VOA常速英语2019--研究显示鲸鱼鼻涕可体现健康状况（在线收听）

A water-proof drone is being used by Australian scientists to collect the highly-treasured nasal mucus of migrating whales. The snot is rich with fresh DNA, viruses and bacteria, and is collected by a drone that hovers over the blowholes of humpback whales as they embark on their epic annual journey along Australia's east coast. From Sydney, Phil Mercer reports.

澳大利亚科学家正在使用防水无人机来收集极为宝贵的鼻涕，这些鼻涕来源于迁徙中的鲸鱼。鼻涕里富含新鲜的DNA（脱氧核糖核酸）、病毒、细菌。鼻涕是由无人机收集的。无人机就盘旋在座头鲸上方的气孔处。收集期间正值鲸鱼们开启年度史诗级之旅——沿着澳大利亚东海岸迁徙。下面请听我台记者菲尔从悉尼发回的报道。

Whales, like all mammals need air, and come to the surface to breathe through a blowhole.

鲸鱼和所有哺乳动物一样，都需要空气。鲸鱼来到水面呼吸是通过气孔实现的。

Vanessa Pirotta, a marine biologist at Macquarie University, says that nasal mucus indicates the health of the whale.

瓦内萨是澳大利亚麦考瑞大学的一名海洋生物学家。她表示，鼻涕可以体现鲸鱼的健康状况。

It is the juicy biological mixture that you see as a whale takes a breath as they surface from the water, she said. You often see that plume and it sounds like this like sounds of sharp breaths as a whale breathes because, after all, they are mammals like you and I and they have two nostrils, and it is the humpback whale that I am talking about. So as they take a breath it is a lot of lung bacteria coming out from their lungs, which we can collect to provide a snapshot of whale health.

鼻涕是一种液态的生物混合物。看到鼻涕一般是在鲸鱼浮上水面呼吸的时候，她如是说道。鼻涕在鲸鱼身上是很常见的，鲸鱼呼吸时发出的声音很像鲨鱼呼吸的声音，因为毕竟它们跟你我一样同属哺乳动物，都有两个鼻孔。不过，我这里特指座头鲸哦。它们呼吸的时候，肺部有很多细菌涌出，我们可以收集这些细菌来了解鲸鱼的健康概况。

Australian researchers have attached a petri dish that is used in scientific tests to a drone which flies through the whale’s nasal mist.

澳大利亚研究人员带了一个有盖培养皿，有盖培养皿用于有关无人机的科学试验中。而无人机可以收集鲸鱼的鼻涕。

Vanessa Pirotta again.

下面这段话依然是瓦内萨所说的。

As a whale comes to take a breath — you can actually see it coming to the surface on really good weather days that is — the drone then lowers, the petri dish is then opened and the drone is flown through the densest part of the whale snot, collecting the sample in the petri dish. Now once this happens the lid is shut and the drone is flown back to the research vessel and we collect the sample to later process it in the laboratory.

鲸鱼浮上水面呼吸时——一般好天气的时候，鲸鱼都会浮上水面来——无人机会降低高度，有盖培养皿会打开，然后无人机会飞过鲸鱼鼻涕最浓的地方，在有盖培养皿中收集鼻涕的样本。这些操作过后，有盖培养皿的盖子会合上，无人机会飞回考察船中。而我们收集的样品会用于实验室的处理。

The research could help to solve one of the mysteries of another magnificent creature of the deep — the Southern right whale. Its numbers have recovered on Australia’s west coast since hunting was outlawed but its population on the eastern seaboard remains stubbornly low.

这样的研究可以助力解决深海中另一大型物种的一个谜题，这个物种就是南露脊鲸。澳大利亚西海岸的南露脊鲸数量已经有所恢复，这是因为狩猎南露脊鲸已经被列为非法行为。不过，南露脊鲸在东海岸的数量依然极低。

In the past studies into whale health had to rely on examining whales that were either killed or those whales that had been stranded on a beach.

过去关于鲸鱼健康状况的研究只能依赖于检测鲸鱼，而且检测的对象一般不是遭到了杀害就是在海滩上搁浅了。

Drones allow scientists to collect samples from free-swimming whales to gather information in a safe and non-invasive way.

无人机的使用让科学家可以收集自由游动的鲸鱼鼻涕样本，这种收集信息的方式更安全，入侵性更弱。