美国国家公共电台 NPR--Scientists scramble to explain why western Alaska wild salmon stocks are low

Scientists scramble¹ to explain why western Alaska wild salmon² stocks are low

Transcript³

On Alaska's Yukon River, residents usually depend on catching⁴ salmon to eat all year. This year, a disruption in the supply of fish, in addition to inflation, is galvanizing a food crisis.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

There are too few salmon right now in Alaska's Yukon River. That's making it hard for Indigenous⁵ residents to feed their families. And it's all made worse by skyrocketing prices at the grocery store. From member station KYUK, Olivia Ebertz reports.

OLIVIA EBERTZ, BYLINE⁶: Maggie Westlock is in a grocery store in Emmonak, a small village near the mouth of the Yukon River in western Alaska. She's picking up a few things for dinner.

MAGGIE WESTLOCK: Grapes. Coleslaw. Sandwich.

EBERTZ: These are not the foods she and her family of eight prefer to eat. Normally, she'd be filling her freezer with wild salmon, the same staple⁷ food her Yup'ik ancestors ate for thousands of years. Now, because of a sudden and severe salmon crash, her family is forced to rely on store-bought food. Westlock picks up a small pack of ribs⁸.

WESTLOCK: Thirty-seven dollars and 10 cents.

EBERTZ: In the diaper aisle⁹, things are even more dire¹⁰.

WESTLOCK: And look at these Pampers¹¹ - Huggies, 84.99, one box. Expensive, I tell you.

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EBERTZ: She doesn't end up buying the diapers or the ribs. Still, the final damage is more than $80 for just five items. Westlock is spending a lot more on food than back when she was fishing. The salmon crash has touched every indigenous village from the Yukon River's mouth on the Bering Sea to its headwaters in British Columbia nearly 2,000 river miles away.

SOPHIE BEANS: Smokehouse.

EBERTZ: A hundred miles upriver in the village of St. Mary's, elder Sophie Beans is peering into her smokehouse with her daughter, Deedee (ph). It's empty now, but her whole street used to be filled with the sweet aroma¹² of smoking fish.

What would it normally be like a lot - like, in this neighborhood when people were fishing?

DEEDEE: Orange and smoky.

BEANS: Yeah. Orange, full of kings and fish.

EBERTZ: And now what does it look like?

BEANS: Nothing.

EBERTZ: The Yukon's two most important salmon species are crashing. The most prized species is the big and fatty king salmon. Those have been running in low numbers for years. The other main species, chum salmon, was super abundant until just last year.

BEANS: My son, Matty (ph), one time, he caught 700 chums.

EBERTZ: Wow.

DEEDEE: And that's not even the kings before that.

BEANS: Yeah.

EBERTZ: Wow.

Scientists have been scrambling¹³ to figure out why western Alaska wild salmon stocks are crashing.

KATIE HOWARD: That has been tied to a changing climate.

EBERTZ: That's Katie Howard, a fish biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. She says marine¹⁴ heatwaves have intensified¹⁵ in recent years. That's what's likely driving the chum crash.

HOWARD: They were just bigger. They were geographically¹⁶ larger. And they lasted over a much, much longer period of time than is typical. It's more extreme when it happens. And the other expectation is that they may occur more often.

NICOLE THOMPSON: We cut it here, then cut at the head.

EBERTZ: Back in the village of St. Mary's, 11-year-old Nicole Thompson (ph) is practicing cutting fish with her mom for the first time in years. Most tribal¹⁷ members in the village have just received a couple of donated salmon from the state. For most, it's the only taste they'll get all year. Nicole is struggling to remember exactly how to cut the fish. Her dad, Troy, says when he was his daughter's age, he already knew how because fish were so abundant and he got more practice.

TROY THOMPSON: Pretty sad, though. We have to wait for fish one or two at a time. If we had a lot more I'm pretty sure she'd have it down a little quicker.

EBERTZ: The salmon crash is about more than food. It's making it harder for parents to pass on Yup’ik culture to their kids.

For NPR News, I'm Olivia Ebertz in St. Marys, Alaska.

