VOA常速英语2019--研究显示鲸鱼鼻涕可体现健康状况

（单词翻译）

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 DNA¹, viruses and bacteria, and is collected by a drone that hovers² over the blowholes of humpback whales as they embark³ on their epic⁴ 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 marine⁵ 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 plume⁶ 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 nostrils⁷, 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 densest⁸ 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 vessel⁹ 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 outlawed¹⁰ but its population on the eastern seaboard remains¹¹ 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 stranded¹² 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。