信天翁可监测非法渔船

Albatrosses can monitor illegal fishing boats

If you've ever been on a fishing boat, you've probably seen flocks of birds following in your wake, hoping to catch a snack. Now scientists say they can use those birds' behavior to track illegal fishing boats. 

如果你上过渔船，可能会看到成群的鸟儿追随尾浪，希望能蹭点吃的。科学家表示他们能利用这些鸟类行为来追踪非法渔船。

Here's how it works: Researchers attached data loggers to the backs of 169 albatrosses in the Southern and Indian oceans. The devices weighed only an ounce and a half, but they included a GPS and were able to detect the presence and intensity of radar signals emanating from boats. That information was then transmitted by satellite, so the researchers could track the location of the birds-and thus the radar-emitting boats in real time.

具体做法如下：研究人员在南大洋和印度洋的169只信天翁的背部系上数据记录器。这些设备只有1.5盎司重，但配有GPS，能够探测到渔船及其发出的雷达信号强度。随后，卫星传送这些信息，研究人员就可以通过卫星实时追踪鸟儿以及发射雷达信息的渔船的位置。

The scientists then cross-checked that data against the known locations of boats, gleaned from a system boats use to declare themselves, called the Automatic Identification System. And discrepancies appeared frequently More than a third of the times the birds' loggers' detected radar signals, and therefore a boat, no such boat appeared in the official record, meaning that the vehicles had likely switched off their Automatic Identification Systems-something the researchers say probably happens in illegal fishing operations.

之后，科学家对与渔船已知位置不符的信息进行反复核对，这些信息来自渔船用来显露身份的“自动识别系统”。这种不符情况频繁出现。超过三分之一的信天翁记录器探测到了雷达信号，也就是探测到了渔船，但官方记录中并没有这些船只，　这意味着这些船可能关闭了自动识别系统，研究人员说这些船可能在进行非法捕鱼作业。

The results are in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The work suggests birds could be an effective boat-monitoring tool-as long as illegal fishing operations don't target the birds, that is.

这项研究结果发表在《美国国家科学院院刊》上。这项研究表明，鸟类可以成为有效的船只监测工具，只要非法捕鱼者不要盯上这些鸟。

Fortunately, such a task would be difficult. “Around fishing vessels, you can get hundreds of birds at any one time that are all flying around. So it's not really possible to target a specific bird. And the birds with loggers on are not marked in any way. So it's difficult for fishermen to pick out a specific bird,” said Study author Samantha Patrick, a marine biologist at the University of Liverpool. Patrick's bigger concern is that albatrosses often get hooked on fishing lines.

幸运的是，这种任务会很难完成。“任何时候你都会在渔船周围看到数百只鸟在飞来飞去。因此确实不可能瞄准一只特定的鸟。而且携带记录器的鸟没有任何标记。因此，渔民很难发现特定的鸟。”研究作者、利物浦大学的海洋生物学家萨曼莎·帕特里克说到。帕特里克更担心的是，信天翁经常被鱼线钩住。

And though regulations have been established to protect against that happening-with success-illegal boats don't necessarily comply. So scientists might be underestimating the risk posed to albatross populations. But this system could mean that those illegal boats may have a tougher time flying under the radar.

尽管已经制定了防止这种情况发生的法规，但非法渔船并不一定会遵守。因此，科学家可能低估了信天翁种群面临的风险。但这一系统可以让那些非法渔船在雷达下更难躲藏。

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