[12.11 美国 CNN] 只有中国能拯救我们的鲨鱼

krypton

【链接】http://edition.cnn.com/2008/TECH/12/08/knights.sharks/index.html#cnnSTCText
【标题】只有中国能拯救我们的鲨鱼
【翻译】个人
Commentary: Only China can save our sharks评论：只有中国能拯救我们鲨鱼

Editor's Note: Peter Knights is Director of WildAid, an international conserv4earched the trade in shark fin for 10 years and has worked on conservation programs in 45 countries.

编者注：Peter Knight是野外救援的主管——一个旨在终止非法野生动物需求的国际保护组织——10年来他一直致力与鱼翅交易的研究，在45个国家从事保护工作。

Peter Knights, right, examines shark fins in the Galapagos last year.

SAN FRANCISCO, California (CNN) -- At certain times in history, great nations find themselves shaping the future of the world. For many of our most endangered wildlife species, China finds itself in that role today.

圣弗朗西斯科，加州（CNN）——历史上某些时候，一些大国发现自己塑造了世界的未来，如今，对于濒危物种，中国扮演了这样的角色。

Old customs of consuming certain wildlife

as foods, medicines and decoration and new economic success have blended to create a recipe for extinction for a number of wild animals unless the growing appetites can be curbed.

以某些野生动物作为食物，药物和装饰品的古老习惯和现在成功的经济交融创造出一些动物的灭绝的良方，除非能够抑制这些增长的欲望

Rare animal consumption in China was formerly limited to a tiny affluent minority, but incredible economic growth of 10 percent a year has led to a booming number of new consumers. After the SARS outbreak, authorities reported seizing 980,000 live animals from wildlife markets. China is now the primary market for tiger bone, rhino horn, elephant ivory, live snakes, pangolins and a whole host of wildlife products.

以前，中国稀有动物消耗只局限于少数人之间，但是随着经济每年以10%的速度惊人增长，产生了大量新的消费群体。SARS爆发后，官方报道在野生动物市场扣押了980000只野生动物，中国是虎骨，犀牛角，象牙，活蛇、穿山甲等一些列野生动物产品的首要消费市场。

Perhaps the greatest example of this boom is its role in the largest mass slaughter of any large animals going on today. Every year the fins from up to 70 million sharks are being used to make shark fin soup -- the vast majority going to China and Hong Kong.

这种繁荣的最大的例子可能就是其在现下流行的对任何大型动物的大面积屠杀中所扮演的角色。每年，多达7000万条鲨鱼的鱼翅被用于制作鱼翅汤——其中绝大部分流向中国和香港。

Though the cartilage from the fins has no real flavor and is basically just protein, this soup retains a cachet that can fetch more than $100 per bowl. It is bought for business dinners, banquets and weddings as an indication of high spending to "honor" guests, but it is leading to environmental vandalism on a massive scale worldwide.

尽管鱼鳍的软骨没有什么味道，且基本上就是蛋白质，这种汤保持每碗多达100美元的价格，作为高消费宴请尊贵客人的标志，这种汤被用于商业会餐、宴会、和婚宴，但是这却导致全球范围内的环境破坏。

Fishing for fins has spread to the most remote parts of the planet as easily accessible shark populations have already plummeted, some by up to 95 percent in the last fifteen years.

猎取鱼翅的渔业已近从易到达区域扩展到地球最偏远的区域，鲨鱼的数量急剧降低，过去十五年来鲨鱼数量减少了大概95%

Although most shark fishing is completely unrestricted, in the few areas they are protected they are still being heavily poached. In the Galapagos Marine Reserve, up to 10,000 fins (2,500 sharks) have been seized in a single shipment and endangered sea lions and dolphins are used as bait.

尽管大部分鲨鱼业没有受到限制，但是在少数受保护的地区他们仍然成为盘中餐，在加拉帕克斯海洋保护区，出海一次就可以猎取10000鱼翅（2500只鲨鱼），濒危的海狮和海豚被用作（猎取鲨鱼的）饵料。

In 2006, Australian authorities seized 365 Indonesian boats fishing illegally in their waters mostly for shark fins. Only threatening to fire upon boats if they didn't heave to and burning the offending boats eventually stemmed this tide. But as I recently discovered, the shark finners just moved on to Papua New Guinea, where there are no controls.

