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The river flows vast and soundless. It's December in southern Kazakhstan, and the landscape near the Syr Darya River is smudged in shades of brown and taupe -- dormant grasses, silted floodplains, leafless trees.
河水浩蕩奔涌，無聲流動。哈薩克斯坦南部的12月間，錫爾河附近的地貌染上了棕色和褐灰色，那是陷入休眠的草叢、淤積的洪積平原和光禿禿的樹木。
This is not the most picturesque stretch of riverbank, strewn as it is with food wrappers, bottles, a decomposing sedan.
這里并不是風景最美的河岸，到處散落著食物包裝紙和瓶瓶罐罐，還有一輛廢棄的轎車。
Overhead, the sun is obscured by a haze of coal- and woodsmoke. But when it comes to what Bernie Kuhajda is searching for, the spot feels perfect.
頭頂的太陽在煤炭和木材燃燒產生的煙霾下變得模糊。不過，對于伯尼·庫哈伊達正在找的動物而言，這個地點似乎十分完美。
"This is the habitat we need," says Kuhajda, an aquatic conservation biologist with the Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute.
庫哈伊達是田納西水族館保護研究所的水生保護生物學家，他說：“這就是我們要的棲息地。”
He's hoping to find a species of sturgeon -- the Syr Darya -- that's native to these waters but hasn't been seen since the 1960s, after a series of Soviet dams was built throughout the river system.
他希望找到原生于這片水域的錫爾河擬鏟鱘，但自從20世紀60年代蘇聯在整個河系興建一連串的水壩后，就沒人見過這種鱘魚了。
Those projects blocked access to the fish's spawning grounds and forever changed the flow of the Syr Darya, which drains from the high peaks of Kyrgyzstan into what is now the remnants of the Aral Sea.
水壩工程阻斷了鱘魚前往產卵地的途徑，也永久改變了錫爾河源出了吉爾吉斯斯坦的高峰后，注入如今咸海殘余部分的流向。
If the sturgeon somehow still exists, Kuhajda thinks this silty, shallow expanse of river is where it can be found.
庫哈伊達認為，如果錫爾河擬鏟鱘以某種方式幸存下來，這條滿是淤泥的廣闊淺河就是它們會出現的區域。
Some months earlier, Kuhajda had been contacted by the conservation organization Re:Wild, which administers a program to search for what it calls lost species -- creatures that haven't been seen for at least a decade and could be extinct, but there's not enough data to be conclusive.
數個月前，庫哈伊達接到了保護組織Re:Wild的聯系，這個組織負責管理一項尋找所謂失落物種的計劃，也就是已經無人發現至少十年且可能滅絕、但沒有足夠資料做出結論的生物。
The officials at Re:Wild reached out to Kuhajda knowing that he was one of a very small collection of scientists who have ever laid eyes on the Syr Darya sturgeon.
Re:Wild的成員聯絡庫哈伊達，因為他是極少數見過錫爾河擬鏟鱘的科學家。
As a graduate student in the 1990s, he visited museums in London, Moscow, and St. Petersburg and videotaped 27 spindled specimens, bleached white from years of storage.
在20世紀90年代，仍是研究生的庫哈伊達曾參觀倫敦、莫斯科、圣彼得堡的博物館，并拍攝27件紡錘狀鱘魚標本的影片，這些標本因儲藏多年而褪成白色。
"They said, 'You're the expert,'" Kuhajda says, remembering the call with Re:Wild. "And I said, 'Well, I've seen them dead in a jar.'"
“他們說：‘你是專家’”，庫哈伊達一邊回憶與Re:Wild的通話一邊說。“然后我說：‘這個嘛，我見過它們在罐里的尸體。’”
The Syr Darya sturgeon is a distinctive-looking fish -- and, at a maximum length of roughly nine inches, is the smallest of the 26 species of sturgeons.
錫爾河擬鏟鱘是一種外表獨特的魚，最大體長約為9英寸，在26種鱘魚中體型最小。
The largest is the beluga, the biggest ever recorded -- pulled from the Volga River in 1827 -- measuring more than 23 feet and weighing over 3,200 pounds.
體型最大的鱘魚是黑海鰉，有紀錄以來最大的個體是1827年在伏爾加河捕獲的，體長超過23英尺，體重超過3200磅。
All sturgeons have a long, flat snout; dangling, whisker-like barbels that detect bottom-dwelling prey; and five lines of horny, bony scutes that climb vertically up the length of their bodies.
所有鱘魚都擁有扁長的吻部；懸垂且類似觸須的魚須，可偵測底性獵物；以及五排由角質和骨質構成的鱗甲，沿著身側垂直突出生長。
It's hard to mistake this ancient fish for anything else. Cross a catfish, a shark, a stegosaurus, and a pruning saw, and you're not far from imagining a sturgeon.
這種古老魚類不太可能被誤認為其他生物。如果將鯰魚、鯊魚、劍龍、剪枝鋸組合在一起，你就差不多能想像出鱘魚的模樣了。
For 162 million years, they lived through climate swings, continental shifts, volcanic eruptions, and a mass extinction.
1億6200萬年來，它們經歷過氣候波動、大陸漂移、火山爆發和大滅絕。
"They survived the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs, everything that nature and space could throw at them," says Kuhajda.
庫哈伊達說：“他們從殺死恐龍的小行星撞擊，還有源于大自然和外太空的各種災難中活了下來。”
Everything except humanity. Today they are the most endangered group of fish in the world.
