Peter Tyack: The intriguing sound of marine mammals

翻译人员: Felix Chen 校对人员: Xiaoqiao Xie

Thank you so much. I'm going to try to take you

非常感谢。我将要带大家领略

on a journey of the underwater acoustic world

一下鲸和海豚的

of whales and dolphins.

水下声音世界。

Since we are such a visual species,

由于我们拥有视觉，

it's hard for us to really understand this,

所以要真正理解这些有点难度。

so I'll use a mixture of figures and sounds

因此我会用图表与声音结合起来说明

and hope this can communicate it.

希望这样能把我想要表达的传达给大家。

But let's also think, as a visual species,

但让我们也思考一下，作为拥有视觉的物种，

what it's like when we go snorkeling or diving

当我们浮潜或潜水时，

and try to look underwater.

看看水下的世界，它是什么样的？

We really can't see very far.

实际上我们看不了多远。

Our vision, which works so well in air,

我们在空气中工作良好的视觉，

all of a sudden is very restricted and claustrophobic.

突然受到严重的限制、陷入幽闭中。

And what marine mammals have evolved

海洋哺乳动物

over the last tens of millions of years

在近数千万年来进化后，

is ways to depend on sound

它们依赖于声音

to both explore their world

探索周围的世界

and also to stay in touch with one another.

并与其他同类保持联系。

Dolphins and toothed whales use echolocation.

海豚和齿鲸使用回声定位。

They can produce loud clicks

他们能产生响亮的喀喇声

and listen for echoes from the sea floor in order to orient.

并倾听海底反射的回声来定位。

They can listen for echoes from prey

他们能通过猎物所反射的回声

in order to decide where food is

来确定它们的食物在哪里，

and to decide which one they want to eat.

并决定要吃哪一个。

All marine mammals use sound for communication to stay in touch.

所有海洋哺乳动物用声音来保持相互联系。

So the large baleen whales

大型须鲸

will produce long, beautiful songs,

能发出长且美丽的歌声，

which are used in reproductive advertisement

这种歌声被雌鲸和雄鲸用于寻求配偶，

for male and females, both to find one another

帮助它们找到同类，

and to select a mate.

并且选择配偶。

And mother and young and closely bonded animals

呼叫的声音也被用于母子之间的联系，

use calls to stay in touch with one another,

或者在联系紧密的动物之间保持联系。

so sound is really critical for their lives.

因此声音在他们的生活中确实很重要。

The first thing that got me interested in the sounds

第一件让我对这些海底动物的

of these underwater animals,

声音产生兴趣的事是，

whose world was so foreign to me,

--这对我来说是个陌生的世界--

was evidence from captive dolphins

从捕获的海豚中发现的证据证明：

that captive dolphins could imitate human sounds.

它们能模仿人类的声音。

And I mentioned I'll use

我说过我会用到

some visual representations of sounds.

一些声音的可视图像。

Here's the first example.

这是第一个例子。

This is a plot of frequency against time --

这是幅频率对时间的图表--

sort of like musical notation,

有点像音符，

where the higher notes are up higher and the lower notes are lower,

高处的标记表示频率较高，低处的标记表示频率较低，

and time goes this way.

时间朝这个方向流逝。

This is a picture of a trainer's whistle,

这张图表示的是教练的哨声，

a whistle a trainer will blow to tell a dolphin

这哨声是教练用来告诉海豚

it's done the right thing and can come get a fish.

做对了并能得到一条鱼。

It sounds sort of like "tweeeeeet." Like that.

它听起来有点像“tweeeeeet”。有点像这样。

This is a calf in captivity

这是一只人工饲养的小海豚

making an imitation

模仿的

of that trainer's whistle.

教练的哨声。

If you hummed this tune to your dog or cat

现在如果你对这你的猫猫或狗狗哼这个曲子，

and it hummed it back to you,

而它也对着你哼这曲子，

you ought to be pretty surprised.

你应该会大吃一惊。

Very few nonhuman mammals

很少有除人类之外的哺乳动物

can imitate sounds.

能模仿声音。

It's really important for our music and our language.

