Dyan deNapoli: The great penguin rescue

翻译人员: Xiujian Xie 校对人员: Jenny Yang

印象中，

For as long as I can remember,

I have felt a very deep connection to animals and to the ocean.

我一直觉得自己与动物和海洋

有着千丝万缕的联系。

在我这般大的时候，

And at this age, my personal idol was Flipper the dolphin.

我的偶像

便是海豚Flipper。 (译者注：Flipper是六十年代美国电视节目《Flipper》中主演的海豚的名字。)

And when I first learned about endangered species,

而当我开始了解濒危物种时，

I was truly distressed to know that every day,

我真正沉痛地意识到

每一天都有一些动物被逼上绝路，永远地与地球告别了。

animals were being wiped off the face of this Earth forever.

And I wanted to do something to help, but I always wondered:

于是我就想尽一份力量来改善这种状况，

但又时常疑虑，

What could one person possibly do to make a difference?

单凭一个人的力量又能改变什么呢？

And it would be 30 years,

这个问题萦绕了我30年，

but I would eventually get the answer to that question.

但最终我还是找到了答案。

When these heartbreaking images of oiled birds

这张图片中的鸟儿泡在油污中，惨不忍睹

finally began to emerge from the Gulf of Mexico last year

在去年墨西哥海湾那场可怕的英国石油公司(BP)漏油事件之后，

during the horrific BP oil spill,

这批图片最终被曝光，

当时一位名叫希尔维亚•高斯(Silvia Gaus)的德国生物学家

a German biologist by the name of Silvia Gaus was quoted as saying,

这样说

“我们应当为所有这些沾染油污的鸟儿施以安乐死，

"We should just euthanize all oiled birds,

because studies have shown

因为有研究表明

that fewer than one percent of them survive after being released."

它们中只有不到百分之一的幸运儿

能在正常治疗后存活下来。”

而我则不敢苟同这一观点。

And I could not disagree more.

In addition,

此外，我认为每一个被油渍侵染的动物

I believe that every oiled animal deserves a second chance at life.

都理应获得重生的机会。

And I want to tell you why I feel so strongly about this.

现在就让我来告诉你们

为何我对此深信不疑。

On June 23, 2000,

2000年6月23日

a ship named the Treasure sank off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa,

一艘名为“宝藏(Treasure)”号的油轮

在南非开普敦(Capetown)海岸线附近沉没，

spilling 1,300 tons of fuel,

造成1300吨燃油外泄，

which polluted the habitats of nearly half the entire world population

从而导致全世界近乎一半的

非洲企鹅的栖息地

遭到污染。

of African penguins.

Now, the ship sank between Robben Island to the south,

目前这艘沉没的油轮夹在南部的罗本岛(Robben Island)

and Dassen Island to the north --

与北部的达森岛(Dassen Island)之间。

two of the penguins' main breeding islands.

而这两个岛正是企鹅们繁衍生息的主要据点。

And exactly six years and three days earlier,

而就在据事故发生六年零三天前的一天

也就是1994年6月20日，

on June 20, 1994,

一艘名为“阿波罗海(Apollo Sea)”的油轮在达森岛(Dassen Island)附近沉没，

a ship named the Apollo Sea sank near Dassen Island,

oiling 10,000 penguins, half of which died.

致使一万只企鹅受到油污染 ——

其中半数的企鹅死亡。

Now when the Treasure sank in 2000,

而当2000年“宝藏(Treasure)”号发生沉船事故时，

it was the height of the best breeding season

正值有史以来科学家所记录的

scientists had ever recorded for the African penguin,

南非企鹅繁殖最旺盛的一个时期 ——

而南非企鹅在当时已经被列入濒危物种的名单。

which at the time, was listed as a threatened species.

很快的，将近两万只企鹅

And soon, nearly 20,000 penguins

were covered with this toxic oil.

被有毒的油污浸染。

The local seabird rescue center, named SANCCOB,

于是当地的海鸟救援中心，即南非滨海鸟类保育基金会(SANCCOB)，

immediately launched a massive rescue operation,

迅速发动了一场浩大的救援行动 ——

and this soon would become the largest animal rescue ever undertaken.

