It survived the dinosaurs. It survived an ice age. But will the majestic green s ea turtle survive us?
恐龍滅絕后海龜仍存活下來，并且挺過了冰河時期的滄桑巨變。而今，碩大肥美的綠海龜會 不會葬送在我們的手里？
The stench of freshly butchered meat grates on the nostrils as I ap proach the turtle slaughterhouse; I can smell it from the grounds of the local p rimary school, 100m away.
The building is about 60m by 10m, and inside are the lobster tanks that are requ ired by law. These are empty. On the other side of the building turtles are pack ed like sardines into more tanks. The floor between these tanks is barely visibl e because it is covered with more than 150 live turtles; it is impossible not to tread on them as I wander around.
Stacked against one wall are shells, some clean, others still covered in blood. Meat is piled high on a board, and the constant thudthudthud of a swinging c leaver echoes round the chamber. Barbaric is too gentle a word for the slaughter ing process I witness; apparently it would ruin the meat to kill them before ski nning them. The turtle, which can live more than 200 years, is one of the few an imals that cries, and on more than one occasion I see tears running down these a nimals' faces.
Scientists believe that 17thcentury Dutch seafarers were barely exaggerating w hen they wrote of being able to walk from one Indonesian island to another acros s the back of green turtles. Now the picture is of an increasingly violent strug gle to protect a 250myearold species. There were green turtles in our seas e ons before dinosaurs tramped the Earth; they survived the last ice age; but they may not be with us much longer.
“There have been massively significant drops in the past 50 to 60 years,” says Klaas Teule, a scientist with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), which runs a turtle conservation prject in Bali. “it's hard to put an exact figure on it, but 80% would be on the conservative side.” Turtle experts in Australia believe that in 1900 the region was home to up to one thirdof the world's turtles. Th escale of the slaughter in recent decades, especially the past 10 years, has bee n so great that the figure is now down to 5%.
“Part of the problem is that turtles live so long and they take so long to star t breeding. It takes 20 years to see the impact of what's going on now,” says h is WWF colleague, Ghislaine Llewellyn. “It may already be too late.”
Most countries agreed to ban trading in the seven turtle species a decade ago wh en they signed the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. Indo nesia, which is home to six of the seven species, was one of the signatories, bu t the goernment gave special dispensation to Bali——a 5,000 animal annual quo ta after lobbying from traders on the island. They argued that using turtle s in religious and traditional village ceremonies had been part of Balinese cult ure for centuries.
Conservationists claim that businessmen then flocked to the island and began ram pantly abusing this quota. “The reality is that there was no proper monitoring of the quota and no law enforcement, so the traders could do what they liked,” says Purwo, a memeber of the Indonesian campaigning group Animal Conservation Fo r Life (KSBK). Research carried out by KSBK found almost 30,000 turtles passed t hrough Tanjung in 1999, and that the figure was not much lower in previous years . The actual death toll is much greater because thousands more turtles are caugh t in fishing nets and suffocate.
Responding to this pressure, the Balinese governor withdrew the quota in June an d banned turtle trading and consumption.
