你们敢来中国吗 小龙虾占领苏格兰

 Forget Nessie: there's another insidious¹ creature living in the waters of Scotland. The story starts in the streams and lakes of the northwestern United States, where North American signal crayfish are a familiar sight. Turn over a rock and you may well encounter one. But in Scottish streams and lochs, these creatures are intruders. American crayfish may be destroying the catch.

别去想什么尼斯湖水怪了，苏格兰的水域中潜伏着另一种有害生物。它们起源于美国西北部的溪流和湖泊，美国北部的人民对小龙虾已经见怪不怪了。翻开一块石头就能发现一只。然而在苏格兰，这种生物却是入侵者，美国小龙虾可能会毁掉苏格兰的生态。

Allen Pleus, with the Department of Fish and Wildlife in Washington State, says that the signal crayfish is an important species in his region. It's the only native crayfish species, and the freshwater crustaceans² are are just another part of the ecosystem³. "They play well with others," he says. "They've learned to be good neighbors with the other native species." But those same crayfish wreak⁴ havoc⁵ in Scottish waters.

华盛顿鱼类和野生动物的艾伦·普鲁伊斯说小龙虾在本地是很重要的物种。这是唯一的本地小龙虾种，而淡水甲壳动物是生态系统的另一部分。“它们彼此相处得很好，和其他本地物种也相处融洽。”但是同种的小龙虾却在苏格兰肆虐。

Matt Mitchell has been casting his line into these waters for about 40 years. "This area is probably, if not the best, certainly one of the best trout⁶ fisheries in the world," he says. One day Mitchell got a call from an angler friend. The conversation changed Mitchell's life. "I could not believe the number of crayfish that were in this part of the river. You could literally⁷ walk across the river standing⁸ on crayfish!"麦特·米歇尔在这片水域作业有40年了。“我们这有世界上数一数二的鳟鱼，”他说。然而有一天他接到了来自愤怒的朋友的电话，而这个通话改变了他的一切。“我简直无法相信这里有多少小龙虾。你甚至都能踩着它们过河！

The North American signal crayfish, which had been introduced to English waters decades ago and spread steadily⁹ north, were taking over. "They were big animals. I mean, some of these things were about 10, 12 inches long." At that size, they don't even look like crayfish; they look like lobsters¹⁰. Animals that big, Mitchell says, are more than a decade old; he guesses they've been in the river for 12 years.

北美标志性的小龙虾是在数十年前被引入英国境内，并且向北蔓延最后占据了水域。“它们实在是很大，有一些都能长到10、12英寸。”有着这样的尺寸，它们甚至看起来不像小龙虾更像大龙虾。米歇尔说，这么大的动物起码有十岁以上，他认为这些至少是十二年的小龙虾。

The problem isn't just the size or quantity of the intruders; it's that the signal crayfish eat the same insects and larvae¹¹ as the prize-winning trout that are native to these streams. Mitchell's colleague Ian Miller¹² is the man who first placed that concerned phone call from the Clyde Burn all those years ago. With the arrival of the crayfish, Miller says, "Stoneflies are gone — basically wiped off the face of the Earth." That's a problem, because stoneflies are an important food for the fish. No trout food means no trout.

问题不是只在于这些入侵者的尺寸或者数量，而是这些小龙虾会吃掉同样生活在这片水域的鳟鱼赖以为生的浮游生物。米歇尔的同事伊恩·米勒是很多年前就第一个认识到这个问题的人。米勒说，小龙虾的到来使得“石蝇消失了，基本上就是灭绝了。”这是问题所在，因为石蝇是鱼类重要的食物来源。没有食物，就没有鳟鱼。

Turns out, Washington State is struggling with a similar problem. "Unfortunately, we now have our own invasive-species crayfish in this area — mostly red swamp crayfish from the southern United States," he says. That's right. At the same time that the North American signal crayfish are taking over rivers and streams in Scotland, they're being crowded out of rivers and streams in their native habitat byother invasive crayfish — interlopers from Louisiana.

实际上，华盛顿也面临着同样的问题。“很不幸，我们这也来了一群不速之客，大多数是来自美国南部的红沼泽螯虾。事实也如此，当苏格兰的江河溪流被美国北部的小龙虾侵略时，来自路易斯安那州的小龙虾也占领了华盛顿的地盘。

1 insidious   

adj.阴险的，隐匿的，暗中为害的，（疾病）不知不觉之间加剧

参考例句：

• That insidious man bad-mouthed me to almost everyone else.那个阴险的家伙几乎见人便说我的坏话。
• Organized crime has an insidious influence on all who come into contact with it.所有和集团犯罪有关的人都会不知不觉地受坏影响。

2 crustaceans   

n.甲壳纲动物（如蟹、龙虾）( crustacean的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• These crustaceans provide a valuable food source for some fish. 这些甲壳纲动物是某些鱼类重要的食物来源。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• When the tide ebbs it's a rock pool inhabited by crustaceans. 退潮时，它便成为甲壳动物居住的岩石区潮水潭。 来自辞典例句

3 ecosystem   

n.生态系统

参考例句：

• This destroyed the ecosystem of the island.这样破坏了岛上的生态系统。
• We all have an interest in maintaining the integrity of the ecosystem.维持生态系统的完整是我们共同的利益。

4 wreak   

v.发泄；报复

参考例句：

• She had a burning desire to wreak revenge.她复仇心切。
• Timid people always wreak their peevishness on the gentle.怯懦的人总是把满腹牢骚向温和的人发泄。

5 havoc   

n.大破坏，浩劫，大混乱，大杂乱

参考例句：

• The earthquake wreaked havoc on the city.地震对这个城市造成了大破坏。
• This concentration of airborne firepower wrought havoc with the enemy forces.这次机载火力的集中攻击给敌军造成很大破坏。

6 trout   

n.鳟鱼；鲑鱼(属)

参考例句：

• Thousands of young salmon and trout have been killed by the pollution.成千上万的鲑鱼和鳟鱼的鱼苗因污染而死亡。
• We hooked a trout and had it for breakfast.我们钓了一条鳟鱼，早饭时吃了。

7 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

8 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

9 steadily   

adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地

参考例句：

• The scope of man's use of natural resources will steadily grow.人类利用自然资源的广度将日益扩大。
• Our educational reform was steadily led onto the correct path.我们的教学改革慢慢上轨道了。

10 lobsters   

龙虾( lobster的名词复数 )； 龙虾肉

参考例句：

• I have no idea about how to prepare those cuttlefish and lobsters. 我对如何烹调那些乌贼和龙虾毫无概念。
• She sold me a couple of live lobsters. 她卖了几只活龙虾给我。

11 larvae   

n.幼虫

参考例句：

• Larvae are parasitic on sheep.幼虫寄生在绵羊的身上。
• The larvae prey upon small aphids.这种幼虫以小蚜虫为食。

12 miller   

n.磨坊主

参考例句：

• Every miller draws water to his own mill.磨坊主都往自己磨里注水。
• The skilful miller killed millions of lions with his ski.技术娴熟的磨坊主用雪橇杀死了上百万头狮子。