而不久后这场行动就演变成

一场空前壮大的动物拯救行动。

At the time, I was working down the street.

那个时候，我在陆地下面工作

I was a penguin aquarist at the New England Aquarium.

当时我是新英格兰水族馆企鹅馆的管理员。

And exactly 11 years ago yesterday,

然后就在11年前的昨天，

the phone rang in the penguin office.

一个电话打进我办公室。

And with that call, my life would change forever.

而正是那个电话，改变了我的生活轨迹。

It was Estelle van Der Merwe calling from SANCCOB,

那是来自南非滨海鸟类保育基金会的埃斯特尔•范•德•米尔(Estelle van der Meer)打来的电话，

saying, "Please come help.

电话里，他说“请来帮帮忙。

We have thousands of oiled penguins

我们这儿有上千只被油污浸染的企鹅

和数千名兴致勃勃，

and thousands of willing but completely inexperienced volunteers.

却毫无企鹅救助经验的志愿者。

And we need penguin experts to come train and supervise them."

因此我们急需这方面的专家来为志愿者们作培训指导。”

就这样两天后，

So two days later,

I was on a plane headed for Cape Town

我便与一行企鹅专家

with a team of penguin specialists.

坐上了前往开普敦(Capetown)的飞机。

And the scene inside of this building was devastating and surreal.

而当时救援所内的场景

简直不堪入目。

In fact, many people compared it to a war zone.

事实上，很多人把它比作战区现场。

Last week, a 10-year-old girl asked me:

上星期，一个十岁的小女孩问我，

"What did it feel like when you first walked into that building

“当你一开始踏入那屋子

看到那么多被污染的企鹅

and saw so many oiled penguins?"

是怎样的一种感觉？”

And this is what happened.

她这么一问，接着就发生了下面的一切。

I was instantly transported back to that moment in time.

刹那间我仿佛又回到了

一开始踏入那屋子的那一刻。

企鹅按理说是很喜欢叫喊的

Penguins are very vocal birds and really, really noisy,

而且的确叫起来会非常、非常吵。

所以当时在进入屋子之前

so I expected to walk into this building

and be met with this cacophony of honking and braying and squawking.

我是做好了心理准备

来面对那些刺耳尖叫的，

But instead,

但出乎意料的是，

when we stepped through those doors and into the building,

当我们穿过重重大门，最终进入抢救室时，

it was eerily silent.

迎接我们的是一片死寂。

So it was very clear

据此也可以看出

these were stressed, sick, traumatized birds.

眼前的这些鸟儿还惊魂未定，惶恐而虚弱。

另外一件令我震撼的事，

The other thing that was so striking

was the sheer number of volunteers.

便是那庞大的志愿者队伍。

每天有多达1000位朋友

Up to 1,000 people a day came to the rescue center.

来到救助中心。

最终，在整个救助过程中，

Eventually, over the course of this rescue,

more than 12-and-a-half thousand volunteers

有12500多名来自世界各地的志愿者

came from all over the world to Cape Town,

参与了此次开普敦(Capetown)的

企鹅救援行动。

to help save these birds.

And the amazing thing was that not one of them had to be there.

而最令人感动的是

他们中没有一个人有义务呆在那儿 ——

但他们却做到了。

Yet they were.

So for the few of us that were there in a professional capacity,

因此对于我们中一部分被职业所趋而至的人来说，

this extraordinary volunteer response to this animal crisis

志愿者们对于这次动物危机救援

所报以的强烈回应

was profoundly moving and awe-inspiring.

着实叫人动容，令我们肃然起敬。

So the day after we arrived,

在我们抵达救援中心的第二天，

two of us from the aquarium were put in charge of room two.

专家中来自水族馆的俩人即被安排负责二号房。

Room two had more than 4,000 oiled penguins in it.

