VOA慢速英语2019 鲶鱼捕捞禁令结束，亚马逊粉红海豚受到威胁（在线收听）

The Amazon river dolphin faces new threats because its meat is used as bait to catch a popular catfish.

亚马逊河海豚面临新的威胁，因为它的肉被用来当作诱饵，捕捉一种受欢迎的鲶鱼。 

The fish-like mammal is considered intelligent and friendly.

这种类似鱼类的哺乳动物被认为是聪明和友好的。 

The animal is known as the pink dolphin because its skin turns from gray to pink as it ages or when it gets excited.

这种动物被称为粉红海豚，因为它的皮肤会随着年龄的增长或兴奋而从灰色变成粉红色。 

But some wildlife activists are concerned about new threats facing the worlds largest freshwater dolphin.

但一些野生动物保护人士对世界上最大的淡水海豚面临的新威胁表示担心。 

Brazilian fishermen hunt and kill the animals illegally to make bait for a catfish called the piracatinga.

巴西渔民非法捕杀这些动物，为一种名为“piracatinga”的鲶鱼制作诱饵。 

A temporary, legal ban on fishing for piracatinga ended last month.

一项临时的、合法的禁止捕捞piracatinga的禁令于上个月结束。 

Since then, environmentalists and researchers have called for the ban to be restarted to help save Amazon river dolphins.

此后，环保人士和研究人员呼吁重新启动这项禁令，以帮助拯救亚马逊河海豚。 

One supporter of bringing the fishing ban back is biologist Vera da Silva.

生物学家维拉·达席尔瓦是支持恢复捕鱼禁令的人之一。 

She has been working to protect Amazon river dolphins for the past 25 years.

在过去的25年里，她一直致力于保护亚马逊河海豚。 

Silva told Reuters news agency that she and her team catch dolphins to examine, measure and mark them.

席尔瓦告诉路透社说，她和她的团队捕捉海豚来进行检查，测量并标记它们。 

The animals are then released into the Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserve in northern Brazil.

这些动物随后被放生到巴西北部的Mamirauá可持续发展保护区。 

Such wildlife areas are established to protect land and animals in places where traditional populations live.

这些野生动物区的建立是为了保护传统人口居住地区的土地和动物。 

The Mamirauá reserve covers about 11,000 - square kilometers of flooded rainforest and wetlands.

Mamirauá保护区覆盖了大约1.1万平方公里的热带雨林和湿地。 

"We captured a dolphin mother and her calf today and saw them calling out to each other," Silva said.

“今天我们捕获了一只海豚妈妈和她的小海豚，看到它们互相呼喊，”席尔瓦说。 

"They have a very strong relation until the calf becomes independent after three years."

“它们之间的关系非常密切，直到幼崽三年后独立。” 

After being brought to a floating research center in the reserve, Silvas team takes blood and milk samples from the dolphins.

在被带到保护区的一个水上研究中心后，席尔瓦的团队采集了海豚的血液和奶的样本。 

A pregnancy usually lasts about 13 months.

海豚的孕期通常持续13个月左右。 

The mother then feeds her calf underwater for two years.

然后海豚妈妈在水下喂养她的幼崽两年。 

Because of this extended feeding period, females only reproduce every three to five years.

由于喂食期的延长，雌性每三到五年才繁殖一次。 

Silva says this low reproduction rate increases the risk of extinction when the population of the Amazon river dolphins suffers major drops.

席尔瓦说，当亚马逊河海豚的数量大幅度下降，这种低繁殖率增加了灭绝的风险。 

Legal officials in Brazils Amazonas state sought the catfish ban in 2015.

巴西亚马逊州的法律官员于2015年寻求鲶鱼捕捞禁令。 

At the time, they warned that as many as 2,500 dolphins were being killed each year for bait.

当时，他们警告说，每年有多达2500头海豚被杀来作诱饵。 

Currently, Amazon river dolphins can still be found in large numbers across South Americas huge Amazon and Orinoco river basins.

目前，在南美洲巨大的亚马逊河和奥里诺科河流域仍能发现大量的亚马逊河海豚。 

But Silva says she fears the animals could disappear like the Yangtze river dolphin did in China in 2006, after years of overfishing and pollution.

但是席尔瓦说，在多年的过度捕捞和污染之后，她担心这些动物可能会像2006年中国长江白鳍豚那样消失。

"We dont want the dolphins to become just a legend of Amazonia," she said.

“我们不希望海豚成为亚马逊的传奇，”她说。