这种能力对我们学习音乐和语言十分重要。

So it's a puzzle: The few other mammal groups that do this,

因此这让人迷惑：少有其他哺乳动物能做到这点，

why do they do it?

为什么它们能做到这点？

A lot of my career has been devoted

我职业生涯中花了很多时间

to trying to understand

试图弄明白

how these animals use their learning,

这些哺乳动物如何运用它们的学识，

use the ability to change what you say

运用这一能力：

based on what you hear

基于所听到的改变所说的。

in their own communication systems.

这些都在它们自己的沟通系统中。

So let's start with calls of a nonhuman primate.

那么让我们从非人灵长类的叫声开始。

Many mammals have to produce contact calls

比方说，当母亲和幼仔分开时，

when, say, a mother and calf are apart.

许多哺乳动物会发出呼唤声。

This is an example of a call produced by squirrel monkeys

这是个例子：当松鼠猴

when they're isolated from another one.

与其它同类分开时发出的叫声。

And you can see, there's not much

你能看到，这些叫声中

variability in these calls.

没有多少变化。

By contrast, the signature whistle

作为对照，海豚们用于

which dolphins use to stay in touch,

保持联系的哨声，

each individual here has a radically different call.

每只海豚都有完全不同的叫声。

They can use this ability to learn calls

它们能用这种能力来学习叫声，

in order to develop more complicated and more distinctive calls

以便能发展出更复杂、更独特的叫声

to identify individuals.

来识别出不同的个体。

How about the setting in which animals need to use this call?

在怎样的环境下动物需要用到这种叫声？

Well let's look at mothers and calves.

好的，让我们看看母亲和幼仔。

In normal life for mother and calf dolphin,

在海豚妈妈和海豚幼仔平常的生活中，

they'll often drift apart or swim apart if Mom is chasing a fish,

如果海豚妈妈去抓鱼，他们常由于漂移或是游泳而分开。

and when they separate

而当它们分开时

they have to get back together again.

它们不得不重新聚在一起。

What this figure shows is the percentage of the separations

这张图显示，它们分开时

in which dolphins whistle,

海豚发出哨声的百分率，

against the maximum distance.

与此相对的是最远距离。

So when dolphins are separating by less than 20 meters,

因此，当海豚们分开少于20米时，

less than half the time they need to use whistles.

少于半数的情况下他们需要用到哨声。

Most of the time they can just find each other

多数情况下他们四处游动

just by swimming around.

就能找到对方。

But all of the time when they separate by more than 100 meters,

但只要它们分开超过100米，

they need to use these individually distinctive whistles

它们就需要用这些各自独特的哨声

to come back together again.

来再次聚在一起。

Most of these distinctive signature whistles

多数这类有独特签名的哨声

are quite stereotyped and stable

在海豚的一生中

through the life of a dolphin.

都是定型且非常稳定的。

But there are some exceptions.

但也有些例外。

When a male dolphin leaves Mom,

当雄海豚离开海豚妈妈时，

it will often join up with another male

它通常会联合另一只雄海豚

and form an alliance, which may last for decades.

并形成一个联盟，这一联盟可能会持续几十年之久。

As these two animals form a social bond,

由于这两只动物形成了一条社会纽带，

their distinctive whistles actually converge

他们独特的哨声实际上会进行融合

and become very similar.

并变得非常相似。

This plot shows two members of a pair.

这张图显示了这样的组合中的两个成员。

As you can see at the top here,

正如你在顶部看到的，

they share an up-sweep, like "woop, woop, woop."

它们有着同样的升调，像“woop，woop，woop。“

They both have that kind of up-sweep.

它们都有这样的升调。

Whereas these members of a pair go "wo-ot, wo-ot, wo-ot."

然而另一对的两个成员拥有的升调是”wo-ot, wo-ot, wo-ot“

And what's happened is

这是由于：

they've used this learning process

他们运用这一学习过程

to develop a new sign that identifies this new social group.

发展出了用于识别这一新社会群体的新信号。

It's a very interesting way that they can

这是个非常有趣的方式，它们能

form a new identifier

为新的社会群体

for the new social group that they've had.