2006年，澳大利亚官方扣押了365只非法在其海域猎取鲨鱼翅的印尼渔船。直至威胁烧毁渔船并烧毁挑衅船只才终止了这场风波。但是，我发现，这些捕猎者又迁移到巴布亚岛新几内亚这些不受限制的地方去了。

Reporter Lisa Ling and the "Planet in Peril" team filmed as we hauled up illegal longlines inside the Cocos Island Marine National Park in Costa Rica and as we chased off the same boats two days in a row. I have traveled around the world to witness the inability of even developed nations to protect their waters from illegal fishing.

记者Lisa Ling和“危险的星球”摄制组拍摄了我们在Costa Rica 的椰子岛国家海洋公园阻止非法捕鱼并连续两天驱逐同一条渔船的故事。我到过世界各地，发现即使发达国家在保护其水域免遭非法捕鱼上也无能为力。

Drug trafficking has shown that even draconian laws and billions spent on law enforcement cannot stem the tide if the demand in consuming countries remains high. For wildlife and especially fisheries, regulation is weak and enforcement is invariably poor.

毒品贸易说明如果消耗国家的需求高，即使严格的法律甚至花费数百万进行执法也不能阻止这种浪潮。对于野生动物和特殊渔业，规章总是很空泛，执行总是无力的。

That is why WildAid focuses on trying to end the demand -- the only long-term soution. WildAid believes that "when the buying stops, the killing can, too." The organization has broadcast this message to up to 1 billion people a week with the help of more than 100 celebrity ambassadors from the worlds of movies, music and sport.

这就是野外救助组织集中精力于努力终止需求的原因——长远解决问题的唯一方案。野外救援相信没有”消费就没有杀戮” 该组织每周通过全球的电影、音乐、体育明星大使将这条信息传播至超给过10亿人。

The encouraging news is that when people in China know what's going on, they do care. Our initial research revealed that 75 percent of Chinese didn't even know "fish wing" soup, as it is called there, was derived from sharks. They didn't know that sharks mature late and reproduce slowly and that nearly one third of shark species are considered endangered or vulnerable.

振奋人心的是，当中国人知道这种形式后，他们的确关注，我们最初的研究表明，超过75%的中国人甚至不知道他们所称的“鱼翅”汤源于鲨鱼。他们不知道鲨鱼成熟较晚，繁殖很慢，也不知道超过1/3的鲨鱼是都处于濒危状态。

So we embarked on one of the largest conservation awareness initiatives, reaching hundreds of millions of Chinese.

所以我们着手我们最大的觉醒保护计划之一，覆盖数亿中国人

China's most popular star, Yao Ming, championed the program pledging to never again eat shark fin soup, generating 300 news stories. We covered Beijing with his image, appealing for the sharks, and a host of Chinese and international Olympians recorded messages that Chinese state television and video billboards broadcast widely.

中国最受欢迎的明星，姚明是立誓不吃鱼翅、制作300个故事计划的最大支持者。我们用他的肖像在真个北京为鲨鱼发出呼吁，一位中国及国际奥林匹克选手记录了中国国家电视台和广播，视屏和布告栏的信息。

A top survey company in Beijing, CTR, found that 55 percent of those surveyed remembered our campaign, 94 percent of those became aware of the issue, 89 percent subsequently thought the soup should be banned or regulated and 82 percent said they would stop or reduce their consumption. We got similar results from previous work in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Thailand.

北京最好的调查公司CRT，发现55%的受访者对我们的活动有印象，其中94%的人意识到这种状况，89%的人认为该禁止或做出限制，82%表示他们将停止或减少食用鱼翅汤，我们在香港，台湾和泰国得到类似的结果。

For the health of our oceans, we must hope that China can show global leadership in banning or strictly regulating shark fin soup and continue to educate the public, saving our sharks and other endangered species. We hope that this great culture that has lasted for thousands of years can conserve, rather than destroy, these animals that have survived for nearly 400 million years and yet face annihilation in our lifetimes, all for a bowl of overpriced soup.  

为了我们海洋的健康，我们最好希望中国在禁止和严格限制鱼翅汤方面表现出其全球领导风范，并继续教育中国公众拯救我们的鲨鱼和其他濒危的物种。我们宁可希望这个伟大的文化可以保留千年，而非毁灭。这些生活了4亿年的物种可能会在我们这一辈消失，而这就仅仅是为了碗标价过高的汤。

[ 本帖最后由 krypton 于 2008-12-14 23:00 编辑 ]