二号房有四千多只企鹅亟待抢救。

Now, mind you --

可你要知道，就在三天前，

three days earlier, we had 60 penguins under our care,

我们还仅有60只企鹅需要照顾。

so we were definitely overwhelmed

所以我们当时就傻眼了

甚至还有点畏惧 —— 至少我是如此。

and just a bit terrified -- at least I was.

就个人而言，我真不知道

Personally, I really didn't know

自己能否驾驭

if I was capable of handling such a monstrous task.

如此之大的局面。

而对于大家来说，

And collectively,

we really didn't know if we could pull this off.

我们对于能否达成目标也没底儿。

Because we all knew that just six years earlier,

因为我们都清楚，

就在六年前，

half as many penguins had been oiled and rescued,

有两千来只企鹅被污染并于之后得到了救助

但最后也只有半数的企鹅得以存活。

and only half of them had survived.

因此人类是否有能力救援

So would it be humanly possible to save this many oiled penguins?

这么多被污染的企鹅呢？

我们也不知道。

We just did not know.

这个时候给我们带来希望的

But what gave us hope

是那些无比专注和万分勇敢的志愿者们 ——

were these incredibly dedicated and brave volunteers,

three of whom here are force-feeding penguins.

照片中有三个志愿者正在给企鹅进行灌食。

You may notice they're wearing very thick gloves.

大家可能已经注意到他们都戴着厚厚的手套。

And what you should know about African penguins

在这里我要告诉大家的是

is that they have razor-sharp beaks.

非洲企鹅有着如刀片般锋利的喙。

与之相处，要不了多久

And before long,

our bodies were covered head to toe

我们全身都会留下

被那些惊慌失措的企鹅

with these nasty wounds inflicted by the terrified penguins.

啄后留下的骇人疤痕。

也就是在我们抵达的第二天，

Now the day after we arrived, a new crisis began to unfold.

一个新的危机出现了。

The oil slick was now moving north towards Dassen Island,

泄漏的油开始向北部的达森岛(Dassen Island)漂移，

and the rescuers despaired,

当时救援者们都快绝望了，

because they knew if the oil hit,

因为他们知道一旦那些油漂到达森岛，

it would not be possible to rescue any more oiled birds.

新被污染的企鹅将得不到及时的救助。

And there really were no good solutions.

当时我们真有点黔驴技穷的感觉。

But then finally,

但后来，

one of the researchers threw out this crazy idea.

一个研究员提出了一个大胆的想法。

He said, "OK, why don't we try and collect the birds

他说：“既然如此，我们何不尝试将面临高危污染

的企鹅都收集到一块儿来” ——

at the greatest risk of getting oiled" --

后来他们收集到两万只 ——

they collected 20,000 --

“然后我们再用敞篷卡车将他们运送至

"and we'll ship them 500 miles up the coast to Port Elizabeth

500英里开外的伊利莎白港口(Port Elizabeth)

in these open-air trucks,

在那里，我们把它们放入干净的水域

and release them into the clean waters there

让它们自己游回家。”

and let them swim back home?"

(Laughter)

(笑)

So three of those penguins -- Peter, Pamela and Percy --

这批企鹅中的三只 —— 彼得，帕米拉和普希 ——

身上带有卫星标签。

wore satellite tags,

and the researchers crossed their fingers

研究员们合手为它们祈祷

and hoped that by the time they got back home,

愿它们回到家的时候，

泄漏的油污已经被清理干净。

the oil would be cleaned up from their islands.

幸运的是，当企鹅们回到家时，

And luckily, the day they arrived, it was.

油污真的被清理干净了。

So it had been a huge gamble, but it had paid off.

那确实是很大一博，但他们赌赢了。

那么现在他们就知道了

And so they know now that they can use this strategy

今后一旦遭遇油污染

in future oil spills.

他们就可以采取这一招来对付。

So in wildlife rescue as in life,

所以在野生动物救援中，如同在生活中一样，

we learn from each previous experience,

我们从每一次经验中汲取知识，

and we learn from both our successes and our failures.

