美东海岸条纹鲈数量下降 渔民与科学家竞相拯救这一标志性游钓鱼种帕特里克·惠特尔、罗伯特·F·布卡蒂 纽约州蒙托克 —— 条纹鲈钓捕是比尔·雅各布超过60年的热爱，他记得过去自己会整夜将鱼线抛入蒙托克外海拍岸的巨浪中，一晚能钓到八九条、重达40磅（约18公斤）的大鱼，这在任何人眼中都是丰收。随后，经过多年的高强度捕捞，条纹鲈的大规模洄游不再出现。
Striped bass are in decline on the East Coast and fishermen and scientists are in a race to save the iconic sport fish. PATRICK WHITTLE, ROBERT F. BUKATY MONTAUK, N.Y. — Striped bass fishing has been Bill Jakob’s passion for more than 60 years, and he remembers an era when he’d spend all night casting his line into the crashing waves off Montauk and get eight or nine fish ranging up to 40 pounds (18 kilograms), a big catch by anyone’s standards.
“我在早年也是问题的一部分。我经营过合乘渔船，我们肆无忌惮地大量捕杀鱼获，”长岛最东端蒙托克冲浪抛竿协会会长雅各布说。
Then, after years of heavy fishing, the big runs of stripers stopped.
越来越多的像雅各布这样的渔民担心，大量捕获条纹鲈的美好时光即将终结。鱼群不再像过去那样出现，幼年条纹鲈变得更难寻觅。
“I’m part of the problem, back in the years. I ran party boats, we slayed fish with reckless abandon,” said Jakob, president of the Montauk Surfcasters Association on the easternmost tip of Long Island. Increasingly, fishermen like Jakob fear the good days of catching striped bass are coming to an end.
研究条纹鲈的科学家表示，美东海岸垂钓者的担忧有据可依，他们指出多年的过度捕捞只是问题的一部分。监管机构上周表示，条纹鲈在其最关键的栖息地切萨皮克湾已连续八年繁殖不佳，种群数量在大西洋沿岸大部分地区下降。
The fish aren’t showing up like they used to, and young stripers are becoming harder to find. Scientists who study striped bass say anglers on the East Coast are right to be concerned, and they say years of overfishing are just part of the problem.
多年水温升高——这是许多科学家提到的主要担忧——河流流量不足、干旱、污染，以及海豹和鲨鱼捕食压力可能增加等因素，让专家和渔民不禁发问：仅靠收紧捕捞限额，是否足以让条纹鲈恢复种群。失去这些有助于调节小型鱼类数量的高级掠食者，将威胁到一个价值80亿美元的渔业产业和数万个就业岗位。
The fish have experienced eight consecutive years of poor reproduction in their most critical habitat in the Chesapeake Bay, regulators said last week, and the population has declined along much of the Atlantic coast. Factors like years of warming waters— a prime concern cited by many scientists — poor river flow, drought, pollution and possibly increased predation from seals and sharks have left experts and fishermen asking whether tighter fishing limits would even be enough for striped bass to recover.
点击此处查看一组视觉随笔，记录本月初在长岛海岸垂钓的钓鱼人 条纹鲈钓鱼是美国东海岸由来已久的传统。“条纹鲈”备受青睐，部分原因在于它们上钩后挣扎激烈，且可直接从岸边垂钓。从缅因州海岸湿滑的礁石，到佛罗里达州圣约翰斯河较暖的水域，都能看到钓鱼人戴着头灯，在黎明前的黑暗中抛竿，期盼鱼儿上钩。
Losing these higher-level predators, which help regulate smaller fish, would threaten an $8 billion fishing industry and tens of thousands of jobs. See a visual essay featuring anglers who were fishing the shores of Long Island earlier this month here Striped bass fishing is a long-standing East Coast tradition“Stripers” are prized in part because they put up a fight and can be fished right from shore. From the slippery rocks of Maine’s coast to the warmer waters of the St. Johns River in Florida, anglers wearing headlamps can be seen casting into the predawn darkness, hoping for a bite.