［參考譯文］我走近海龜屠宰坊，剛從海龜身上割下來的龜肉散發(fā)著腥味，直 嗆入鼻孔；在距此百米遠的當地小學校園內也能聞到。
這個屠宰用的屋子長約60米，寬約10米。根據法律規(guī)定，屋內擺放著裝龍蝦的缸子。但都是 空的。屋子另一側放的缸子更多，里面的海龜象沙丁魚一樣被塞得滿滿的。150多只海龜散 在缸外，幾乎覆蓋了地面；我在屋里行走時只好踩在它們背上。
龜殼堆在墻邊，有的已洗凈，有的還留著血跡。龜肉摞在高處的一塊木板上，屋子里回蕩著 屠宰刀來回使用時發(fā)出的沙沙聲。用“野蠻”一詞遠不能形容我目睹的宰殺過程的殘忍：一 看便知，只有先從活海龜身上刮掉龜皮，再宰殺它才不會破壞龜肉。作為僅有的幾種會喊叫 的海洋動物之一，海龜的壽命達200多年。我已不止在一個場合看到這些海龜眼角流淚。
據17世紀荷蘭海員記述，在印度尼西亞，綠海龜多得可以踩著它們的后背從一個島走到另一 個島，科學家們認為這并不夸張。目前的情況則是為保護這一壽命達250年之久的物種而開 展的斗爭正日益激烈。恐龍在地球上出現之前綠海龜于就已在古生代出現；在最后一個冰河 時期綠海龜也幸存下來；但它們與我們在一起的日子可能不多了。
世界自然保護基金會（WWF）科學家卡拉斯·特爾在巴厘島成立了的一個海龜保護組織，“ 在過去的50－60年里，海龜的數量驟然減少”，他說：“很難列出具體數字，但80％尚趨保 守”。澳大利亞研究海龜的專家認為，1900年巴厘島曾生存著世界上1/3的海龜。過去幾十 年，尤其近十年，亂捕濫殺海龜之多，以至于現在已減少到5％了。
“問題還在于海龜壽命很長，長期的性成熟后才開始繁殖?，F在這一切對將來的影響，只有 等20年后才能看到，”特爾的一位世界自然保護基金會（WWF）的同事吉絲雷·魯利恩說， “但那時也許已經亡羊補牢，為時過晚了?！豹?BR> 十多年前，在簽訂《瀕危動植物國際貿易公約》（CITES）時，很多國家都同意禁止對世界 上的7種海龜的貿易。印度尼西亞是締約國之一，其中六種海龜就生活在那里。但在島上的 商人游說之后，印尼政府卻給予巴厘島特殊照顧──每年5，000只海龜的配額。商販的理由 是村落舉行宗教和傳統(tǒng)儀式時用海龜祭祀在幾個世紀以來已成為巴厘文化的一部分了。
環(huán)保主義者說，商人云集巴厘島，開始濫用此項配額?！坝捎跊]有對此項配額進行適當監(jiān)控 和法律缺乏執(zhí)行措施，商販們可以為所欲為”。普沃說，他是印度尼西亞動物保護（KSBK） 倡議小組的一名成員。KSBK通過研究發(fā)現1999年有30，000只海龜在坎昆死亡，而前幾年的 海龜死亡數與此相差不大。由于成千上萬只海龜因意外地悶死在捕撈蝦、魚的網具中，海龜 的實際死亡數要多得多。面對壓力，巴厘島的總督終于在6月取消了此項配額，對海龜貿易 和消費施以禁令。
恐龍滅絕后海龜仍存活下來，并且挺過了冰河時期的滄桑巨變。而今，碩大肥美的綠海龜會 不會葬送在我們的手里？
The stench of freshly butchered meat grates on the nostrils as I ap proach the turtle slaughterhouse; I can smell it from the grounds of the local p rimary school, 100m away.
The building is about 60m by 10m, and inside are the lobster tanks that are requ ired by law. These are empty. On the other side of the building turtles are pack ed like sardines into more tanks. The floor between these tanks is barely visibl e because it is covered with more than 150 live turtles; it is impossible not to tread on them as I wander around.
Stacked against one wall are shells, some clean, others still covered in blood. Meat is piled high on a board, and the constant thudthudthud of a swinging c leaver echoes round the chamber. Barbaric is too gentle a word for the slaughter ing process I witness; apparently it would ruin the meat to kill them before ski nning them. The turtle, which can live more than 200 years, is one of the few an imals that cries, and on more than one occasion I see tears running down these a nimals' faces.
Scientists believe that 17thcentury Dutch seafarers were barely exaggerating w hen they wrote of being able to walk from one Indonesian island to another acros s the back of green turtles. Now the picture is of an increasingly violent strug gle to protect a 250myearold species. There were green turtles in our seas e ons before dinosaurs tramped the Earth; they survived the last ice age; but they may not be with us much longer.
“There have been massively significant drops in the past 50 to 60 years,” says Klaas Teule, a scientist with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), which runs a turtle conservation prject in Bali. “it's hard to put an exact figure on it, but 80% would be on the conservative side.” Turtle experts in Australia believe that in 1900 the region was home to up to one thirdof the world's turtles. Th escale of the slaughter in recent decades, especially the past 10 years, has bee n so great that the figure is now down to 5%.
“Part of the problem is that turtles live so long and they take so long to star t breeding. It takes 20 years to see the impact of what's going on now,” says h is WWF colleague, Ghislaine Llewellyn. “It may already be too late.”
