Coming up next on Jonathan Bird's Blue World, Jonathan joins a team of biologists working to save the sturgeon!
接下来请收看乔纳森·伯德的《蓝色世界》,乔纳森加入了一支致力于拯救鲟鱼的生物学家团队!
Hi, I'm Jonathan Bird and Welcome to my world!
嗨,我是乔纳森·伯德,欢迎来到我的世界!
Caviar is one of the most well-known delicacies in the world, an epicurean tradition dating back to the ancient Greeks and beyond.
鱼子酱是世界上最著名的美食之一,它算是一种享乐主义传统,可以追溯到古希腊及更久远的时期。
The Romans loved their caviar, and today a thousand years later, some people still go crazy for these expensive, salty fish eggs.
罗马人喜欢鱼子酱,一千年后的今天,有些人仍然为这些昂贵的咸鱼子疯狂。
Caviar comes from an ancient fish called a sturgeon. Sturgeon are one of the oldest families of bony fish in existence—they have been around for hundreds of millions of years.
鱼子酱来自一种名为鲟鱼的古老鱼类,鲟鱼是现存最古老的有骨鱼类家族之一,它们已经存在了数亿年。
In fact, during the time of the dinosaurs, there were Sturgeon swimming around in oceans, rivers and lakes.
事实上,在有恐龙的年代,海洋、河流和湖泊中就有鲟鱼。
Today, there are 27 species of Sturgeon remaining, and every one of them is endangered!
今天,还有27种鲟鱼,它们都濒临灭绝!
In North America, Sturgeon used to be so plentiful that they were considered a nuisance to fishermen.
在北美,鲟鱼数量曾经非常多,渔民都将其视为公害。
But in the mid 1800s, the Caviar industry discovered the North American sturgeon. Within 20 years, they were nearly gone.
但在19世纪中期,鱼子酱工业发现了北美鲟鱼。20年间,它们几乎都消失了。
Now, more than a hundred years later, Sturgeon stocks are only just beginning to rebound.
一百多年后的今天,鲟鱼的数量才刚刚开始反弹。
To learn more about the Sturgeon, I have teamed up with Jen Hayes, a biologist who did her PhD work with the Lake Sturgeon in the St. Lawrence river.
为了解关于鲟鱼的更多信息,我和詹·海斯合作,她是一位生物学家,在圣劳伦斯河的鲟鱼湖完成了她的博士学业。
These days, Jen and her husband David Doubilet are underwater photographers, working on a story about the St. Lawrence for National Geographic Magazine.
这些天,詹和丈夫大卫·杜比莱在做水下摄影师,为国家地理杂志撰写一篇关于圣劳伦斯河的故事。
I tag along with Jen and David, as we explore the river where Jen grew up.
我和詹与大卫一起,探索陪伴詹长大的这条河流。
We pass a huge hydro-electric dam. It generates clean, renewable power for the area. But it does have an environmental side effect.
我们经过一座巨大的水电站大坝,它为该地区生产清洁的可再生能源。但它确实会对环境产生负面影响。
Hydro-electric dams are usually built in the parts of a river with the most vertical drop.
水电大坝通常建在河流中垂直落差最大的地方。
This creates more elevation of water behind the dam to run the turbines.
这会使大坝后面的水位更高,以此来运行涡轮机。
But the places with the most vertical drop are usually rapids, with fast moving water.
但垂直落差最大的地方通常是急流,水流湍急。
And that's exactly where sturgeon like to spawn.
这正是鲟鱼喜欢产卵的地方。
The rest of the river has slow water and a muddy bottom. The eggs sink into the mud and vanish. What few rocks there are get a coating of algae and plants. Not good for spawning.
河水的其余部位流动缓慢,底部有泥泞。鱼子沉入泥中就会消失。因为石块较少,生长着一层藻类植物,不利于产卵。
With no rapids, the sturgeon have no place to lay their eggs, and that has made it tough for this fish to reproduce.
由于没有急流,鲟鱼没有产卵的地方,这使得这种鱼很难繁殖。
New York State's Department of Environmental Conservation has undertaken an ambitious project to help increase the number of sturgeon in the river.
纽约州环境保护部实施了一项雄心勃勃的项目,以帮助增加河流中的鲟鱼数量。
I meet Rodger Klindt, an Aquatic Biologist with the state who is out this morning with his team.
我见到了罗格·克林特,他是一位来自纽约州的水生生物学家,今天早上他及其小队一起外出。
The team's job is part research, and part midwife. They are collecting eggs from healthy sturgeon to raise them partly in captivity.
