VOA标准英语2011--Beleaguered Fishermen Learn to Run Float

Beleaguered¹ Fishermen Learn to Run Floating Farm

A handful of Maine fishermen have graduated from the nation's first ever "Cod² Academy."
The program, run by the Maine Aquaculture Association, trains traditionally ocean-going fishermen to be fish farmers and is designed to help commercial and former fishermen find a new way to make a living on the water.
Waterside classroom
On a recent foggy morning, a fishing boat motors away from the public dock in the picturesque³ seaside community of Sorrento, but the fishermen on board are going farming, not fishing.
“Today we're probably going to be moving cages and sorting codfish so the students will get experience doing that,” says Sebastian Belle⁴, director of the Maine Aquaculture Association, which is running America's first Cod Academy, in partnership⁵ with the University of Maine and others.
More than a kilometer out to sea, eight large circular pens emerge from the mist, each enclosed by a rubber tube and covered over with netting to keep out seabirds. Inside each 50-meter-wide pen are up to 50,000 cod. Most of them will end up on dinner plates around the world.
Cod Academy
This is Maine's only commercial cod farm. It's run by Great Bay Aquaculture, a New Hampshire-based fish-farming company and one of the partners in the Cod Academy.
Over the course of a year, the students are taught every aspect of managing a floating farm.
“One of the things we've been teaching the students is how to feed the fish and not overfeed the fish," Belle says. "So you want to give them enough feed and not waste any feed and make it as efficient as possible.”
As the boat floats alongside the fishpen, the trainee⁶ fish-farmers take turns scooping⁷ out handfuls of specially-formulated fish feed and flinging it into the pen.
Becoming fish farmers
Bill Thompson - one of the academy’s four students - says it takes practice to get it right. “I'm not getting it spread over there very well.”
The surface of the water literally⁸ bubbles as thousands of cod come up to feed. They’re monitored from the boat by an underwater camera.
The 59-year-old navy veteran and former commercial fisherman says taking the course has convinced him that aquaculture is the way to go.
“Even if the wild stocks came back to their fullest capacity, they still wouldn't feed the world," says Thompson. "So this is the way of future. And it's feasible for a family to run a business also.”
That’s why Thompson’s son, also named Bill, is a student at the academy as well.
The younger Thompson has been a working fisherman for most of his 39 years. He makes his living diving for urchins⁹ and fishing for lobster¹⁰. But with a wife and four kids to support, he says it’s time for a change.
“I've seen a depletion¹¹ of the source of everything I've been harvesting over the years," he says. "I look into the future, I can't see my kids set up in what I'm doing right now as far as, you know, lobstering, urchining. I don't want to see them get a source that's depleting¹² every year.”
Starting the business
Becoming a fish farmer is not without financial risk. Program director Belle says students need to come up with a workable marketing¹³ and business plan before they can graduate. They'll be expected to raise about half the money toward any farming venture they want to create.
According to Belle, the Cod Academy is based on successful government-sponsored programs, started in Norway and Japan more than 30 years ago, to retrain displaced herring and tuna fishermen.
The U.S. program is beginning on a much smaller scale.
“It's never been done before in America and we're trying to see if it's a model that has some potential," says Belle, who hopes the program will help Mainers realize the huge potential in farming cod. “It's a native fish to Maine. The growing conditions in Maine are very good for cod and it's kind of a natural choice for us as a state.”
According to Belle, the strong tides help keep the fish active and healthy.
He acknowledges that aquaculture has its share of critics who are concerned that bunching fish together in a farm setting could spread disease and breed unhealthy stock.
“We're a relatively¹⁴ young business and, certainly when you start a new activity, you're going to make mistakes and fish farmers have made mistakes. And they've at times exceeded the carrying capacity of the environment.”
Belle says Maine's fish farmers have learned from those mistakes, and that they're also subject to regular strict environmental monitoring by state inspectors¹⁵.
The Cod Academy's first four students graduated this month. They're now eligible¹⁶ to receive financial assistance from the Maine Aquaculture Association to start their own small-scale cod farms.

