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In Kazakhstan, on the banks of the Syr Darya, the Kazakh fisheries officials smoke cigarettes and wait, sympathetic, as Kuhajda struggles to keep his footing on the silty river bottom.
在哈薩克斯坦錫爾河的岸上，哈薩克漁業官員一邊抽煙，一邊面帶同情地等待著，而庫哈伊達則努力地站穩在充滿淤泥的河床上。
He and Neely drag a net beneath the surface. On their first pass, they pull up countless branches and cockleburs, along with a few minnows.
他和尼利拖著一張沉在水面下的漁網。他們第一次撒網時，拉起許多樹枝和蒼耳，還有一些鰷魚。
At the riverbank, they place each species they capture into a Plexiglas container to measure and photograph, then untangle the net and wade back into the current, hoping that the next pass will dredge up a sturgeon no scientist has seen for more than 50 years and pave a path toward its recovery.
他們在河岸上將捕捉到的每種生物都放進一個有機玻璃容器，進行測量及拍攝，然后他們整理漁網，再次涉水進入河流，希望下一次撒網能夠抓到科學家已經超過50年沒有見到過的鱘魚，為這種動物的恢復工作鋪路。
Work like this is making an impact. Thanks to scientists and aquaculture experts like Kuhajda, Stadig, and the Giovanninis, sturgeon populations have begun to recover.
這類工作正產生影響。多虧庫哈伊達、史塔蒂格、喬凡尼尼家族等科學家和水產養殖專家的努力，鱘魚族群數量已經開始恢復。
In eastern North America, populations of Atlantic, Gulf, and lake sturgeons have all mounted comebacks from the lows of the past century.
在北美洲東部，大西洋鱘、墨西哥灣鱘、湖鱘的數量已經從20世紀的低谷逐漸回升。
Reintroduced hatchery fish like those from Wisconsin's Wolf River have returned to their native watersheds everywhere from New York to Minnesota to Germany to China -- and in some places are beginning to reproduce for the first time in decades.
再引入的孵化場鱘魚（例如威斯康辛州狼河的鱘魚）已重返世界各地的原生流域，包括美國紐約州及明尼蘇達州、德國、中國，有些地方的鱘魚也在數十年來首次開始繁殖。
By 2021, after more than 30 years of restocking, scientists had discovered one beached egg-bearing female, and had detected juveniles in three Italian rivers, suggesting the restocked fish may have begun reproducing again in the wild.
截至2021年，也就是保育放流工作執行了三十多年之后，科學家已發現一只擱淺的帶卵雌魚，也在三條意大利河川中偵測到幼魚，這顯示放流的鱘魚可能已開始在野外再度繁殖。
In April 2024, captive-bred Yangtze sturgeons spawned in their native habitat for the first time -- almost two years after a panel of international experts had declared the fish extinct in the wild.
國際專家團隊曾宣布長江鱘在野外滅絕，但在將近兩年后的2024年4月，圈養繁殖的長江鱘首次在原生水域產卵。
The world's sturgeon generals haven't given up on the most critically endangered species either.
全球的鱘魚總長也尚未放棄挽救最極危的鱘魚。
Kuhajda helped identify the last Alabama sturgeon netted in the wild in 2007; biologists continue to comb the Alabama River for its namesake sturgeon and have found the fish's DNA in the waters there.
庫哈伊達曾在2007年協助辨識野外捕捉到的最后一只阿拉巴馬河鱘；生物學家也持續在阿拉巴馬河中找以它命名的鱘魚，并已在這個水域找到這種魚的DNA。
Sadly, Kuhajda won't find a Syr Darya sturgeon on this expedition to Kazakhstan.
遺憾的是，庫哈伊達并沒有在這次的哈薩克斯坦探查中找到錫爾河擬鱘。
But he plans to return this spring to look upriver in Uzbekistan, where there are more shallow waters and braided channels that are easier to sample.
不過，他計劃于今年春季重返，到烏茲別克斯坦的錫爾河上游去找，那里的淺水域和辮狀河道更多，更容易進行采樣。
He believes they are there -- and that the next expedition may be the one that resurfaces that spindled, prehistoric, long-sought fish.
他相信錫爾河擬鱘依然存在，而下一次探查可能就會重新發現大家長久以來一直尋找的這種紡錘狀史前魚類。
"I'll recognize it the minute it breaks water," Kuhajda says. "And my head will spin on my neck."
“它一浮出水面，我就會認出來。”庫哈伊達說，“而且我會非常非常驚喜。”
