墨西哥灣漏油致海洋生物大逃亡
Dolphins and sharks are showing up in surprisingly shallow water just off the Florida coast. Mullets, crabs, rays and small fish congregate by the thousands off an Alabama pier. Birds covered in oil are crawling deep into marshes, never to be seen again.
Marine scientists studying the effects of the BP disaster are seeing some strange phenomena.
Fish and other wildlife seem to be fleeing the oil out in the Gulf and clustering in cleaner waters along the coast in a trend that some researchers see as a potentially troubling sign.
The animals' presence close to shore means their usual habitat is badly polluted, and the crowding could result in mass die-offs as fish run out of oxygen. Also, the animals could easily get devoured by predators.
"A parallel would be: Why are the wildlife running to the edge of a forest on fire? There will be a lot of fish, sharks, turtles trying to get out of this water they detect is not suitable," said Larry Crowder, a Duke University marine biologist.
The nearly two-month-old oil spill has created an environmental catastrophe unparalleled in US history as tens of millions of gallons of have spewed into the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem. Scientists are seeing some unusual things as they try to understand the effects on thousands of species of marine life.
For nearly four hours Monday, a three-person crew with Greenpeace cruised past delicate islands and mangrove-dotted inlets in Barataria Bay off southern Louisiana. They saw dolphins by the dozen frolicking in the oily sheen and oil-tinged pelicans feeding their young. But they spotted no dead animals.
"I think part of the reason why we're not seeing more yet is that the impacts of this crisis are really just beginning," Greenpeace marine biologist John Hocevar said.
The counting of dead wildlife in the Gulf is more than an academic exercise; the deaths will help determine how much BP pays in damages.
As for the fish, researchers are still trying to determine where exactly they are migrating to understand the full scope of the disaster, and no scientific consensus has emerged about the trend.
海豚和鯊魚竟出現在美國佛羅里達州海域的淺水區；鯔魚、螃蟹、鰩魚和其它一些小魚成羣聚集在阿拉巴馬州的一個碼頭外；渾身沾滿油污的海鳥跌入沼澤，再也沒有露出頭來。
對英國石油公司漏油事件後果進行研究的海洋學家們日前觀察到了一些奇怪的現象。
魚類和其他野生動物似乎正逃離被漏油污染的墨西哥灣，聚集到沿岸清潔的水域避難，一些研究人員認爲這一趨勢可能是個不好的徵兆。
動物出現在沿岸水域說明它們的棲息地遭到了嚴重污染，大量的動物聚集在一起則會導致魚類因缺氧而大批死亡。而且這些動物也會很容易地被食肉動物捕食。
杜克大學海洋生物學家拉里•克勞德說：“一個類似的情形是：在森林起火時，爲什麼野生動物會逃往森林邊緣地帶？由於棲息的海洋環境被破壞，將會有大批的魚類、鯊魚和海龜試圖逃離這一海域。”
持續了近兩個月的漏油事件給美國帶來了史上空前的生態災難，目前已有數千萬加侖的原油泄漏至墨西哥灣生態系統。科學家在試圖瞭解漏油對數千種海洋生物影響的同時，發現了一些異於尋常的現象。
本週一，綠色和平組織組建的一個三人工作小組在路易斯安那州南部巴拉塔里亞灣美麗的島嶼和點綴着紅樹林的水灣附近巡遊時，看見十幾只海豚在油污中嬉戲，身上沾滿油污的鵜鶘在哺育幼崽。但他們並沒有發現死去的動物。
綠色和平組織海洋生物學家約翰•霍瑟瓦爾說：“我覺得我們沒有看到更多受害動物的部分原因是因爲這場災難的影響纔剛剛開始。”
計算墨西哥灣死亡野生生物數量不僅是項學術活動，還將有助於確定英國石油公司的賠償數額。
目前，研究人員仍在努力確定墨西哥灣海洋魚類的確切遷移地點，以全面瞭解災難的整體影響範圍。有關這一遷移趨勢的科學結論尚未達成。
Vocabulary:
die-off：a sudden, natural perishing of large numbers of a species, population, or community（相繼死去）
frolic：to gambol merrily; to play in a frisky, light-spirited manner; romp（嬉戲，嬉鬧）