形成一个新的识别标志。

Let's now take a step back

现在让我们后退一步

and see what this message can tell us

看看这一讯息能告诉我们些什么

about protecting dolphins

关于保护海豚

from human disturbance.

远离人类干扰的信息。

Anybody looking at this picture

任何看到这张图片的人都

will know this dolphin is surrounded,

会认识到这只海豚被包围了，

and clearly his behavior is being disrupted.

显然它的行为被打乱了。

This is a bad situation.

这是个糟糕的情况。

But it turns out that when just a single boat

但事实表明，

is approaching a group of dolphins

当今仅有一艘船在数百米开外

at a couple hundred meters away,

靠近一群海豚时，

the dolphins will start whistling,

这些海豚会开始发出哨声，

they'll change what they're doing, they'll have a more cohesive group,

它们会放弃正在做的事，聚集成更大的群体，

wait for the boat to go by,

等待这艘船驶过，

and then they'll get back to normal business.

然后它们会回复正常。

Well, in a place like Sarasota, Florida,

好了，在一个类似佛罗里达州萨拉索塔的地方，

the average interval between times

一艘船在百米之内

that a boat is passing within a hundred meters of a dolphin group

驶过一群海豚的平均间隔时间

is six minutes.

是六分钟。

So even in the situation that doesn't look as bad as this,

因此即使在看起来不像这么糟糕的情形下，

it's still affecting the amount of time these animals have

仍然会在许多时间里对这些动物的

to do their normal work.

正常生活造成影响。

And if we look at a very pristine environment like western Australia,

让我们看看像澳大利亚西部这样一个非常原始的环境，

Lars Bider has done work

拉尔斯.比泰尔曾

comparing dolphin behavior and distribution

比较了观海豚的游船产生之前和之后，

before there were dolphin-watching boats.

当地海豚的行为和分布。

When there was one boat, not much of an impact.

当只有一艘船时，对它们没多少影响。

And two boats: When the second boat was added,

两艘船时，当第二艘船驶来时，

what happened was that some of the dolphins

有些海豚

left the area completely.

义无反顾的离开了这一区域。

Of the ones that stayed, their reproductive rate declined.

而留下的那些海豚的繁殖率下降了。

So it could have a negative impact on the whole population.

因此，这可能对整个种群产生负面影响。

When we think of marine-protected areas for animals like dolphins,

当我们考虑动物比如海豚建立海洋保护区时，

this means that we have to be

这意味着我们也要

quite conscious about activities that we thought were benign.

非常慎重的考虑那些我们认为无碍的活动。

We may need to regulate the intensity

我们也许需要控制

of recreational boating and actual whale watching

休闲航行的密度，甚至观鲸船的密度，

in order to prevent these kinds of problems.

以防类似问题发生。

I'd also like to point out that sound

同样，我想指出那些

doesn't obey boundaries.

没有办法设置防线的因素：声音。

So you can draw a line to try to protect an area,

你可以画一条线，试图保护一个区域，

but chemical pollution and noise pollution

但是化学污染和噪音污染，

will continue to move through the area.

将不断进入这一区域。

And I'd like to switch now from this local,

现在，我想从这种地方性的、

familiar, coastal environment

为人熟知的沿海环境转换至

to a much broader world of the baleen whales and the open ocean.

须鲸的更广阔的世界和公海。

This is a kind of map we've all been looking at.

我们经常看到这类地图。

The world is mostly blue.

世界大部分是蓝色的。

But I'd also like to point out that the oceans

但我还想指出的是，海洋之间的

are much more connected than we think.

联系我们所想象的更加紧密。

Notice how few barriers there are to movement

请注意，相比陆地而言，对海洋间的

across all of the oceans compared to land.

运动的阻碍非常的少。

To me, the most mind-bending example

对我来说，最令人惊讶的海洋间

of the interconnectedness of the ocean

的相互联系的例子

comes from an acoustic experiment

来自一个海洋学家所做的

where oceanographers

声音实验，

took a ship to the southern Indian Ocean,

实验中，海洋学家行驶至南印度洋，

deployed an underwater loudspeaker

放置一个水下扬声器

and played back a sound.

