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This is Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Karen Hopkin. This will just take a minute.
Every year, scores of manatees1 are killed by boats in Florida’s waters. Their plight2 is an ecological3 concern. And everyone from marine4 biologists to Marge in an episode5 of the Simpsons has gotten on board to save the manatees. So far, the best idea they’ve come up with is posting speed limits for boaters that zip through Florida’s waterways. But local scientist Edmund Gerstein says that slowing boats down may do more harm than good.
According to Gerstein, manatees aren’t hit because they’re too slow to get out of the way. When they’re motivated, they can move about 21 feet in a second. Instead, he thinks that manatees can’t hear the boats coming. Gerstein’s found that manatees are deaf to the sort of low-frequency sounds produced by boat engines. Making boats move more slowly makes things worse, because the resulting sound is even harder for them to hear and the boats spend that much more time in the area. His results will be presented at the acoustical6 society meeting in Miami on November 13th.
Happily, Gerstein has designed an underwater alarm that, when attached to the front of a boat, tells manatees to move it. Which could lead Marge to say: [Marge Simpson voice] “I can believe how many manatees we saved today.”
Thanks for the minute for Scientific American's 60-Second Science. I'm Karen Hopkin.
1 manatees | |
n.海牛(水生哺乳动物,体宽扁,尾圆,有鳃状肢)( manatee的名词复数 ) | |
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2 plight | |
n.困境,境况,誓约,艰难;vt.宣誓,保证,约定 | |
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3 ecological | |
adj.生态的,生态学的 | |
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4 marine | |
adj.海的;海生的;航海的;海事的;n.水兵 | |
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5 episode | |
n.(作品的一段)情节,插曲,系列事件中之一 | |
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6 acoustical | |
adj. 听觉的,声学的,音响学的 | |
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