但躲不過人類。如今鱘魚是世界上最瀕危的魚類。
Since 1970, global sturgeon populations have dropped a catastrophic 94 percent.
自1970年起，全球鱘魚面臨浩劫，族群數量已減少94%。
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists 25 sturgeon species as vulnerable or endangered, 17 critically so, and one species is extinct in the wild.
世界自然保護聯盟（IUCN）將25種鱘魚列為易危或瀕危物種，其中17種是極危物種，還有一種已在野外滅絕。
Three of the critically endangered species, including the Syr Darya, are feared extinct as well.
包括錫爾河擬鏟鱘在內的三種極危鱘魚恐怕也已滅絕。
Ecologically, sturgeons are on the brink. Economically, they are some of the most valuable animals on Earth.
在生態方面，鱘魚已瀕臨絕種；在經濟方面，它們是地球上最有價值的動物之一。
Much of the sturgeons' decline can be attributed to overfishing; caviar, the fish's profuse, obsidian eggs, is salted and sold across the globe as an edible symbol of status and wealth. Some tins surpass $600 an ounce.
鱘魚數量減少的主要原因是過度捕撈；魚子醬就是鱘魚如黑曜石般的豐富魚卵鹽腌后的產物，在全球各地以象征地位和財富的食品來行銷。有些魚子醬的價格每盎司要超過600美元。
But even for species like the Syr Darya that aren't sought for their roe, human-made decisions and environmental changes have been devastating.
然而，即使是像錫爾河擬鏟鱘這樣不會因為魚卵而被捕撈的鱘魚，人為決策和環境變化也造成極具破壞力的影響。
"It took only 200 years for humans to destroy every riverine habitat where sturgeons live," Kuhajda says.
庫哈伊達說：“人類只花了200年就摧毀鱘魚生活的所有河川棲息地。”
Sturgeons evolved over 160 million years ago in free-flowing rivers, places without barriers.
鱘魚在超過1億6000萬年前自由流淌的河川里演化，當時它們的棲息地沒有障礙物。
"All sturgeons migrate," says Kuhajda. There are now simply too many things in their way.
庫哈伊達說：“所有鱘魚都會遷徙。”但現在它們的遷徙路徑上有太多阻礙。
Dams, reservoirs, dredging, and irrigation diversions block migration to spawning grounds upstream and strand larvae floating downstream.
水壩、水庫、疏浚、灌溉導水設施阻斷往上游遷徙到產卵地的路徑，也困住往下游漂流的幼魚。
Runoff from agriculture can create toxic algal blooms, while development, logging, and mining destroy spawning habitat and produce harmful sediments.
農業徑流可能產生有毒的藻華，開發、伐木和采礦則會摧毀產卵棲息地并制造有害的沉積物。
Kuhajda hopes some small number of Syr Darya sturgeons have survived this age of man.
庫哈伊達希望有少量錫爾河擬鏟鱘在這個人類主宰的時代幸存下來。
If the fish can be found, Kuhajda will follow a now well-worn playbook: Capture a breeding population of males and females, set them up in a hatchery, and raise them for reintroduction into the wild.
如果能找到這種魚，庫哈伊達會遵循如今為人熟知的策略：捕捉一群混有雄魚和雌魚的繁殖族群，在孵化場養殖，準備再次引入野外。
Where there are dams blocking spawning routes, there are now hatchery and transport programs.
如今，在水壩阻斷產卵路徑的地方，有孵化場和運輸計劃可提供幫助。
Where there was overfishing, there are now laws and institutions banning or limiting unsustainable harvest.
在過度捕撈的地方，有法規和機構禁止或限制不可持續的捕撈活動。
Even the caviar industry is now playing a role in bringing sturgeons back from the brink.
即使是魚子醬產業，現在也參與了把鱘魚從滅絕邊緣救回來的工作。
Before arriving at the river, Kuhajda had stopped at a roadside fishmonger's stand and passed around a printed photo of those museum specimens.
抵達錫爾河之前，庫哈伊達曾在路邊的魚攤停下來，分發一張印著這些博物館標本的照片。
Trucks groaned past on the highway as a fisherman studied the picture and then confirmed that he had pulled something similar out of the water a few years back, which made Kuhajda even more excited to get into the river.
卡車在高速公路上呼嘯而過，有一名漁民端詳這張照片之后，確認他在幾年前曾經捕到類似的魚，這讓庫哈伊達更加期待進入錫爾河。
Making their way toward the water, Kuhajda and his colleague, Dave Neely, carry a custom-sewn net they will use to sweep the river.
庫哈伊達和同事戴夫·尼利向錫爾河走去，帶著一張專門用來搜索錫爾河的特制漁網。
Three Kazakh fisheries officials have driven down from the Aral Sea in a big Soviet-era truck to supervise the efforts to find the lost fish.
三名哈薩克斯坦漁業官員從咸海開著一輛蘇聯時代留下來的大卡車過來，監督他們尋找消失已久的鱘魚。
One of them, Tynysbek Barakbayev, leans against the old vehicle, watching as Kuhajda and Neely wade into the river. "We have a chance," he says. "But this chance, very small. We can hope."
其中一名官員提尼斯貝克·巴拉克巴耶夫靠在這輛舊車旁，看著庫哈伊達和尼利涉水進入河中。“我們有機會找到鱘魚。”他說，“但機會非常渺茫。我們只能懷抱希望。”
