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Bronx River's Cleanup Brings Herring Home 清除水污染 大鱼小鱼满

“So here’s the first of the alewives, all silvery, they’re all about the same size, you can’t tell the boys from the girls. These will be the first.”

“这就是第一批大眼鲱鱼，全是银色的，大小也都差不多，无法分辨出公母。它们将是第一批。”

Stephen Gephard, fisheries biologist with the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.

斯蒂芬·格帕德(Stephen Gephard)是康涅狄格州能源与环境保护部的一名渔业生物学家。

\Gephard brought 400 alewives down from the Nutmeg state to be released into the Bronx River on the grounds of the Bronx Zoo on April 20th. The Bronx River was once so polluted that it was called an open sewer¹. But it’s been cleaned up to the point where it can now once again support these fish, which were common here in the 19th century.

4月20日，格帕德从“肉豆蔻州”(即康涅狄格州)带来了400条大眼鲱鱼，在布朗克斯动物园把它们放生到布朗克斯河。布朗克斯河因曾经污染严重，而被称为“露天下水道”。不过现在它已被清理干净，足以再次成为这些鱼的栖息地——而河里有鱼在19世纪很常见。

“Alewives are herring, they’re kind of like a miniature shad.” John Waldman is an aquatic² conservation biologist at Queens College, who was on hand for the release.

“大眼鲱鱼是鲱鱼的一种，有点像小鲱鱼。”约翰·瓦尔德曼(John Waldman)是皇后学院的一名水生保护生物学家。他负责做这次的放生工作。

“They’re born in fresh water, they rear for the first year in freshwater then go to sea, spend a few years growing larger and then return to the river they were born in, much like salmon³ or sturgeon or shad. It’s called an anadromous life history. And this river appears to have a small relic⁴ run that never really expanded because it was limited by the habitat.

“它们出生在淡水中，第一年在淡水中生长，然后去海中生存长大，几年后回到它们出生的河流，有点像鲑鱼、鲟鱼或鲱鱼。这种现象被称为溯河性鱼类生活史。这条河中似乎有一个因受环境因素限制，而从未真正扩大过的一小片洄游遗迹。”

“And now there’s a fish ladder on the first dam and these fish that are being stocked today, 400 alewives…and the idea here is that if they spawn⁵ in this section, the young will kind of imprint⁶ on this area, run downstream and then return when they’re old to spawn several years from now and want to go over the fish ladder.

“现在第一个水坝上有了鱼梯和今天被放生于此的400条大眼鲱鱼。我们的想法是，如果它们在这里产卵，新一代鲱鱼将带有这一地区的烙印，即使它们游到下游，过几年它们长大产卵时仍会洄游，再次越过鱼梯。”

“In the meantime, several fish have used the fish ladder on their own this week that were from wild fish that were existing as a little relic stock, I believe, in this section of the river, so between the two I think the future looks very promising⁷ to have a much larger run.

“与此同时，本周已经有一些生长在那一小片洄游遗迹中的野生鱼类使用了鱼梯，这些表现使我坚信未来这一区域很有希望成为一个更大的鲱鱼生活区。”

“The water here behind the Bronx Zoo is just perfect for alewife spawning⁸, it’s very slow moving, it’s just what they like. And there’s a series of dams above this first dam that are probably going to have fish ladders in the future, too. And if we get them all online working, this little river that flows through the heart of the Bronx could become a major alewife producer, which is kind of fun in its own right, to have such an urban location producing these wild fish, but it also is a great tie to the ocean.

“布朗克斯动物园后面的水域正适合大眼鲱鱼产卵——此处水流流速非常慢，而这正投大眼鲱鱼所好。在第一个大坝之上还有一系列的水坝，它们将来可能也会有鱼梯。如果我们能使它们都运行起来，这条流经布朗克斯区心脏的小河或将成为大眼鲱鱼的一个主要产地。这本身就是一种乐趣——在这样一个市区中生产野生鱼类，还能与大海产生紧密联系。

“Alewives and other bait fish really drive the marine⁹ food chain, and this is a contribution to our greater coastal¹⁰ waters. So I’m very excited by the prospects¹¹ of this restoration.”

“大眼鲱鱼和其它饵鱼推动了海洋食物链，这对沿海水域有着巨大贡献。所以这里恢复生机的前景让我感到非常激动。”

“Alright, we gotta get ‘em in the water.”

“好吧，我们得把它们放生到水里去了。”