一種中華鱘的末日 一個國家的悲哀

In the English naturalist Isabella Bird’s 1899 account of her travels on the Yangtze River, she noted that fishermen regularly caught sturgeon “weighing from 500 to 700 pounds” off the port in the town of Jingzhou.

英國博物學家伊莎貝拉·伯德(Isabella Bird)在她1899年長江考察的記載中，描述了距離荊州港口不遠的漁民經常打撈到“500到700磅重”的鱘魚。

Such abundance is now a distant memory. Pollution, decades of overfishing and the cleaving of the Chinese sturgeon’s habitat by massive dams mean the 140 million-year-old species faces extinction, Chinese scientists say.

如此富饒的資源現已是一個遙遠的記憶。中國的科學家說，污染、幾十年的過度捕撈，加上中華鱘的棲息地被巨型水壩分割，意味着這個存在了1.4億年的物種瀕臨滅絕。

A recent survey by the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences found that the sturgeon in the Yangtze were now probably sustained solely by artificial breeding.

中國水產科學研究院最近的一項調查顯示，長江中的中華鱘只剩下來自人工繁殖的。

“It is the first time that we found no natural reproduction of the endangered sturgeons since records began 32 years ago, when a dam was built,” Wei Qiwei, the principal investigator of the study, told Xinhua, the state news agency.

這項研究的主持人危起偉對國家通訊社新華社說，自32年前一座水壩建成後，“這是有記錄以來，首次發現中華鱘沒有自然繁殖活動現象。”

Many sturgeon species around the world are endangered. The scaleless fish, which have rows of bony plates and barbels that dangle before their mouths, can live for decades and are slow to reach maturity. That makes them particularly vulnerable to pollution and poorly regulated fishing.

世界上許多地方的鱘魚物種瀕臨滅絕。這種無鱗魚長着列骨板，嘴前有觸鬚，能活幾十年，需較長時間才能成熟。這使它們對污染和監管不力的打撈尤爲脆弱。

The sturgeon of the Yangtze have been further devastated by the damming of the river. Chinese researchers say construction of the Gezhou Dam in 1981 blocked upstream migration of the Chinese sturgeon, reducing its breeding ground from 350 miles of river to just four. The problem was exacerbated by the construction of the Three Gorges Dam, the world’s largest hydroelectric station, in 2003.

長江中的中華鱘由於水壩建設受到進一步破壞。中國的研究人員說，1981年建成的葛洲壩阻擋了中華鱘向上遊遷徙，將其自然繁殖區從560多公里的河道減少爲不到7公里。這個問題被三峽大壩的建設進一步加劇，2003年建成的三峽大壩是世界上最大的水力發電工程。

China established programs to breed sturgeon in captivity in the late 1970s, and more than nine million juveniles were released into the river from 1983 to 2007, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

中國在20世紀70年代後期開始在漁場人工繁殖鱘魚，據國際自然保護聯盟(International Union for Conservation of Nature)統計，從1983至2007年間，共有900多萬條魚苗被釋放到河裏。

In the 1970s, there were some 10,000 Chinese sturgeon in the Yantgtze, according to the I.U.C.N.’s Red List of Threatened Species. Their number dropped to about 2,000 in the mid-1980s and to fewer than 300 by 2007. Now there are most likely fewer than 100, Mr. Wei told Xinhua.

據國際自然保護聯盟發佈的瀕危物種名單，在20世紀70年代，長江中有1萬多條中華鱘。到了80年代中期，它們的數量已下降到大約2千條，2007年的數量則不到300條。危起偉對新華社說，現在的數量很可能不到100條。

Researchers found no Chinese sturgeon eggs downstream from the Gezhou Dam from Oct. 31 to Dec. 28 last year, he said. The lack of natural reproduction means the fish risks extinction without artificial intervention.

他說，從去年10月31日到12月28日，研究人員在葛洲壩下游沒有發現中華鱘自然產卵。他說，沒有自然產卵，意味着如果不加強保護工作，這種魚將面臨滅絕危險。

The environmental harm to the Yangtze has already extinguished another of its iconic creatures. The baiji, a white, largely blind, freshwater dolphin that was found only in the Yangtze, was declared extinct in 2006. The last known baiji died in captivity in 2002.

對長江環境的危害，已讓其中另一個標誌性的生物滅絕。只在長江中才有的白鰭豚，是一種大型且視覺很差的淡水豚，它已經在2006年被宣告滅絕。人們知道的最後一隻白暨豚於2002年在飼養場死亡。