并不断播放一个声音。

That same sound

同一段声音

traveled to the west, and could be heard in Bermuda,

向西能传播至百慕大群岛，

and traveled to the east, and could be heard in Monterey --

向东能传播至蒙特雷--

the same sound.

同一段声音。

So we live in a world of satellite communication,

虽然我们生活在一个卫星通信的世界里，

are used to global communication,

已经习惯了全球间的沟通，

but it's still amazing to me.

但我仍为这感到惊奇。

The ocean has properties

海洋拥有

that allow low-frequency sound

让低频的声音

to basically move globally.

基本上传遍全球的特性。

The acoustic transit time for each of these paths is about three hours.

声音通过这些途径中的每一条进行传播所需的时间大约是三小时。

It's nearly halfway around the globe.

这几乎穿越了半个地球。

In the early '70s,

嗨，在70年代早期，

Roger Payne and an ocean acoustician

一名海洋声学家，罗杰.佩恩

published a theoretical paper

曾发表过一篇学术论文，

pointing out that it was possible

论文中指出声音

that sound could transmit over these large areas,

能够在大范围内传播，

but very few biologists believed it.

但很少有生物学家相信这点。

It actually turns out, though,

而实际上，尽管，

even though we've only known of long-range propagation for a few decades,

虽然我们近几十年来才对这种远距离传播有所了解，

the whales clearly have evolved,

而鲸显然在数千万年之前就已经

over tens of millions of years,

进行了进化，

a way to exploit this amazing property of the ocean.

进化出了一种方法来运用海洋的这一令人惊奇的特性。

So blue whales and fin whales

蓝鲸和长须鲸

produce very low-frequency sounds

产生一种频率非常低的声音，

that can travel over very long ranges.

这种声音能传播很长的距离。

The top plot here shows

上面这幅图显示

a complicated series of calls

雄鲸所重复的

that are repeated by males.

一系列复杂的叫声。

They form songs, and they appear to play a role in reproduction,

这些叫声形成歌声，并且似乎能在繁殖中发挥作用，

sort of like that of song birds.

有点类似鸟类的啼声。

Down below here, we see calls made by both males and females

下面这幅图，我们看到无论是雄性还是雌性发出的叫声

that also carry over very long ranges.

都能传播很远的距离。

The biologists continued to be skeptical

生物学家在70年代内

of the long-range communication issue

持续对远距离沟通的问题

well past the '70s,

保持怀疑，

until the end of the Cold War.

直到冷战结束。

What happened was, during the Cold War,

在冷战期间，美国海军

the U.S. Navy had a system that was secret at the time,

开发出一套当时处于保密的系统，

that they used to track Russian submarines.

这套系统能用于探测俄国潜艇。

It had deep underwater microphones, or hydrophones,

它有一个深水麦克风或者说一个水下测音器，

cabled to shore,

这一水下测音器用线连接至海岸，

all wired back to a central place that could listen

所有线缆连接至一个中心，在那儿能监听

to sounds over the whole North Atlantic.

所有穿过整个北大西洋的声音。

And after the Berlin Wall fell, the Navy made these systems available

在柏林墙倒塌之后，海军允许鲸生物声学家

to whale bio-acousticians

使用这些系统

to see what they could hear.

来看看他们能听到些什么。

This is a plot from Christopher Clark

这幅图来自克里斯托弗.克拉克，

who tracked one individual blue whale

他在一条蓝鲸

as it passed by Bermuda,

经过百慕大时对它进行跟踪，

went down to the latitude of Miami and came back again.

它游至迈阿密同一纬度时，开始往回游。

It was tracked for 43 days,

它被跟踪了43天，

swimming 1,700 kilometers,

游了1,700公里，

or more than 1,000 miles.

或者说超过1,000英里。

This shows us both that the calls

这告诉我们，这些叫声

are detectable over hundreds of miles

能在数百英里外被探测出来，

and that whales routinely swim hundreds of miles.

这些鲸经常游出数百英里远。

They're ocean-based and scale animals

它们是海洋大型动物，

who are communicating over much longer ranges

它们能够以远超人们预期

than we had anticipated.