从每一次成功和失败中

获得经验。

而94年的阿波罗海(Apollo Sea)救援事件

And the main thing learned during the Apollo Sea rescue in '94

教给我们的

was that most of those penguins had died due to the unwitting use

则是

通气性差的运输箱和卡车

of poorly ventilated transport boxes and trucks,

将会导致

企鹅的大量死亡 ——

because they just had not been prepared

因为当时救援队的条件

to deal with so many oiled penguins at once.

不足以同时应付那么多企鹅。

So in these six years between these two oil spills,

因此在这两次漏油事件相隔的六年间，

they've built thousands of these well-ventilated boxes.

救援队制造了上千个这样通气良好的箱子。

And as a result, during the Treasure rescue,

从而在这次的"宝藏(Treasure)"号事故中，

just 160 penguins died during the transport process,

只有160只企鹅

在运输途中夭折，

as opposed to 5,000.

而六年前这个数字是5000.

So this alone was a huge victory.

所以单从这一点来看，此次的救援已是绝大的胜利。

此外，阿波罗海(Apollo rescue)的救援还教会我们

Something else learned during the Apollo rescue

如何凭借这些训练箱

was how to train the penguins

to take fish freely from their hands,

来训练企鹅们

using these training boxes.

用手抓鱼。

And we used this technique again during the Treasure rescue.

于是这次在“宝藏(Treasure)”号救援中

我们又使用了这项技术。

But an interesting thing was noted during the training process.

在训练过程中有一件趣事

值得一提。

The first penguins to make that transition to free feeding

最早学会自己取食的

那批企鹅

were the ones that had a metal band on their wing

正是翅膀上戴有金属条，经历过六年前阿波罗海

from the Apollo Sea spill six years earlier.

漏油事件获得救助的幸存者。

So penguins learn from previous experience, too.

由此看来

企鹅也从先前的经验中学到了东西。

救援人员必须小心翼翼地

So all of those penguins had to have the oil meticulously cleaned

将所有企鹅身上的油污清洗干净。

from their bodies.

而清洗一只企鹅需要俩人协助

It would take two people at least an hour just to clean one penguin.

至少得花上一个小时。

When you clean a penguin,

而当你洗净一只企鹅后，

you first have to spray it with a degreaser.

还得马上给它喷洒脱脂剂。

And this brings me to my favorite story from the Treasure rescue.

而这也是在整个“宝藏(Treasure)”号救援行动中

我最津津乐道的一段故事。

About a year prior to this oil spill,

在这次泄油事件发生约一年前，

一名17岁的学生

a 17-year-old student had invented a degreaser.

发明了一种脱脂剂。

And they'd been using it at SANCCOB with great success,

并且在南非滨海鸟类保育基金会(SANCCOB)试用后获得了巨大成功，

so they began using it during the Treasure rescue.

所以这次“宝藏号”事件中救援人员也用那种脱脂剂。

But partway through, they ran out.

但不一会儿，脱脂剂就用完了。

So in a panic, Estelle from SANCCOB called the student

情急之下，保育基金会的埃斯特尔(Estelle)给那个学生打电话

and said, "Please, you have to make more!"

求助道：“不得不拜托你再造些脱脂剂。”

So he raced to the lab

然后那个学生就赶到实验室

and made enough to clean the rest of the birds.

造了足够多的脱脂剂来清理余下的企鹅。

So I just think it is the coolest thing

于是我就想，

that a teenager invented a product

一个少年

竟发明了一种产品

that helped save the lives of thousands of animals.

拯救了千万条动物的生命

这未免也太酷了。

So what happened to those 20,000 oiled penguins?

那么那两万只企鹅究竟怎样了呢？

希尔维亚•高斯(Silvia Gaus)的理论是否正确呢？

And was Silvia Gaus right?

我们是否应该以

Should we routinely euthanize all oiled birds

“反正它们终归会死的”为借口

because most of them are going to die anyway?

而施以所有这些被油污染的企鹅安乐死呢？

Well, she could not be more wrong.

事实证明维亚的判断大错特错。

After half a million hours of grueling volunteer labor,

在50万个小时

艰辛的救援工作之后，

more than 90 percent of those oiled penguins

超过90%的被污染企鹅

were successfully returned to the wild.

