美国国家公共电台 NPR--After many years, New England cod seems to be rebounding from overfishing

After many years, New England cod¹ seems to be rebounding² from overfishing

Transcript³

Atlantic cod, a fish that was foundational to New England's economy, is being caught at historically low levels. But a research scientist says cod is in the early stages of a comeback.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

Atlantic cod was central to building New England's economy. But today, the fishing industry pulls in historically low levels because of strict limits on the catch. A research scientist, however, has new data that suggests cod might be staging a comeback. From The Public's Radio in Rhode Island, Ben Berke reports.

BEN BERKE, BYLINE⁴: Before Raymond Lees goes fishing, he stops by Reidar’s Trawl Gear in New Bedford, Mass., where he buys custom nets that help him avoid certain types of fish. For commercial fishermen like Lees, cod is known as a choke species, meaning fishermen catch so much of it by accident, they sometimes hit their quota⁵ and have to stop fishing for what they really want.

RAYMOND LEES: I've been scalloping close to five years because I haven't been able to fish what I was traditionally trained to do, and that's chase codfish and flounders.

BERKE: Shop owner Tor Bendiksen is a former fisherman himself.

(SOUNDBITE OF NET TEARING)

BERKE: As he trims a net design his family has been refining for generations, Bendiksen says he's watched the number of boats fishing for cod out of New Bedford shrink by 90%.

TOR BENDIKSEN: Well, we went from, you know, a huge fishing business, as far as the groundfishing fleet's concerned, of, you know, 300 boats down to, you know, 20 boats, which is - what? - two dozen boats.

BERKE: Fishing ports up and down the East Coast suffered similar fates. It's been a long decline for a fishery that built New England. Back in the 1600s, tales of an ocean full of cod lured⁶ the pilgrims to Plymouth Rock. But after centuries of good catches, nets started to come up light in the 1980s. The federal government kicked foreign fleets out of American fishing grounds. And by the mid-'90s, regulators closed areas of the ocean to American fishermen, too. Some areas are still closed because regulators believe cod never rebounded⁷ from overfishing. But new research from Kevin Stokesbury, a professor of fishery science at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, is challenging that claim.

KEVIN STOKESBURY: For the first time in about 20 years, we have seen and are tracking a successful year class of cod. And they seem to be growing at a very good rate.

BERKE: This healthy population of young cod hatched off the coast of New England three years ago. Stokesbury calls it the class of '19. And he says the group is already spawning⁹. With three or four more classes like it, Stokesbury says the cod fishery could be back in business. If that happens, it wouldn't be the first time Stokesbury's findings shifted fishing regulations. In the 1990s, he devised a new way of counting scallops that opened up a tightly regulated fishery. The government already suspected scallops were rebounding to some extent. But Stokesbury's research upended what regulators had been saying for years.

STOKESBURY: They thought there were two to three times as many scallops in there. And there were actually about 14 times as many.

BERKE: Restrictions¹⁰ loosened. And the growing scallop industry turned New Bedford into the highest grossing fishing port in America. Local fishermen, in turn, have paid it forward. They donate boats, captains and fuel to Stokesbury's research expeditions. His latest research on cod is under review this summer by scientists who will determine whether it should impact fishing regulations. Russ Brown, a scientist at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric¹¹ Administration, says current models still estimate Atlantic cod stocks are about one-tenth the size they used to be. Brown says Stokesbury's data is exciting. But he and other scientists remember a promising¹² class of young cod that hatched around 2006 and failed to rebuild the species.

RUSS BROWN: They were fished and they were harvested. In order to rebuild a stock, you have to sort of preserve those spawners so that they're able to reproduce.

BERKE: Brown says scientists will have to wait and see if the class of 2019 matures enough to spawn⁸ the comeback everyone is hoping for.

For NPR News, I'm Ben Berke in New Bedford, Mass.

(SOUNDBITE OF WESS MEETS WEST'S "IF WHAT I THINK IS HAPPENING IS HAPPENING, IT BETTER NOT BE")

1 cod   

n.鳕鱼；v.愚弄；哄骗

参考例句：

• They salt down cod for winter use.他们腌鳕鱼留着冬天吃。
• Cod are found in the North Atlantic and the North Sea.北大西洋和北海有鳕鱼。

2 rebounding   

蹦跳运动

参考例句：

• The strength of negative temperature concrete is tested with supersonic-rebounding method. 本文将超声回弹综合法用于负温混凝土强度检测。
• The fundamental of basketball includes shooting, passing and catching, rebounding, etc. 篮球运动中最基本的东西包括投篮，传接球，篮板球等。

3 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 quota   

n.（生产、进出口等的）配额，（移民的）限额

参考例句：

• A restricted import quota was set for meat products.肉类产品设定了进口配额。
• He overfulfilled his production quota for two months running.他一连两个月超额完成生产指标。

6 lured   

吸引，引诱（lure的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• The child was lured into a car but managed to escape. 那小孩被诱骗上了车，但又设法逃掉了。
• Lured by the lust of gold,the pioneers pushed onward. 开拓者在黄金的诱惑下，继续奋力向前。

7 rebounded   

弹回( rebound的过去式和过去分词 )； 反弹； 产生反作用； 未能奏效

参考例句：

• The ball rebounded from the goalpost and Owen headed it in. 球从门柱弹回，欧文头球将球攻进。
• The ball rebounded from his racket into the net. 球从他的球拍上弹回网中。

8 spawn   

n.卵，产物，后代，结果；vt.产卵，种菌丝于，产生，造成；vi.产卵，大量生产

参考例句：

• The fish were madly pushing their way upstream to spawn.鱼群为产卵而疯狂地向上游挤进。
• These fish will lay spawn in about one month from now.这些鱼大约一个月内会产卵。

9 spawning   

产卵

参考例句：

• Encounter sites have a small chance of spawning a "Commander" NPC. 遭遇战地区有很小的几率遇到NPC指挥官。
• Instantly revives your Champion at your Spawning Pool, 9 minute cooldown. 立即在出生地复活你的英雄，冷却时间9分钟。

10 restrictions   

约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则）

参考例句：

• I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
• a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制

11 atmospheric   

adj.大气的，空气的；大气层的；大气所引起的

参考例句：

• Sea surface temperatures and atmospheric circulation are strongly coupled.海洋表面温度与大气环流是密切相关的。
• Clouds return radiant energy to the surface primarily via the atmospheric window.云主要通过大气窗区向地表辐射能量。

12 promising   

adj.有希望的，有前途的

参考例句：

• The results of the experiments are very promising.实验的结果充满了希望。
• We're trying to bring along one or two promising young swimmers.我们正设法培养出一两名有前途的年轻游泳选手。