的距离进行沟通。

Unlike fins and blues, which

与分布在温带和热带的

disperse into the temperate and tropical oceans,

须鲸和蓝鲸不同，

the humpbacked whales congregate

驼背鲸聚集在

in local traditional breeding grounds,

传统繁殖地。

so they can make a sound that's a little higher in frequency,

因此它们能发出频率更高些的声音，

broader-band and more complicated.

音域更宽且更复杂。

So you're listening to the complicated song

你们现在听到的是座头鲸

produced by humpbacks here.

发出的复杂的歌声。

Humpbacks, when they develop

当座头鲸发展出

the ability to sing this song,

能发出这样的歌声的能力时，

they're listening to other whales

它们就能听到来自其他鲸的声音，

and modifying what they sing based on what they're hearing,

并且基于它们所听到的来改变音调，

just like song birds or the dolphin whistles I described.

就像鸟的啼声或是我描述的海豚的哨声。

This means that humpback song

这表示座头鲸的歌声

is a form of animal culture,

是动物文化的一种形式，

just like music for humans would be.

就像音乐对于人类。

I think one of the most interesting examples of this

我认为关于这些最有趣的例子

comes from Australia.

来自澳大利亚。

Biologists on the east coast of Australia

生物学家在澳大利亚东海岸

were recording the songs of humpbacks in that area.

录下了那一区域的座头鲸的歌声。

And this orange line here marks the typical songs

这条橘色的线标出了东海岸座头鲸

of east coast humpbacks.

的典型的歌声。

In '95 they all sang the normal song.

在95年它们都唱出正常的歌声。

But in '96 they heard a few weird songs,

但在96年，生物学家听到了少数奇怪的歌声。

and it turned out that these strange songs

后来发现这些奇怪的歌声

were typical of west coast whales.

是典型的西海岸鲸的歌声。

The west coast calls became more and more popular,

西海岸的叫声变得越来越常见，

until by 1998,

直到1998年，

none of the whales sang the east coast song; it was completely gone.

再没有鲸发出东海岸的歌声；它完全消失了。

They just sang the cool new west coast song.

它们都在唱着新的西海岸的酷歌。

It's as if some new hit style

这仿佛是一种新的风格

had completely wiped out

完全取代了

the old-fashioned style before,

之前旧的时尚风格，

and with no golden oldies stations.

而且没有金曲再现这一环节。

Nobody sang the old ones.

没人再唱这些老歌。

I'd like to briefly just show what the ocean does to these calls.

我想简要的展示一下海洋中的这些叫声。

Now you are listening to a recording made by Chris Clark,

现在大家听到的是由克里斯.克拉克，

0.2 miles away from a humpback.

在距离座头鲸0.2英里远处录制的声音。

You can hear the full frequency range. It's quite loud.

你能听到整个频率范围内的声音。非常响亮。

You sound very nearby.

听起来就像在附近。

The next recording you're going to hear

下一段大家将听到的录音

was made of the same humpback song

是由同一头座头鲸

50 miles away.

在50英里外发出的。

That's shown down here.

下面显示的这个。

You only hear the low frequencies.

只能听到低频的声音。

You hear the reverberation

能听到声音

as the sound travels over long-range in the ocean

在海洋中长距离传播产生的回声

and is not quite as loud.

它听起来并不响亮。

Now after I play back these humpback calls,

在我播放了这些座头鲸的叫声之后，

I'll play blue whale calls, but they have to be sped up

我要播放一些蓝鲸的叫声，但我不得不加快这些声音，

because they're so low in frequency

因为它们的频率太低了，

that you wouldn't be able to hear it otherwise.

否则大家就听不到它们了。

Here's a blue whale call at 50 miles,

这是50英里外一头蓝鲸的叫声，

which was distant for the humpback.

比那头座头鲸更远。

It's loud, clear -- you can hear it very clearly.

它响亮且清晰--你能非常清楚的听到它。

Here's the same call recorded from a hydrophone

这是由水下测音器在500英里外录制的

500 miles away.

同一叫声。

There's a lot of noise, which is mostly other whales.