顺利返回家园。

And we know from follow-up studies

并且通过我们后续的跟踪调查

that they have lived just as long as never-oiled penguins,

这批企鹅活得与那些

未被污染的企鹅一般好，

其繁殖也几乎与那些同胞一样顺利。

and bred nearly as successfully.

And in addition,

此外，有大约3000只企鹅崽崽

about 3,000 penguin chicks were rescued and hand raised.

获救后由工作人员抚养长大。

And again, we know from long-term monitoring

并且，我们通过长期追踪监测

that more of these hand-raised chicks survive to adulthood and breeding age

发现比起那些企鹅自己抚养的孩子来说

这些人工饲养的企鹅

更多的活至成年期和繁殖期。

than do parent-raised chicks.

因此，有了这个信息作支撑

Armed with this knowledge, SANCCOB has a chick-bolstering project,

南非滨海鸟类保育基金会(SANCCOB)便设立了一个“企鹅保育”项目。

and every year, they rescue and raise abandoned chicks,

然后每一年他们都会救助并抚养那些被遗弃的小鸟。

and they have a very impressive, 80 percent success rate.

而其救助的成功率也相当骄人

高达80%。

This is critically important,

而这个数据至关重要

because one year ago,

因为，就在一年前，

the African penguin was declared endangered.

非洲企鹅已经被官方公布濒临灭绝。

而如果我们对其置之不理

And they could be extinct in less than 10 years

他们就很可能

在十年之内消失。

if we don't do something now to protect them.

So what did I learn

那么我在这次

from this intense and unforgettable experience?

紧张而难忘的救援行动中学到了什么呢？

Personally, I learned that I am capable of handling so much more

个人而言，我认识到

自己完全可以驾驭比本身所期望的更多。

than I ever dreamed possible.

And I learned that one person can make a huge difference.

同时我还意识到就算是一个人

也是可以改变很多的。

Just look at that 17-year-old.

就像那位17岁的发明家一样。

And when we come together and work as one,

还有，就是当我们团结在一起

像一个整体那样去行事，

we can achieve extraordinary things.

我们将有意想不到的收获。

说实话，有机会担当

And truly, to be a part of something so much larger than yourself

一个比自身强大得很多的

集体的一部分，这本身

is the most rewarding experience you can possibly have.

就是一个宝贵的经历。

So I'd like to leave you with one final thought

那么最后我还想与你们探讨一个问题

也是一个难题，如果你们愿意思考的话。

and a challenge, if you will.

My mission as The Penguin Lady is to raise awareness and funding

作为一名“企鹅夫人”，我的首要使命

便是唤起保护企鹅的意识

和筹集保护企鹅的资金。

to protect penguins.

那为何大家应该关心企鹅的命运呢？

But why should any of you care about penguins?

Well, you should care because they're an indicator species.

因为企鹅

是一个具有指示功能的物种。

And simply put: if penguins are dying, it means our oceans are dying.

简单说来，那就是如果企鹅濒临灭绝，

则意味着我们的海洋在走向末路，

And we ultimately will be affected,

而最终的受害者将是我们自己，

because, as Sylvia Earle says,

因为，正如索尔维亚•娥尔(Sylvia Earle)所言，

"The oceans are our life-support system."

“海洋是我们的生命维持系统。”

And the two main threats to penguins today

目前企鹅所面临的两大威胁

are overfishing and global warming.

是过度的捕鱼和全球气候变暖。

而我们每个人

And these are two things

that each one of us actually has the power to do something about.

都确实有能力

就这两件事做点改变。

因此如果我们每个人都能出一份力，

So if we each do our part, together, we can make a difference,

积少成多，我们一起将创造极大的价值，

and we can help keep penguins from going extinct.

从而使企鹅告别灭绝的危险。

Humans have always been the greatest threat to penguins,

长期以来，人类都是企鹅最大的威胁，

而现在，我们也是他们最大的希望。

but we are now their only hope.

谢谢。

Thank you.

(Applause)

(掌声)