美国国家公共电台 NPR In This Alaska Family, Life Lessons Are Passed Down On The Water

 

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

In southeast Alaska, the commercial king salmon¹ fishing season was temporarily shut down this spring. That's because the numbers of wild salmon returning to spawn² are at an all-time low, and that's worrisome news for those who make their living on the sea. I was on a reporting trip in southeast Alaska before the fishery closed, and I went out with a father-and-daughter trolling team in search of salmon.

CHARLIE WILBER: Come on. Make yourself at home.

BLOCK: Come on board the Alexa K.

C. WILBER: Yeah. How you doing? Charlie on the Alex K.

BLOCK: A 45-foot steel-hulled troller.

C. WILBER: I wondered if we could come over and get a little splash of ice.

BLOCK: We're setting out from the harbor in Sitka in southeast Alaska with Charlie Wilber and his daughter Adrienne.

ADRIENNE WILBER: Oh, there's a sea lion. See its nose coming up right there?

BLOCK: Oh, yeah.

That sea lion's got the same mission we do. We're both looking for salmon. But first, we need that ice to chill the catch.

(SOUNDBITE OF ICE BEING SPRAYED)

BLOCK: It gets sprayed down from the dock in a giant tube, enough for two big coolers.

C. WILBER: Thank you.

BLOCK: And off we go - out into Sitka Sound.

C. WILBER: We're heading out into the briny³ deep.

BLOCK: Charlie Wilber is 69 now. He's been fishing these waters for nearly 40 years.

C. WILBER: I was raised in Omaha, Neb.

BLOCK: You were not a seafaring people in your family (laughter).

C. WILBER: Not at all, no. I never would have imagined I'd end up doing this.

BLOCK: Charlie came to Alaska fresh out of college - had a job fighting fires as a smoke jumper - went out fishing with a friend and got the bug⁴, as he puts it.

A. WILBER: They were just twisted, Dad. It's fine.

BLOCK: Daughter Adrienne is 27. She's been fishing with her dad since she was about 11. And a lot of the qualities she values most, she learned right here on this boat.

A. WILBER: Persistence⁵ and having a good attitude and optimism, living closely with one other person that you're not always getting along with (laughter) but still having to work with in a productive way.

C. WILBER: Mm-hm, mm-hm.

A. WILBER: Yeah, those skills I use every day.

BLOCK: All right, it's time to fish.

C. WILBER: OK, Adri (ph) Let's put them out.

BLOCK: Charlie and Adrienne lower the trolling poles, one on each side of the boat, and get busy hooking artificial lures⁶ to the lines.

C. WILBER: So it's the lead spoon on the bottom, three flashers...

BLOCK: As they work, a trail of colorful gear spools⁷ off behind the boat, a smorgasbord of temptation for fussy⁸ fish.

(SOUNDBITE OF WATER SPLASHING)

BLOCK: It's the first time this spring the Wilbers have been out on the Alexa K.

C. WILBER: We're fishing.

A. WILBER: Yay.

C. WILBER: Let's start catching⁹.

BLOCK: Father and daughter work in tandem¹⁰ in instinctive¹¹, easy rhythm born of years spent together on this boat.

A. WILBER: I remember when I was first learning how to fish, having to go really slow and getting my gear tangled¹² up. And then Dad would have to come fix it. And oh, no, I've messed up. But it feels so good to be out here today, just that motion of hauling the gear and setting the gear.

BLOCK: Over several hours, the Wilbers reel the gear in and send it back out, time after time. But today...

C. WILBER: I got to say, the water's looking pretty blank, Adri.

BLOCK: ...The fish just aren't biting. So we have to take Adrienne's word for it.

A. WILBER: The fish are beautiful when they come out of the water. The king salmon especially have these really dark, black mouths and then silver sides and white bellies¹³ and dark tops. But in that sort of darkness is also, like, these shimmers¹⁴ of gold and shimmers of lavender.

C. WILBER: Yeah, the lavender color...

A. WILBER: ...And spots.

C. WILBER: They are gorgeous fish.

A. WILBER: Yeah, just very, very beautiful.

BLOCK: It's clear the Wilbers take real pride in the quality and sustainability of their wild catch. Alaska fishermen operate under a quota¹⁵ system that limits the harvest. But lately, the trends are alarming. With low king salmon numbers forcing the early closure of the fishery this spring, some salmon biologists point to warming ocean temperatures as the main reason behind the decline. And out on the water, Charlie Wilber says, it's clear things are changing.

C. WILBER: The water temperatures are warmer. We've seen species of fish that don't ordinarily get up this far. I mean, we've seen sunfish. We've seen turtles. We've seen some pomfret.