因为有许多其他鲸，听起来有许多噪音。

But you can still hear that faint call.

但你仍能听到这微弱的叫声。

Let's now switch and think about

现在让我们切换下思路，考虑一下

a potential for human impacts.

潜在的人类影响。

The most dominant sound that humans put into the ocean

多数人类在海洋中产生的声音

comes from shipping.

来自船只。

This is the sound of a ship,

这是一艘船的声音，

and I'm having to talk a little louder to talk over it.

为了盖过它我不得不更大声的说话。

Imagine that whale listening from 500 miles.

想象一下鲸在500英里远处倾听。

There's a potential problem that maybe

可能由这类船只造成的这一

this kind of shipping noise would prevent whales

潜在问题将会阻止鲸们

from being able to hear each other.

听到彼此。

Now this is something that's been known for quite a while.

这是已经了解了相当长一段时间的事情。

This is a figure from a textbook on underwater sound.

这是张来自课本的关于水下声音的图。

And on the y-axis

Y轴是

is the loudness of average ambient noise in the deep ocean

深海中以频率表示的环境噪音

by frequency.

的平均音量。

In the low frequencies, this line indicates

在低频时，这条线表明

sound that comes from seismic activity of the earth.

来自地球地震活动的声音。

Up high, these variable lines

上面这些线

indicate increasing noise in this frequency range

表明在这一频率范围内由

from higher wind and wave.

风浪增加的噪音。

But right in the middle here where there's a sweet spot,

但在正中间有一个平衡点，

the noise is dominated by human ships.

噪音主要来自人类的船只。

Now think about it. This is an amazing thing:

现在考虑一下。这是个奇妙的事情。

That in this frequency range where whales communicate,

就在鲸们用来交流的这个频率范围内，

the main source globally, on our planet, for the noise

在我们的星球上，全球主要的噪音来自

comes from human ships,

人类的船只，

thousands of human ships, distant, far away,

数以千计的远处的人类船只产生的噪音

just all aggregating.

汇聚起来。

The next slide will show what the impact this may have

下一张幻灯片显示这可能对

on the range at which whales can communicate.

鲸用于沟通的频率范围的影响。

So here we have the loudness of a call at the whale.

这儿是鲸的叫声的音量。

And as we get farther away,

当我们里的更远时

the sound gets fainter and fainter.

声音越来越微弱。

Now in the pre-industrial ocean, as we were mentioning,

在工业化前的海洋中，正如我们提到的，

this whale call could be easily detected.

鲸的叫声很容易被监听到。

It's louder than noise

在一千公里范围内

at a range of a thousand kilometers.

叫声比噪音要大。

Let's now take that additional increase in noise

现在，考虑到来自船只的

that we saw comes from shipping.

不断增加的噪音。

All of a sudden, the effective range of communication

沟通的有效距离突然

goes from a thousand kilometers to 10 kilometers.

从一千公里降至十公里。

Now if this signal is used for males and females

如果这些信号是用于雌性和雄性

to find each other for mating and they're dispersed,

为交配而相互寻找的话，他们被分割开了，

imagine the impact this could have

想象一下这可能对濒危种群的恢复

on the recovery of endangered populations.

造成的影响。

Whales also have contact calls

我们也有我所描述过的

like I described for the dolphins.

海豚用于相互联系叫声。

I'll play the sound of a contact call used

我将播放一段露脊鲸

by right whales to stay in touch.

用于保持联系的叫声。

And this is the kind of call that is used by,

这是当露脊鲸母鲸与幼仔分离后，

say, right whale mothers and calves

当它们想再次重聚时

as they separate to come back again.

用于相互呼唤的叫声。

Now imagine -- let's put the ship noise in the picture.

现在想象一下，如果在其中加入船只的噪音。

What's a mother to do

如果船只从旁经过，

if the ship comes by and her calf isn't there?

而它的幼仔并不在身旁，母鲸应该做什么的？

I'll describe a couple strategies.

我将描述几种对策。

One strategy is if your call's down here,

一个对策是，如果你的叫声在下面这个位置，

and the noise is in this band,

而噪音在这个波段内，

you could shift the frequency of your call out of the noise band

你可以改变叫声的频率，摆脱噪音的波段，

and communicate better.