1 beleaguered   

adj.受到围困[围攻]的；包围的v.围攻( beleaguer的过去式和过去分词)；困扰；骚扰

参考例句：

• The beleaguered party leader was forced to resign. 那位饱受指责的政党领导人被迫辞职。
• We are beleaguered by problems. 我们被许多困难所困扰。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 cod   

n.鳕鱼；v.愚弄；哄骗

参考例句：

• They salt down cod for winter use.他们腌鳕鱼留着冬天吃。
• Cod are found in the North Atlantic and the North Sea.北大西洋和北海有鳕鱼。

3 picturesque   

adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的

参考例句：

• You can see the picturesque shores beside the river.在河边你可以看到景色如画的两岸。
• That was a picturesque phrase.那是一个形象化的说法。

4 belle   

n.靓女

参考例句：

• She was the belle of her Sunday School class.在主日学校她是她们班的班花。
• She was the belle of the ball.她是那个舞会中的美女。

5 partnership   

n.合作关系，伙伴关系

参考例句：

• The company has gone into partnership with Swiss Bank Corporation.这家公司已经和瑞士银行公司建立合作关系。
• Martin has taken him into general partnership in his company.马丁已让他成为公司的普通合伙人。

6 trainee   

n.受训练者

参考例句：

• The trainee checked out all right on his first flight.受训者第一次飞行完全合格。
• Few of the trainee footballers make it to the top.足球受训人员中没有几个能达到顶级水平。

7 scooping   

n.捞球v.抢先报道( scoop的现在分词 )；（敏捷地）抱起；抢先获得；用铲[勺]等挖（洞等）

参考例句：

• Heated ice cream scoop is used for scooping really cold ice cream. 加热的冰淇淋勺是用来舀非常凉的冰淇淋的。 来自互联网
• The scoop-up was the key phase during a scooping cycle. 3个区间中，铲取区间是整个作业循环的关键。 来自互联网

8 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

9 urchins   

n.顽童( urchin的名词复数 )；淘气鬼；猬；海胆

参考例句：

• Some dozen barefooted urchins ganged in from the riverside. 几十个赤足的顽童从河边成群结队而来。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• People said that he had jaundice and urchins nicknamed him "Yellow Fellow." 别人说他是黄胆病，孩子们也就叫他“黄胖”了。 来自汉英文学 - 中国现代小说

10 lobster   

n.龙虾，龙虾肉

参考例句：

• The lobster is a shellfish.龙虾是水生贝壳动物。
• I like lobster but it does not like me.我喜欢吃龙虾，但它不适宜于我的健康。

11 depletion   

n.耗尽，枯竭

参考例句：

• Increased consumption of water has led to rapid depletion of groundwater reserves.用水量的增加导致了地下水贮备迅速枯竭。
• Farmers should rotate crops every season to prevent depletion of the soil.农夫每季应该要轮耕，以免耗尽土壤。

12 depleting   

使大大的减少，使空虚( deplete的现在分词 )； 耗尽，使枯竭

参考例句：

• Regulations are outlawing certain refrigerants, such as chlorofluorocarbons, which contain ozone-depleting chemicals. 随后出台的政策禁用了部分制冷剂，如破坏臭氧层的氟氯碳化合物。
• Aging, being a series of continual losses, can be keenly depleting. 老龄化，作为一个系列的连续亏损，可以清楚地消耗。

13 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。

14 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

15 inspectors   

n.检查员( inspector的名词复数 )；（英国公共汽车或火车上的）查票员；（警察）巡官；检阅官

参考例句：

• They got into the school in the guise of inspectors. 他们假装成视察员进了学校。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Inspectors checked that there was adequate ventilation. 检查员已检查过，通风良好。 来自《简明英汉词典》

16 eligible   

adj.有条件被选中的；(尤指婚姻等)合适(意)的

参考例句：

• He is an eligible young man.他是一个合格的年轻人。
• Helen married an eligible bachelor.海伦嫁给了一个中意的单身汉。