搜索关注在线英语听力室公众号:tingroom,领取免费英语资料大礼包。
(单词翻译)
Volunteers Raise Oysters2 to Restore Reefs
Students at St. Stanislaus High School in Mississippi are among the volunteers along U.S. coasts raising oysters to help restore, or repair, weakened reefs.
Oyster1 reefs are an important part of coastal3 environments. Each oyster filters, or cleans, 95 to 190 liters of water a day. Young oysters attach themselves to larger oysters and grow. The reefs provide living space for shrimp4, crabs5 and fish. They also protect coastlines.
In the states of Maryland, Virginia, Mississippi, and Alabama, there are more than 1,000 oyster gardens. Most of them are in wire cages hanging from private ports.
Colin Wood is one of two students looking after the St. Stanislaus garden. He collects data and supervises other students. He said he was excited by the hands-on work he gets to do. "I didn't realize oysters had a big impact on the environment," he said.
Dennis Hatfield grows oysters on Little Lagoon6 in Gulf7 Shores, Alabama. He said he is surprised each summer by the number of crabs, fish, shrimp and other animals he clears from his cages.
He said that many of the 50,000 to 55,000 adult oysters grown there each year go to reefs in Mobile Bay.
In the 1950s, an average of 37,400 tons of oysters were taken yearly from partly salty waters in the U.S. But U.S. oyster harvests fell sharply in the 1990s. Federal data showed the cause of the drop to be overharvesting, pollution, pests and other problems.
Commercial farmers around the country grow oysters near the surface of water. Oysters develop much faster where the water holds more of the plankton8 they eat and predators10 can be more easily removed.
Oyster gardening uses many of the same methods as farming. But the oysters are not being grown to be eaten.
Oyster gardens get pulled from the water every seven to 10 days. The time out of the water is used to clear out small animals, keep oysters from growing through the wires, and dry and clean off plant-life growing on the wires.
Bob Stokes is director of the Galveston Bay Foundation in Texas. He said oyster gardening is as much about education as it is restoration.
Oyster gardening started in the late 1990s around the Chesapeake Bay, where harvests had dropped 90 percent in 20 years. The Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant's oyster gardening program was modeled after the Chesapeake's.
The Chesapeake Bay oysters faced many problems, including two deadly diseases. Chris Moore is a scientist with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. He said decreases in oyster numbers in the second half of the 1900s followed a more severe decrease in the 1920s from widespread overharvesting.
Gardeners in the foundation and its member groups have added at least 15 million oysters in Maryland and 1 million in Virginia, Moore said.
Another group called the Chesapeake Oyster Alliance has set a goal of adding 10 billion oysters by 2025.
Words in This Story
reef – n. a chain of rocks or coral or a ridge11 of sand at or near the surface of water
filter – v. to pass something, such as a gas or liquid, through a filter to remove something unwanted
cage – n. a box made of wire or metal bars in which people keep animals or birds
impact – n. a powerful or major influence or effect
pest – n. an epidemic12 disease associated with high mortality
commercial – adj. related to or used in the buying and selling of goods and services
predator9 – n. an animal that lives mostly by killing and eating other animals
1 oyster | |
n.牡蛎;沉默寡言的人 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
2 oysters | |
牡蛎( oyster的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
3 coastal | |
adj.海岸的,沿海的,沿岸的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
4 shrimp | |
n.虾,小虾;矮小的人 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
5 crabs | |
n.蟹( crab的名词复数 );阴虱寄生病;蟹肉v.捕蟹( crab的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
6 lagoon | |
n.泻湖,咸水湖 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
7 gulf | |
n.海湾;深渊,鸿沟;分歧,隔阂 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
8 plankton | |
n.浮游生物 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
9 predator | |
n.捕食其它动物的动物;捕食者 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
10 predators | |
n.食肉动物( predator的名词复数 );奴役他人者(尤指在财务或性关系方面) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
11 ridge | |
n.山脊;鼻梁;分水岭 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
12 epidemic | |
n.流行病;盛行;adj.流行性的,流传极广的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
本文本内容来源于互联网抓取和网友提交,仅供参考,部分栏目没有内容,如果您有更合适的内容,欢迎 点击提交 分享给大家。