PBS高端访谈:实习生的监察工作（在线收听）

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Every summer, a handful of interns are selected from hundreds of applicants to camp in primitive conditions on a tiny treeless island several miles off the Maine coast. As Susan Sharon of PBS station Maine Public reports, their job is to monitor Atlantic puffins and other vulnerable seabirds.

SUSAN SHARON: It takes about 30 minutes by boat to reach Eastern Egg Rock. Dr. Stephen Kress, founder of the National Audubon Society's Project Puffin, has lost track of the number of times he's made the trip. He's been doing it for 46 years. Today, he's dropping off supplies for the island's five interns and research assistants who come from all over the world. Sarah Guitart is the crew lead.

SARAH GUITART, Island Supervisor: Things are changing. And we are here kind of potentially documenting that change and trying to figure out, like, what are the questions we need to be asking now, and how do we ask those questions, and how do we get that information out of these, out of the seabirds?

SUSAN SHARON: Puffins are the reason this project started. They're cute and colorful, but, by the late 1800s, they'd largely disappeared from this region, killed off by hunters. More than a century later, puffins have returned with help from humans.

DR. STEPHEN KRESS, National Audubon Society: This little puffin chick is about five weeks old. I can tell that by the lack of down on it.

SUSAN SHARON: In 1973, with permission from the government, Kress began transporting chicks from a healthy colony in Newfoundland to Eastern Egg Rock. The pioneering effort paid off and expanded. There are now 1,300 puffins living on five Maine islands.

DR. STEPHEN KRESS: We have worked very hard to build this colony up to the point where I can say that it is continuing to grow. Our general trend is growth here. But it's still a very small colony. It's still extremely vulnerable to things that can happen here.

SUSAN SHARON: Those things can include disease and threats from predators, like gulls, which the interns occasionally have to shoot. It's a last resort to protect puffin eggs and chicks from being eaten. But there's nothing they can do about the rapidly warming Gulf of Maine. Twice a day, they take sea surface temperatures to look for changes that might affect the food chain. In some parts of the world, puffins and other seabirds are starving, in the absence of small fish.

WOMAN: It's like 62 degrees. So, this morning, it was 60 degrees, so it got a little warmer. But it's not, like, abnormal.

SUSAN SHARON: The job requires carefully observing birds' nesting and feeding habits. All the data is then recorded and taken back to the island's central station.

SARAH GUITART: So this is the Egg Rock Hilton.

SUSAN SHARON: Between May and August, the interns are essentially camping in the field. The Hilton is where they typically relax when they're aren't working and where they cook their meals.

SARAH GUITART: Got a nice little kitchen counter. We got pretty great amenities. Got a cooler, which is pretty great. We can store some dairy products from time to time. And this is our workstation. This is where we enter data.

SUSAN SHARON: Out here, electricity is limited, and there is no running water. The birds' noise is constant, even at night. And so are their droppings. But Michael Rickershauser, a former auto mechanic from Long Island, doesn't mind.

MICHAEL RICKERSHAUSER, Research Assistant: It was sort of a dream come true to work out here. It's something special. It's more than seeing a picture or reading a book.

SUSAN SHARON: Something special that remains dependent on an adequate number of small fish and a few dedicated interns to keep predators at bay. For the PBS NewsHour, I'm Susan Sharon on Eastern Egg Rock off the coast of Maine.

威廉·布朗汉姆：每年夏天，都有很多实习生从上百名申请者中脱颖而出，参加某个无树小道上条件原始的夏令营。这个小岛距离缅因湾海岸有几英里。根据我台记者苏珊·莎伦从缅因公共电台发回的PBS报道，他们的职责是监察大西洋上海鹦等珍贵海鸟的情况。

苏珊·莎伦：乘船大概需要30分钟可以抵达东卵岩岛。史蒂芬·克里斯是奥杜邦学会海鹦项目的创始人，他已经不记得自己去过这里多少次了。过去46年来，他一直在做这件事。如今，他为岛上的5名实习生和一些研究助理送来了物资。这些实习生和研究员来自世界各地。萨拉是这里的领队。

萨拉，小岛监察员：情况正在发生变化。我们在这里是想记录变化，并弄清楚一些我们需要明白的问题、我们弄清楚这些问题的方式以及我们如何从这些海鸟身上获取信息。

苏珊·莎伦：海鹦是这个项目启动的原因。海鹦很可爱，又色彩斑斓，不过，19世纪晚期的时候，海鹦从该地区大量消失，是猎人捕杀导致的。1个多世纪后，海鹦在人类的帮助下重新出现在了这里。

史蒂芬·克里斯，奥杜邦学会：这只小海鹦有5周大了。我判断出它的年龄是从它羽毛较少看出的。

苏珊·莎伦：1973年，在得到了政府的许可后，克里斯开始从纽芬兰的一个健康栖息地上往东卵岩岛运送小海鹦。这次首创之举得到了回报，并将队伍不断壮大。现在，缅因的5个岛上有1300只海鹦了。

史蒂芬·克里斯：我们十分努力地建造栖息地，为了就是让海鹦不断壮大队伍。总体趋势是增长的，但这里依然是规模不大的栖息地。这里发生的一切依然可能摧垮不堪一击的它们。

苏珊·莎伦：比如灾害、捕食者的威胁。捕食者包括但不限于海鸥。所以实习生们有时候要射杀这些海鸥。这是保护海鹦蛋和小海鹦不被吃掉的最后办法。但对于缅因湾不断升高的气温，他们无能为力。每天，他们要测试两次水表温度，看看可能影响到食物链的一些变化。在世界上的一些地方，海鹦等海鸟都在忍饥挨饿，因为小鱼不够吃。

女：现在大概有62度。今天早上是60度，所以温度又升高了一些。不过，这是正常现象。

苏珊·莎伦：他们的工作职责是仔细观察海鸟们的筑巢习惯和饮食习惯。然后，他们会记录所有数据并带回小岛的总站。

萨拉：总站又名卵岩希尔顿。

苏珊·莎伦：在5月-8月之间，这些实习生都会在这里参加夏令营。不工作的时候，他们会在总站休息，也会自己做饭。

萨拉：这里的厨房台特棒，设施也都特棒。这里好哎呦冷却器，也特棒。我们经常要储存一些奶制品。这里是我们的总站，我们也会在这里输入数据。

苏珊·莎伦：在这里，用电是有限的，也没有流水可用。海鸟叫声不断，就连在晚上也是。而且他们也会一直排便。不过，来自长岛的迈克尔曾是一名汽车修理工。他倒是不在意这些。

迈克尔，研究助理：在这里工作就仿佛实现了一个梦想。这份工作很特别，不同于看图或者读书。

苏珊·莎伦：这份工作的前提是要有足够数量的小鱼，还要有尽心尽力的实习生保证捕食者数量不会太多。感谢收听苏珊·莎伦从缅因湾东卵岩岛发回的《新闻一小时》。