这个小队的工作一部分是做研究,一部分是做助产士。他们正在从健康的鲟鱼身上采集鱼卵,部分进行人工饲养。
Certain areas of the river have sturgeon present. Rodger and his team have set nets to capture both male and female mature sturgeon.
这条河的某些流域现在有鲟鱼,罗格及其小队已经设置了捕捉成年雄性和雌性鲟鱼的渔网。
The end of the net is marked with a red flag.
网的末端用红旗标记。
The nets catch fish as they swim along the bottom, but they do not harm the fish.
鱼在河底游动时会被网捉住,但渔网不会伤害鱼。
Gently, each fish comes aboard the boat and goes into a holding tank.
每条鱼都会被轻轻拿上船,然后放入一个贮水池。
They keep plenty of fresh, oxygenated water in the tank to keep the fish alive.
他们在鱼缸里储存了大量新鲜的含氧水,以维持鱼的生命。
When they have 3 or 4 fish in the tank, they head back to the dock.
鱼缸里有三四条鱼时,他们就回码头。
The fish are measured, weighed and tagged. The biologists are building a database to keep track of individual fish.
他们要对鱼进行测量、称重和标记,生物学家们正在建立一个数据库来追踪每一条鱼。
If they catch them in subsequent years they can compare notes from the previous years to learn how quickly they grow.
如果他们在以后的几年里又抓住这些鱼,就能与前几年的记录进行对比,了解它们的生长速度。
The smaller sturgeon go back into the river, where they take a few minutes to catch their breath.
较小的鲟鱼回到河里,它们需要几分钟来呼吸。
Sturgeon can live to be over 100 years old and weigh more than 200 pounds. While these might look like big fish, they get a lot bigger. But big ones these days are rare.
鲟鱼可以活到100岁以上,体重超过200磅。虽然这些看起来像大鱼,但它们会长得更大。不过现在大鱼很少见了。
Since sturgeon are not mature enough to produce eggs until they are around 20 years old, most of these fish are immature and have to go back into the river.
由于鲟鱼在20岁左右才成熟,能够产卵。所以这些鱼中大多数都还不成熟,必须放回到河里。
They swim away, slowly at first, none the worse for wear.
它们一开始游得很慢,毫发未损。
The larger fish, especially females that have a lot of eggs, go up the hill to a larger holding tank with a pump recirculating fresh water.
较大的鱼,尤其是怀有卵的雌鱼,会运到山上一个更大的储水池中,这些储水池中用泵来循环淡水。
A few mature males go into another tank.
一些成熟的雄鱼被送入另一个水箱中。
Once they have enough fish in their holding tanks, it's time to make some baby sturgeon!
一旦储水池里的鱼量够了时,就该孵小鲟鱼了!
First, a male sturgeon is taken from his tank where the team extracts sperm using a syringe.
先从水箱中取出一只雄性鲟鱼,研究小组用注射器抽取精子。
Then fish is set free.
然后把鱼放生。
Once they have samples of sperm from several fish, it's time to harvest some eggs from the females.
他们从几条鱼身上取了精子样本后,就要从雌鱼身上采集卵子了。
My job is to hold the egg collection bowl as a female sturgeon comes out of the tank and her eggs are massaged from her belly.
我的工作是拿着鱼卵收集碗,我们要从水箱中取出一只雌鱼,然后给肚子做按摩,取出鱼卵。
This does not harm the fish at all and immediately after this process she is set free in the river.
这不会对鱼造成伤害,取完鱼卵后,立即把它放生。
Talk about a science project! Now the eggs are fertilized with the sperm from the male and the biologists will attempt to create the perfect conditions to produce thousands of healthy sturgeon babies.
我们在说的是一个科学项目!现在,这些卵要与雄鱼的精子受精,生物学家将试图创造出完美的条件,以生出数千只健康的小鲟鱼。
All of these eggs are going to be baby sturgeon, and that's a lot of sturgeon to put back into the population.
所有这些卵都将是小鲟鱼,大量的鲟鱼将投入到它们的种群之中。
I'm using a feather to stir these eggs. We have added an agent in there that is sort of made of clay and we stir it around.
我在用羽毛搅拌这些鱼卵,在里面加入一种由粘土制成的药剂,然后搅动。
This clay substance helps the eggs to lose their stickiness. The problem is that we don't want sticky eggs.
这种粘土物质有助于让鱼卵失去黏性,问题是我们不想要黏黏的鱼卵。
In the wild, sticky eggs are good because they stick to the bottom of the river but in a hatchery, sticky eggs are not good.
在野外,黏黏的鱼卵很好,因为它们可以粘在河底,但在孵化场里,黏黏的鱼卵就不好了。