, and they plan to turn it into a protected wildlife corridor in the ocean.

科學(xué)家們首次拍攝了鯊魚在太平洋上行駛500英里長的“鯊魚高速公路”的錄像，并計劃將其變成海洋中受保護(hù)的野生動物走廊。

Biologists have been attaching electronic tags to sharks near Costa Rica for years. They knew the sharks sometimes traveled south to the Galapagos Islands, but they'd never actually witnessed it. And they needed scientific — and visual — evidence to make their case for protecting the route.

多年來，生物學(xué)家一直在哥斯達(dá)黎加附近的鯊魚身上安裝電子標(biāo)簽。他們知道鯊魚有時會向南游到加拉帕戈斯群島，但他們從未親眼目睹過。他們需要科學(xué)的和視覺的證據(jù)來證明他們保護(hù)這條路線的理由。

And they waited, and waited, spending hours watching live video of nothing but blue water — until dozens of sharks suddenly swam out of the gloom and into view. "Amazing," biologist Mario Espinoza says of the moment. "We actually documented over 16 species of sharks and fish, also sea turtles and dolphins. ... It's really surprising to see that many animals."

他們等了又等，花了好幾個小時觀看現(xiàn)場錄像，只看到藍(lán)色的海水——直到幾十條鯊魚突然從陰暗處游出來，進(jìn)入視野。“太棒了，”生物學(xué)家馬里奧·埃斯皮諾薩談到這一刻時說。“我們實際上記錄了超過16種鯊魚和魚類，還有海龜和海豚。。。看到這么多動物真是令人驚訝。”

Sharks dominated — mostly hammerheads but also thresher sharks and silky sharks. Sometimes a single video frame captured dozens of them. What the scientists were witnessing is a continuous "swimway" of large marine animals. It starts in Cocos Island in Costa Rica and extends to the Galapagos.

鯊魚占主導(dǎo)地位——大多數(shù)是雙髻鯊，也有長尾鯊和絲鯊。有時一個視頻幀就能捕捉到幾十個。科學(xué)家們目睹的是大型海洋動物的持續(xù)“游泳路徑”。它始于哥斯達(dá)黎加的科科斯島，一直延伸到加拉帕戈斯群島。

The route follows a range of underwater mountains. Some of their peaks extend fairly close to the surface. "So this was the first time we actually documented animals using these seamounts," Espinoza says. "We don't know exactly whether they are feeding or they're like stopping by or using these seamounts as navigation routes."

路線沿著一系列水下山脈而行。有些山峰延伸到離海面相當(dāng)近的地方。埃斯皮諾薩說:“所以這是我們第一次真正記錄動物使用這些海底山。”“我們不知道它們到底是在覓食，還是在這里停留，或者把這些海底山脈作為導(dǎo)航路線。”

Road signs, perhaps, or drive-through restaurants.

也許是路標(biāo)，或者是免下車餐廳。

Espinoza is at the University of Costa Rica, and the expedition was organized by a Costa Rican group called Pacifico. Zdenka Piskulich, president of the Pacifico Foundation, says it's a challenge to get people interested in some sort of fish corridor in the middle of the ocean. "But finally we have visual evidence that there is a huge abundance in this area that needs to be protected, that there really is a highway," she says.

埃斯皮諾薩在哥斯達(dá)黎加大學(xué)工作，這次探險是由一個名為Pacifico的哥斯達(dá)黎加小組組織的。Pacifico基金會主席茲登卡·皮斯庫里奇表示，讓人們對海洋中的某種魚類走廊產(chǎn)生興趣是一個挑戰(zhàn)。“但最終我們有了視覺證據(jù)，這一地區(qū)有大量的魚類需要保護(hù)，這確實是一條高速公路，”她說。

Cocos Island and the Galapagos already have protected areas for fish, but the highway isn't part of that, according to Lee Crockett of the Shark Conservation Fund, one of the effort's sponsors.

鯊魚保護(hù)基金會的李•克羅克特表示，科科斯島和加拉帕戈斯群島已經(jīng)建立了魚類保護(hù)區(qū)，但這條高速公路并不在其中。他是這項工作的發(fā)起人之一。

"Once [sharks] get outside the protected area, its fair game," he says. "And there's lots of high seas fishing for tuna. It's mostly long lines, and they catch a lot of sharks and a lot of turtles." Some hammerhead shark species are endangered and others are in decline, as well as many turtle species.

他說:“一旦[鯊魚]離開了保護(hù)區(qū)，它就成了公平的獵物。”“還有很多人在公海上捕撈金槍魚。他們會排很長的隊，他們會釣到很多鯊魚和海龜。”一些雙髻鯊物種瀕臨滅絕，另一些物種正在減少，還有許多海龜物種也是如此。

The research team and its sponsors are hoping to establish something new here: a marine protected area that's not just a patch of ocean or reef, but a wildlife corridor in the ocean that extends for hundreds of miles. "That's why we're excited about this as kind of the next step in conservation," Crockett says, "to establish these corridors or swimways between these protected areas so they get complete protection."

研究團(tuán)隊及其贊助商希望在這里建立一個新的東西:一個海洋保護(hù)區(qū)，它不僅僅是一片海洋或珊瑚礁，而是一個綿延數(shù)百英里的海洋野生動物走廊?？肆_克特說:“這就是為什么我們對這一保護(hù)的下一步感到興奮，在這些保護(hù)區(qū)之間建立這些走廊或游泳路徑，這樣它們就能得到完全的保護(hù)。”

It would be a highway that doesn't go through mountains, but above them. One with a great view, for sure, but unless you're a shark, probably not a place where you'd want to hitchhike.

這條高速公路不會穿過山脈，而是在山上。當(dāng)然是一個視野絕佳的地方，但除非你是條鯊魚，否則可能不是一個你想搭便車的地方。