評論
打印
Are There Ecological Merits to Trawling The Seabed?
海底拖網捕魚有生態價值嗎？
Trawling the seabed for fish is an environmental disaster; it wrecks ecosystems,destroys fish stocks and leaves behind a marine desert. But there is growing evidence that the effect is sometimes very different, with trawling increasing fish stocks from the North Sea to the California coast. A new modelling study may for the first time have demonstrated why.
海底拖網捕魚是一種生態災害，它破壞了生態系統，破壞了魚類種群，造成了海洋沙漠化。但越來越多的證據表明，影響有時也可能會大不相同，從北海到加利福尼亞海岸的拖網捕魚反而增加了魚類種群。一種新的模擬研究首次對其中的原因進行了解答。
Trawlers attach large nets to a metal beam dragged across the seabed to catch bottom-dwelling fish. Greenpeace likens it to "driving a huge bulldozer through a forest",leaving a flat,featureless desert on the seabed.
拖網漁民把大網系在金屬橫梁上，然后拖到海床的另一邊，以捕捉海底棲息的魚類。綠色和平組織把其比喻成“駕駛一輛巨大的推土機穿越一片森林”，這使得海底成為了平坦、毫無特色的沙漠。
Trawling clearly does remove fish,such as large crustaceans and shellfish,says Daniel van Denderen of the Wageningen Institute for Marine Resources and Ecosystem Studies in the Netherlands. But this is a lucky break for smaller species lurking in the sandy seabed,such as worms. They survive and,with fewer rivals,flourish.
荷蘭瓦格寧根研究所的丹尼爾·登德倫說，拖網捕魚很顯然可以捕捉到一些例如大型甲殼類和貝類的魚類，荷蘭瓦格寧根研究所主要從事海洋資源和生態系統的研究。但是這對潛伏在沙質海底小型的品種來說是一種幸運，例如蠕蟲。它們可以生存下來，因為擁有更少的對手，因此可以大量繁殖。
And if,as is often the case,these smaller critters are the main food for fish,then the overall effect is to nurture more marine life.Imants Priede,at the University of Aberdeen,UK,says there is growing evidence that—while far from universal—the phenomenon is real. "On continental shelves such as the southern North Sea,where shifting sands and gravels are stirred up by strong tidal currents,even trawling more than once a year may be beneficial for some fish stocks," he says.
而且如果這是常有的情況，這些規模較小的小動物是魚類的主要食物，那么整體的影響就是培養了更多的海洋生物。英國阿伯丁大學的伊蒙特斯·皮瑞德說，越來越多的證據表明，盡管并不普遍，但這種現象是存在的。皮瑞德會說“在一些海洋大陸架上，例如北海南部，那里強勁的潮流激起了流沙和礫石，但即使每年超過一次的拖網捕魚可能對一些魚類有益。”