Most countries agreed to ban trading in the seven turtle species a decade ago wh en they signed the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. Indo nesia, which is home to six of the seven species, was one of the signatories, bu t the goernment gave special dispensation to Bali——a 5,000 animal annual quo ta after lobbying from traders on the island. They argued that using turtle s in religious and traditional village ceremonies had been part of Balinese cult ure for centuries.
Conservationists claim that businessmen then flocked to the island and began ram pantly abusing this quota. “The reality is that there was no proper monitoring of the quota and no law enforcement, so the traders could do what they liked,” says Purwo, a memeber of the Indonesian campaigning group Animal Conservation Fo r Life (KSBK). Research carried out by KSBK found almost 30,000 turtles passed t hrough Tanjung in 1999, and that the figure was not much lower in previous years . The actual death toll is much greater because thousands more turtles are caugh t in fishing nets and suffocate.
Responding to this pressure, the Balinese governor withdrew the quota in June an d banned turtle trading and consumption.
［參考譯文］我走近海龜屠宰坊，剛從海龜身上割下來的龜肉散發(fā)著腥味，直 嗆入鼻孔；在距此百米遠的當地小學校園內也能聞到。
這個屠宰用的屋子長約60米，寬約10米。根據法律規(guī)定，屋內擺放著裝龍蝦的缸子。但都是 空的。屋子另一側放的缸子更多，里面的海龜象沙丁魚一樣被塞得滿滿的。150多只海龜散 在缸外，幾乎覆蓋了地面；我在屋里行走時只好踩在它們背上。
龜殼堆在墻邊，有的已洗凈，有的還留著血跡。龜肉摞在高處的一塊木板上，屋子里回蕩著 屠宰刀來回使用時發(fā)出的沙沙聲。用“野蠻”一詞遠不能形容我目睹的宰殺過程的殘忍：一 看便知，只有先從活海龜身上刮掉龜皮，再宰殺它才不會破壞龜肉。作為僅有的幾種會喊叫 的海洋動物之一，海龜的壽命達200多年。我已不止在一個場合看到這些海龜眼角流淚。
據17世紀荷蘭海員記述，在印度尼西亞，綠海龜多得可以踩著它們的后背從一個島走到另一 個島，科學家們認為這并不夸張。目前的情況則是為保護這一壽命達250年之久的物種而開 展的斗爭正日益激烈。恐龍在地球上出現之前綠海龜于就已在古生代出現；在最后一個冰河 時期綠海龜也幸存下來；但它們與我們在一起的日子可能不多了。
世界自然保護基金會（WWF）科學家卡拉斯·特爾在巴厘島成立了的一個海龜保護組織，“ 在過去的50－60年里，海龜的數量驟然減少”，他說：“很難列出具體數字，但80％尚趨保 守”。澳大利亞研究海龜的專家認為，1900年巴厘島曾生存著世界上1/3的海龜。過去幾十 年，尤其近十年，亂捕濫殺海龜之多，以至于現在已減少到5％了。
“問題還在于海龜壽命很長，長期的性成熟后才開始繁殖?，F在這一切對將來的影響，只有 等20年后才能看到，”特爾的一位世界自然保護基金會（WWF）的同事吉絲雷·魯利恩說， “但那時也許已經亡羊補牢，為時過晚了?！豹?BR> 十多年前，在簽訂《瀕危動植物國際貿易公約》（CITES）時，很多國家都同意禁止對世界 上的7種海龜的貿易。印度尼西亞是締約國之一，其中六種海龜就生活在那里。但在島上的 商人游說之后，印尼政府卻給予巴厘島特殊照顧──每年5，000只海龜的配額。商販的理由 是村落舉行宗教和傳統(tǒng)儀式時用海龜祭祀在幾個世紀以來已成為巴厘文化的一部分了。
環(huán)保主義者說，商人云集巴厘島，開始濫用此項配額?！坝捎跊]有對此項配額進行適當監(jiān)控 和法律缺乏執(zhí)行措施，商販們可以為所欲為”。普沃說，他是印度尼西亞動物保護（KSBK） 倡議小組的一名成員。KSBK通過研究發(fā)現1999年有30，000只海龜在坎昆死亡，而前幾年的 海龜死亡數與此相差不大。由于成千上萬只海龜因意外地悶死在捕撈蝦、魚的網具中，海龜 的實際死亡數要多得多。面對壓力，巴厘島的總督終于在6月取消了此項配額，對海龜貿易 和消費施以禁令。