VOA慢速英语--晚到的寒冷缩短了美国的冰上捕鱼时间

Late Arriving Cold Cuts Ice Fishing Time in the US

It may currently¹ be very cold in the northern United States, but most of the winter was a little too warm for ice fishing. Scientists are just now able to study the 2021 population of a small fish popular in ice fishing.

They are called rainbow smelts³. People catch them through small holes dug through the ice surface of a frozen⁴ body of water. About 15 years ago, the rainbow smelt² population began to drop in the U.S. The government declared them "a species⁵ of special concern," and began researching the fish.

Scientists want to find out why there are many fewer smelt today than in the 1970s and 1980s. Thirty years ago, fishermen caught millions of kilograms of the fish each year. In 2018, they only caught about 22,000 kilograms.

Researchers think climate change, loss of habitat and overfishing are all involved in the decreasing numbers.

Wintry weather came late this year in Maine, where some smelts live. Scientists there could not catch them until early February when the thick ice finally formed.

The lack of ice also stopped sport fishing for smelts. And that hurt businesses linked to the activity.

Steve Leighton owns Leighton Smelt Camps in Maine. He had trouble making money this winter.

"(I'm) just going to try to pay for expenses right now," he said.

In Ohio, Tony Muscioni helps people catch a type of fish called walleye in Lake Erie each winter. He said he had thought the lake would not ice over this year at all. Now, there finally is some thick ice.

"You've just got to watch where you're going now," he said.

Wildlife departments around the Northern U.S have warned fishermen to be careful on the ice.

Tom Hawley studies water with the National Weather Service. In Maine, he said, there has been about half the usual amount of ice. Normally⁶, there are about 50 centimeters.

That is because January was about 3 degrees Celsius⁷ warmer than usual.

Words in This Story

habitat - n. the place or type of place where a plant or animal naturally or normally lives or grows

1 currently   

adv.通常地，普遍地，当前

参考例句：

• Currently it is not possible to reconcile this conflicting evidence.当前还未有可能去解释这一矛盾的例证。
• Our contracts are currently under review.我们的合同正在复查。

2 smelt   

v.熔解，熔炼；n.银白鱼，胡瓜鱼

参考例句：

• Tin is a comparatively easy metal to smelt.锡是比较容易熔化的金属。
• Darby was looking for a way to improve iron when he hit upon the idea of smelting it with coke instead of charcoal.达比一直在寻找改善铁质的方法，他猛然想到可以不用木炭熔炼，而改用焦炭。

3 smelts   

v.熔炼，提炼（矿石）( smelt的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Each kind smelts diamond dust material cool suppression ball group production. 各种冶金粉料冷压球团的生产。 来自互联网
• Stainless steel filter elements for highly viscous or aggressive media at high temperatures, eg polymer smelts. 不锈钢在高温高粘稠或腐蚀性介质过滤元件，如聚合物冶炼。 来自互联网

4 frozen   

adj.冻结的，冰冻的

参考例句：

• He was frozen to death on a snowing night.在一个风雪的晚上，他被冻死了。
• The weather is cold and the ground is frozen.天寒地冻。

5 species   

n.物种，种群

参考例句：

• Are we the only thinking species in the whole of creation?我们是万物中惟一有思想的物种吗？
• This species of bird now exists only in Africa.这种鸟现在只存在于非洲。

6 normally   

adv.正常地，通常地

参考例句：

• I normally do all my shopping on Saturdays.我通常在星期六买东西。
• My pulse beats normally.我脉搏正常。

7 Celsius   

adj.摄氏温度计的，摄氏的

参考例句：

• The temperature tonight will fall to seven degrees Celsius.今晚气温将下降到七摄氏度。
• The maximum temperature in July may be 36 degrees Celsius.七月份最高温度可能达到36摄氏度。