虎鲨帮助我们发现世界上最大的海草生态系统(下)

But how do you collaborate with a large carnivorous shark?

不过，你是如何与大型食肉动物鲨鱼合作的呢?

These tiger sharks have teeth that are capable of doing some serious damage.

这些虎鲨的牙齿能够造成严重的破坏。

And that’s not demonizing them, that’s just a fact.

这并非妖魔化它们，这只是事实。

For the study, Gallagher’s team caught eight tiger sharks and outfitted them with satellite tags.

在研究中，加拉格尔的团队捕获了8头虎鲨，并为它们配备了卫星标签。

The researchers also attached cameras to seven more sharks. At first ...

研究人员还为另外7头虎鲨安装了摄像头。起初……

Waves crashing, it’s just hectic, everybody’s shouting.

海浪汹涌，乱成一团，每个人都在叫喊。

We’re reeling this animal in, trying to restrain it, put rope around its tail, fasten it to the side of the boat.

我们把这头虎鲨拉上来，试图控制住它，用绳子缠绕它的尾巴，把它固定在船边。

Once the shark is secured ... Well it’s actually kind of amazing. It just kind of chills out and is quite peaceful.

一旦拴住虎鲨...... 真的很神奇。它就会冷静下来，非常安静。

In 12 minutes on average for each shark, the team took measurements, collected blood samples and installed the recording equipment.

平均每12分钟，研究团队就会对一头虎鲨进行测量，收集血液样本，安装记录设备。

The sharks were then released to roam the Banks’ seagrass meadows.

随后，将这些虎鲨放到巴哈马浅滩海草草甸上漫游。

The tiger sharks were much better observers than humans.

虎鲨比人类更善于观察。

They do about 70 kilometers per day, 24/7.

它们每天不间断地要游70公里。

They’re also one fifth the cost of humans or drones.

使用虎鲨的成本也只有人力或无人机的五分之一。

By combining the shark footage and location data with thousands of boat and diver surveys, the team could correctly interpret satellite images ...

通过将虎鲨镜头、位置数据与数千艘船只、潜水员的调查相结合，该研究团队可以正确无误地解释卫星图像……

Ultimately revealing the world’s largest seagrass meadow, up to 93,000 square kilometers.

他们最终发现了世界上最大的海草草甸，面积达93000平方公里。

That’s about the size of Portugal and nearly 40 times the size of original estimates.

其规模与葡萄牙面积相当，是起初预估的近40倍。

The find increases known seagrasses globally by one third.

这一发现使全球已知的海草增加了三分之一。

The world’s remaining undiscovered seagrass meadows will be smaller, Carlos says.

卡洛斯表示，世界上剩下的未被发现的海草草甸将会缩小。

To map them, Carlos will use another charismatic denizen of sea grass ecosystems: sea turtles.

为了绘制海草地图，卡洛斯将动用海草生态系统中另一位魅力超凡的动物: 海龟。

We are doing that now in the Red Sea and getting a very reliable mapping.

我们现在正在红海进行研究，获得了非常可靠的地图信息。

Not only where the seagrass meadows are but in the visual area that they cover.

不仅包括海草草地的位置，还包括覆盖的视觉区域。

Carlos and his colleagues will soon be exploring near the Maldives and other archipelagos and island nations in Southeast Asia.

卡洛斯和他的同事们不久将在马尔代夫和东南亚其他群岛、岛国附近考查。

Mapping seagrasses not only helps us protect them; it may also benefit the people who live near them.

绘制海草地图不仅有助于保护它们; 也可能使附近居民受益。

When you look at the carbon assets in the seagrass meadow and the avoided emissions that can be achieved through conservation and then apportion them to 300,000 people ...

海草草甸上有丰富的碳资源，通过保护它们可以避免碳排放，将碳资源分配给30万人……

He’s referring to the population of the Bahamas–now over 350,000 people ...

他指的是巴哈马的人口——现在有超过35万的人口……

Basically every Bahamian owns a million bucks in carbon credits.

基本上每个巴哈马人都有100万美元的碳信用额度。

The team’s work also puts sharks in a new, more flattering light.

该团队的工作还将鲨鱼置于一种全新的、讨喜的角度。

These tiger sharks led us to the seagrass meadows, and we now know that this is going to be a huge benefit for the people of the Bahamas moving forward.

这些虎鲨把我们带到了海草草甸，我们现在知道，这将为巴哈马人民的未来带来巨大的利益。

It really demonstrates that if you protect the sharks, then you could potentially protect the people.

这确实表明，如果你保护鲨鱼，那么，你可能是在保护人类自己。

No small accomplishment for 15 tiger sharks and their human colleagues.

对15头虎鲨以及它们的人类同事来说，这是一个不小的成就。

For Scientific American’s Science, Quickly, I’m Joseph Polidoro.

感谢收听《科学美国人》的Science, Quickly栏目，我是约瑟夫·波利多罗。