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

學習要點

有關 “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註著海浪。

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，開普敦附近的這片海岸線長期以來都是數百甚至上千頭舉世聞名的食肉動物的傢園。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，這種通常出現在噩夢和自然紀錄片中的動物，神秘地失蹤瞭。

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）
“過去，不管你走到哪裡，如果你把腳伸入水中，你可能就會遇到大白鯊，但現在情況不同瞭。我都不記得最後一次看到鯊魚是什麼時候瞭。”

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，已經兩年瞭，對經濟造成瞭毀滅性打擊。該地區靠大白鯊吸引遊客帶動的旅遊業已經崩潰。

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?

但大白鯊為什麼會消失呢？這段由業餘人士拍攝的錄像記錄瞭兩名嫌疑犯的到來，一對虎鯨，別名逆戟鯨，是它們把大白鯊都嚇跑瞭嗎？

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行官
“對我們來說，這些虎鯨的到來和鯊魚活動的減少似乎都是相關的。看來是虎鯨一來，鯊魚就意識到自己不再是食物鏈頂端的掠食者瞭。”

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。當地漁民一直在捕撈較小的鯊魚，出口到澳大利亞的炸魚和薯條店。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為犯罪現場的真相更復雜。莎拉·安德烈奧蒂博士曾經在這裡研究大白鯊。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.

她的觀點是，大白鯊的數量多年來一直在悄聲無息地減少，原因是氣候變化、污染和過度捕撈這一系列人類活動。

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·安德烈奧蒂博士斯坦陵佈什大學
“大白鯊的消失不僅令人沮喪，同時也給人一種事情就發生在眼皮底下，卻無能為力的感覺，我們看到鯊魚數量的下降，但所做的工作卻不足以讓環境得到更好的保護，也許一切為時已晚。”

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

她的結論是：大白鯊並沒有遷徙到別處，隻是在這個地區滅絕瞭，它們的地盤被這些短尾真鯊占領瞭。

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中，一切都是未知數，但有一點可以確定的是，一如既往，人類是頭號嫌疑犯。

詞匯

mysteriously 神秘地

suspects 嫌疑犯

detectives 偵探

crime scene 犯罪現場

prime suspects 頭號嫌疑犯

問題答案