以更好的沟通。

Susan Parks of Penn State has actually studied this.

宾夕法尼亚州立大学的苏珊.帕克斯做了相关研究。

She's looked in the Atlantic. Here's data from the South Atlantic.

她把注意力集中在大西洋。这儿是来自南大西洋的数据。

Here's a typical South Atlantic contact call from the '70s.

这是自70年以来典型的南大西洋联系叫声。

Look what happened by 2000 to the average call.

看看到2000年时平均叫声发生了什么变化。

Same thing in the North Atlantic,

北大西洋中，对比50年代至2000年数据，

in the '50s versus 2000.

也发生了同样的变化。

Over the last 50 years,

在过去50年中，

as we've put more noise into the oceans,

随着我们带入海洋的噪音越来越多，

these whales have had to shift.

这些鲸不得不进行变化。

It's as if the whole population had to shift

这就好像，整个种群不得不

from being basses to singing as a tenor.

从弹奏贝司变成像男高音那样唱歌。

It's an amazing shift, induced by humans

这是个令人惊奇的、由人类导致的变化，

over this large scale,

这一变化无论在时间上还是空间上

in both time and space.

都有很大的跨度。

And we now know that whales can compensate for noise

现在我们知道，鲸能够弥补噪音的影响，

by calling louder, like I did when that ship was playing,

通过发出更大的叫声，如我刚才在播放船只的声音时所做的，

by waiting for silence

通过等待寂静的到来，

and by shifting their call out of the noise band.

和通过改变他们的叫声来摆脱噪音干扰。

Now there's probably costs to calling louder

对于发出更大的叫声

or shifting the frequency away from where you want to be,

或者是改变原有叫声的频率可能需要付出些代价。

and there's probably lost opportunities.

它们可能会错失良机。

If we also have to wait for silence,

如果不得不等待寂静到来，

they may miss a critical opportunity to communicate.

它们也许会错过交流的重要机会。

So we have to be very concerned

因此我们要非常关注，

about when the noise in habitats

当栖息地内的噪音

degrades the habitat enough

对栖息地的分隔足以

that the animals either have to pay too much to be able to communicate,

让动物们不得不付出更多才能沟通

or are not able to perform critical functions.

或是它们无法进行某些关键功能。

It's a really important problem.

这是个非常重要的问题。

And I'm happy to say that there are several

我可以很高兴的说，在这一领域中有些

very promising developments in this area,

非常有希望的进展，

looking at the impact of shipping on whales.

看看船只对鲸的影响。

In terms of the shipping noise,

就船只噪音而言，

the International Maritime Organization of the United Nations

联合国国际海事组织

has formed a group whose job is to establish

成立了一个组织来建立

guidelines for quieting ships,

船只静音指南，

to tell the industry how you could quiet ships.

以此告诉工业界如何让船只静音。

And they've already found

并且他们已经发现，

that by being more intelligent about better propeller design,

通过更智能的、更好的螺旋桨设计

you can reduce that noise by 90 percent.

就能减少百分之九十的噪音。

If you actually insulate and isolate

如果确实地把船壳和船只的机械装置

the machinery of the ship from the hull,

隔离和分割开，

you can reduce that noise by 99 percent.

就能够减少百分之九十九的噪音。

So at this point, it's primarily an issue of cost and standards.

因此，在这一点上，这是主要是一个成本和标准的问题。

If this group can establish standards,

如果这一组织能建立标准，

and if the shipbuilding industry adopts them for building new ships,

并且造船业采用这些标准来建造船只，

we can now see a gradual decline

现在，我们能看到这一潜在的问题

in this potential problem.

会逐步的下降。

But there's also another problem from ships that I'm illustrating here,

但船只还会造成另一个问题，看看这幅图，

and that's the problem of collision.

碰撞的问题。

This is a whale that just squeaked by

这只鲸勉强躲过了

a rapidly moving container ship and avoided collision.

一艘快速通过的集装箱船，避免了碰撞。

But collision is a serious problem.