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1 scramble   

v.爬行，攀爬，杂乱蔓延，碎片，片段，废料

参考例句：

• He broke his leg in his scramble down the wall.他爬墙摔断了腿。
• It was a long scramble to the top of the hill.到山顶须要爬登一段长路。

2 salmon   

n.鲑，大马哈鱼，橙红色的

参考例句：

• We saw a salmon jumping in the waterfall there.我们看见一条大马哈鱼在那边瀑布中跳跃。
• Do you have any fresh salmon in at the moment?现在有新鲜大马哈鱼卖吗？

3 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

4 catching   

adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住

参考例句：

• There are those who think eczema is catching.有人就是认为湿疹会传染。
• Enthusiasm is very catching.热情非常富有感染力。

5 indigenous   

adj.土产的，土生土长的，本地的

参考例句：

• Each country has its own indigenous cultural tradition.每个国家都有自己本土的文化传统。
• Indians were the indigenous inhabitants of America.印第安人是美洲的土著居民。

6 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

7 staple   

n.主要产物，常用品，主要要素，原料，订书钉，钩环；adj.主要的，重要的；vt.分类

参考例句：

• Tea is the staple crop here.本地产品以茶叶为大宗。
• Potatoes are the staple of their diet.土豆是他们的主要食品。

8 ribs   

n.肋骨( rib的名词复数 )；（船或屋顶等的）肋拱；肋骨状的东西；（织物的）凸条花纹

参考例句：

• He suffered cracked ribs and bruising. 他断了肋骨还有挫伤。
• Make a small incision below the ribs. 在肋骨下方切开一个小口。

9 aisle   

n.（教堂、教室、戏院等里的）过道，通道

参考例句：

• The aisle was crammed with people.过道上挤满了人。
• The girl ushered me along the aisle to my seat.引座小姐带领我沿着通道到我的座位上去。

10 dire   

adj.可怕的，悲惨的，阴惨的，极端的

参考例句：

• There were dire warnings about the dangers of watching too much TV.曾经有人就看电视太多的危害性提出严重警告。
• We were indeed in dire straits.But we pulled through.那时我们的困难真是大极了，但是我们渡过了困难。

11 pampers   

v.纵容，宠，娇养( pamper的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The biggest is Pampers nappies, which collected more than $7 billion last year. 最大的是帮宝适(Pampers)纸尿裤，去年收获超过70亿美元。 来自互联网
• She pampers her own spoiled children and brings Jane up as little better than a servant. 她对她那些被宠坏了的孩子娇生惯养，但对简则有如对待佣仆。 来自辞典例句

12 aroma   

n.香气，芬芳，芳香

参考例句：

• The whole house was filled with the aroma of coffee.满屋子都是咖啡的香味。
• The air was heavy with the aroma of the paddy fields.稻花飘香。

13 scrambling   

v.快速爬行( scramble的现在分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞

参考例句：

• Scrambling up her hair, she darted out of the house. 她匆忙扎起头发，冲出房去。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• She is scrambling eggs. 她正在炒蛋。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 marine   

adj.海的；海生的；航海的；海事的；n.水兵

参考例句：

• Marine creatures are those which live in the sea. 海洋生物是生存在海里的生物。
• When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时，他自愿参加了海军陆战队。

15 intensified   

v.（使）增强， （使）加剧( intensify的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Violence intensified during the night. 在夜间暴力活动加剧了。
• The drought has intensified. 旱情加剧了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

16 geographically   

adv.地理学上，在地理上，地理方面

参考例句：

• Geographically, the UK is on the periphery of Europe. 从地理位置上讲，英国处于欧洲边缘。 来自辞典例句
• All these events, however geographically remote, urgently affected Western financial centers. 所有这些事件，无论发生在地理上如何遥远的地方，都对西方金融中心产生紧迫的影响。 来自名作英译部分

17 tribal   

adj.部族的，种族的

参考例句：

• He became skilled in several tribal lingoes.他精通几种部族的语言。
• The country was torn apart by fierce tribal hostilities.那个国家被部落间的激烈冲突弄得四分五裂。