万物简史 第403期:浩瀚的海洋(22)

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In the 1970s, fishermen from Australia and, to a lesser¹ extent, New Zealand 20世纪70年代，澳大利亚渔民，在较小范围内还有新西兰渔民，

discovered shoals of a little-known fish living at a depth of about half a mile on their continental² shelves. 在他们大陆架的大约800米深处发现了大群大群的一种不大知名的鱼。

They were known as orange roughy, they were delicious, and they existed in huge numbers. 那种鱼叫做似蹲连鳍蛙，味道鲜美，大量存在。

In no time at all, fishing fleets were hauling in forty thousand metric tons of roughy a year. 捕鱼船队马上以每年4万吨的量开始捕捞。

Then marine³ biologists made some alarming discoveries. 接着，海洋生物学家们有了几项惊人的发现。

Roughy are extremely long lived and slow maturing. 连鳍蛙寿命极长，成熟极慢。

Some may be 150 years old; any roughy you have eaten may well have been born when Victoria was Queen. 有的能活150年，你餐桌上的任何连鳍蛙很可能都出生在维多利亚当女王的时候。

Roughy have adopted this exceedingly unhurried lifestyle because the waters they live in are so resource-poor. 连鳍蛙之所以过着这种不慌不忙的生活，是因为它们所生活的水域缺少营养，

In such waters, some fish spawn⁴ just once in a lifetime. 在那种水域里，有的鱼一辈子才产一次卵。

Clearly these are populations that cannot stand a great deal of disturbance⁵. 显而易见，这种鱼经不起太多干扰。

Unfortunately, by the time this was realized the stocks had been severely⁶ depleted⁷. 不幸的是，等到明白过来，储量已经太幅度减少。

Even with careful management it will be decades before the populations recover, if they ever do. 即使在管理良好情况下，连鳍蛙也要过几十年才能恢复原来的数量，如果能恢复的话。

Elsewhere, however, the misuse⁸ of the oceans has been more wanton than inadvertent. 然而，在别的地方，滥用海洋不能再说是粗心大意，而是达到了肆无忌惮的程度。

Many fishermen "fin⁹" sharks—that is, slice their fins¹⁰ off, then dump them back into the water to die. 许多渔民为鲨鱼“切”鳍——即割去鲨鱼的鳍，然后把鲨鱼扔回水里，任凭它们死去。

In 1998, shark fins sold in the Far East for over $250 a pound. A bowl of shark fin soup retailed¹¹ in Tokyo for $100. 1998年，鱼翅在远东卖到110多美元1千克，一碗鱼翅汤在东京的零售价是100美元。

The World Wildlife Fund estimated in 1994 that the number of sharks killed each year was between 40 million and 70 million. 世界野生动物基金会在1994年估计，每年被杀的鲨鱼数量在4000万—7000万条之间。

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