但碰撞是个严重的问题。

Endangered whales are killed every year by ship collision,

每年都有濒危的鲸由于船只的碰撞而死亡。

and it's very important to try to reduce this.

尝试减少这种情况发生非常重要。

I'll discuss two very promising approaches.

我将讨论一下两个非常有希望的方法。

The first case comes from the Bay of Fundy.

第一个方法来自芬迪湾。

These black lines mark shipping lanes

这些黑线标明了船只

in and out of the Bay of Fundy.

进出芬迪湾的航线。

The colorized area

彩色的区域

shows the risk of collision for endangered right whales

表示由于船只在这航道上航行

because of the ships moving in this lane.

产生的与濒危露脊鲸发生碰撞的风险。

It turns out that this lane here

原来这条航线

goes right through a major feeding area of right whales in the summer time,

正好穿过夏天露脊鲸的一个主要繁殖区域。

and it makes an area of a significant risk of collision.

这就使得这区域有很大的碰撞风险。

Well, biologists

好的，从不说不的

who couldn't take no for an answer

生物学家们

went to the International Maritime Organization

到国际海事组织

and petitioned them to say,

请愿道，

"Can't you move that lane? Those are just lines on the ground.

“能移动一下那条航线么？这只是些地面上的线条而已。

Can't you move them over to a place

能把它们移到

where there's less of a risk?"

其他风险更小的地方去么？“

And the International Maritime Organization responded very strongly,

而国际海事组织的反应非常有力，

"These are the new lanes."

”这些是新航线。“

The shipping lanes have been moved.

航线已经移动过了。

And as you can see, the risk of collision is much lower.

如你所见，碰撞的风险小了很多。

So it's very promising, actually.

因而这一方法实际上非常有希望。

We can be very creative about thinking

我们能非常有创造性的考虑

of different ways to reduce these risks.

减少这些风险的不同方式。

Another action which was just taken independently

另一个方法已经由一家

by a shipping company itself

船运公司独自执行了，

was initiated because of concerns the shipping company had

这一方法的启动涉及船运公司

about greenhouse gas emissions with global warming.

导致全球变暖的温室气体的排放。

The Maersk Line looked at their competition

马士基航运公司审视他们的竞争者，

and saw that everybody who is in shipping thinks time is money.

看到船运业中所有人都认为：时间就是金钱。

They rush as fast as they can to get to their port.

他们尽其可能的快速到达港口。

But then they often wait there.

而接着常常在港口等着。

What Maersk did is they worked ways to slow down.

马士基航运公司所做的是：放慢速度。

They could slow down by about 50 percent.

他们会把速度下降一半。

This reduced their fuel consumption by about 30 percent,

这降低了百分之三十的燃油消耗，

which saved them money,

节省了费用，

and at the same time, it had a significant benefit for whales.

而同时，这对鲸也有很大的好处。

It you slow down, you reduce the amount of noise you make

如果放慢速度，会减少所产生的噪音

and you reduce the risk of collision.

并降低发生碰撞的风险。

So to conclude, I'd just like to point out,

因此，总结一下，我想指出，

you know, the whales live in

你知道，鲸生活在

an amazing acoustic environment.

令人惊异的声音环境中。

They've evolved over tens of millions of years

它们进化了超过数千万年

to take advantage of this.

来利用环境。

And we need to be very attentive and vigilant

我们要非常小心谨慎的

to thinking about where things that we do

考虑我们所做的

may unintentionally prevent them

可能无意中对

from being able to achieve their important activities.

它们的重要活动造成阻碍的事。

At the same time, we need to be really creative

同时，我们需要真正的创新思考，

in thinking of solutions to be able to help reduce these problems.

关于如何才能帮助减少这些问题的解决方案的创新思考。

I hope these examples have shown

我希望这些例子展示了

some of the different directions we can take

除了设立保护区外

in addition to protected areas

还有一些不同的方向。

to be able to keep the ocean safe for whales to be able to continue to communicate.

通过运用这些办法能够维护一个让鲸能继续沟通的安全的海洋。

Thank you very much.

非常感谢。

(Applause)

（掌声）