A. WILBER: And there's been a bunch of squid that have come in in the last two years. Right?

C. WILBER: Yeah. It's really hard to pin it down to say, this is climate change. But things are definitely changing. So - Adrienne, I think we need to go out and...

A. WILBER: Still give it a check, Dad.

C. WILBER: ...Run through our lines here.

BLOCK: Still no fish - maybe that sea lion got them before we did - so the Wilbers lower the poles and head back to port.

C. WILBER: We were skunked.

(LAUGHTER)

A. WILBER: Next trip, Dad, next trip.

BLOCK: That's Adrienne and Charlie Wilber on the Alexa K out of Sitka, Alaska.

C. WILBER: All right, we survived another one. Everybody came home.

1 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？

2 spawn   

n.卵，产物，后代，结果；vt.产卵，种菌丝于，产生，造成；vi.产卵，大量生产

参考例句：

• The fish were madly pushing their way upstream to spawn.鱼群为产卵而疯狂地向上游挤进。
• These fish will lay spawn in about one month from now.这些鱼大约一个月内会产卵。

3 briny   

adj.盐水的；很咸的；n.海洋

参考例句：

• The briny water is not good for the growth of the trees.海水不利于这种树木的生长。
• The briny air gave a foretaste of the nearby sea.咸空气是快近海的前兆。

4 bug   

n.虫子；故障；窃听器；vt.纠缠；装窃听器

参考例句：

• There is a bug in the system.系统出了故障。
• The bird caught a bug on the fly.那鸟在飞行中捉住了一只昆虫。

5 persistence   

n.坚持，持续，存留

参考例句：

• The persistence of a cough in his daughter puzzled him.他女儿持续的咳嗽把他难住了。
• He achieved success through dogged persistence.他靠着坚持不懈取得了成功。

6 lures   

吸引力，魅力（lure的复数形式）

参考例句：

• He left home because of the lures of life in the city. 他离家是由于都市生活的诱惑。
• Perhaps it is the desire for solitude or the chance of making an unexpected discovery that lures men down to the depths of the earth. 可能正是寻觅幽静的去处，或者找个猎奇的机会的欲望引诱着人们进入地球的深处。

7 spools   

n.（绕线、铁线、照相软片等的）管( spool的名词复数 )；络纱；纺纱机；绕圈轴工人v.把…绕到线轴上（或从线轴上绕下来）( spool的第三人称单数 )；假脱机（输出或输入）

参考例句：

• I bought three spools of thread at the store. 我在这个店里买了三轴线。 来自辞典例句
• How many spools of thread did you use? 你用了几轴线？ 来自辞典例句

8 fussy   

adj.为琐事担忧的，过分装饰的，爱挑剔的

参考例句：

• He is fussy about the way his food's cooked.他过分计较食物的烹调。
• The little girl dislikes her fussy parents.小女孩讨厌她那过分操心的父母。

9 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。

10 tandem   

n.同时发生；配合；adv.一个跟着一个地；纵排地；adj.（两匹马）前后纵列的

参考例句：

• Malcolm's contract will run in tandem with his existing one.马尔科姆的合同将与他手头的合同同时生效。
• He is working in tandem with officials of the Serious Fraud Office.他正配合欺诈重案办公室的官员工作。

11 instinctive   

adj.(出于)本能的；直觉的；(出于)天性的

参考例句：

• He tried to conceal his instinctive revulsion at the idea.他试图饰盖自己对这一想法本能的厌恶。
• Animals have an instinctive fear of fire.动物本能地怕火。

12 tangled   

adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• Your hair's so tangled that I can't comb it. 你的头发太乱了，我梳不动。
• A movement caught his eye in the tangled undergrowth. 乱灌木丛里的晃动引起了他的注意。

13 bellies   

n.肚子( belly的名词复数 )；腹部；（物体的）圆形或凸起部份；腹部…形的

参考例句：

• They crawled along on their bellies. 他们匍匐前进。
• starving children with huge distended bellies 鼓着浮肿肚子的挨饿儿童

14 shimmers   

n.闪闪发光，发微光( shimmer的名词复数 )v.闪闪发光，发微光( shimmer的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The hot pavement sent up shimmers. 晒热的道路浮起热气晃动的景象。 来自辞典例句
• Sunlight shimmers on the waters of the bay. 阳光在海湾的水面上闪烁。 来自辞典例句

15 quota   

n.（生产、进出口等的）配额，（移民的）限额

参考例句：

• A restricted import quota was set for meat products.肉类产品设定了进口配额。
• He overfulfilled his production quota for two months running.他一连两个月超额完成生产指标。