近年来，州际监管机构对这种洄游鱼类的管理方式做出了调整，包括统一依据体长要求进行测量的方式。但监管机构却不愿降低休闲捕捞限额。部分钓鱼人表示，目前的举措可能还不够，需要采取更严格的行动——包括可能实施禁渔，这是1980年代曾采用的策略——以确保后代钓鱼人仍能捕获条纹鲈。
Interstate regulators have made changes to the way the migratory fish are managed in recent years, including standardizing the way they’re measured against size requirements. But regulators have balked at reducing the level of recreational catch. Some fishermen say the current moves might not go far enough, and stricter action — including possibly a fishing moratorium, a strategy used in the 1980s — is needed to ensure that future generations of anglers can still catch striped bass.
“它们无法以足够的水平自我补充种群。这显然让所有人都感到担忧，”马里兰州自然资源部条纹鲈项目经理贝丝·韦尔萨克说。“沿海上上下下的人们都对条纹鲈充满热情。”钓鱼向导、包船出海、装备、鱼饵、酒店住宿——业内人士称，这些加起来在美国 alone 就产生了约 80 亿美元的经济影响，并提供多达 10 万个就业岗位。而这一切都依赖于一种前景堪忧的鱼类。
“They are not replacing themselves at a sufficient level. That obviously has everybody concerned,” said Beth Versak, the striped bass program manager for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. “People all up and down the coast are passionate about striped bass.”Fishing guides, boat trips, gear, bait, hotel rooms — it all adds up to what members of the industry say is about $8 billion in economic impact and as many as 100,000 jobs in the U.S. alone. And it relies on a fish whose future looks grim.
“我们所熟知的条纹鲈将会崩溃，”马萨诸塞州条纹鲈协会政府事务协调员、州际法规咨询小组成员帕特里克·帕奎特说。
“Striped bass as we know it is going to collapse,” said Patrick Paquette, government affairs coordinator for the Massachusetts Striped Bass Association and a member of an interstate advisory panel about the regulations.
“大约在 2029 年、2030 年左右，情况会急转直下，”他说，“届时会非常难看。”
“Sometime around 2029, 2030 it’s going to go off a cliff,” he said, “and it’s going to be ugly.”
科学家表示，包括水温升高在内的多种因素导致了大西洋鲈鱼繁殖不佳。大西洋鲈鱼在淡水或咸淡水交汇处产卵，随后在河流入海的河口区度过生命早期。它们繁殖并为种群带来新鱼的能力，取决于有利于它们的环境条件——具体来说，是凉爽湿润的春季。
Scientists say a variety of factors, including warming waters, have contributed to poor spawning Striped bass hatch in fresh or brackish water and then spend the early years of their lives in estuaries where the rivers meet the sea. Their ability to reproduce and bring new fish into the population is predicated on environmental conditions that favor them — specifically, cool, wet springs. Scientists identify four major spawning stocks along the Atlantic.
科学家在大西洋沿岸确定了四个主要繁殖种群。切萨皮克湾是多达 90% 的大西洋鲈鱼产卵和生长的地方。大西洋海洋渔业委员会（负责监管大西洋鲈鱼）渔业政策主任托尼·科恩斯表示，当淡水流量过低（如干旱时期），或春夏水温过高时，鱼类就会受损，种群数量可能下降。
The Chesapeake Bay is where up to 90% of stripers spawn and grow. When freshwater flows are too low, such as in times of drought, or when spring or summer temperatures are too high, the fish suffer and populations can fall, said Toni Kerns, fisheries policy director with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, which regulates striped bass. Conditions have been poor in recent years, and fewer fish have entered the population going back to 2019, said Chris Batsavage, chair of the commission’s striped bass management board.
委员会大西洋鲈鱼管理委员会主席克里斯·巴特萨维奇表示，近几年条件不佳，自 2019 年以来进入种群的鱼越来越少。
“Low precipitation and waters that warm quickly result in weak year classes,” Batsavage said.
“降水量低且水温升高迅速会导致当年鱼群虚弱，”巴特萨维奇说，“这似乎是由环境驱动的。”弗萨克表示，这些条件导致了“连续不景气年份”，使得大西洋鲈鱼在切萨皮克湾维持种群数量变得尤为困难。
“It seems like it’s environmentally driven.”The conditions have led to a “slump of bad years” that have made it especially difficult for the fish to maintain their population in the Chesapeake, Versak said.
渔民担心如果趋势持续，将失去这一标志性物种。约翰·斯金纳撰写过一本关于大西洋鲈鱼垂钓的书，并运营一个拥有 10 万多粉丝的同主题 YouTube 频道，他在长岛近海垂钓已超过 50 年，表示曾经可靠的钓点已完全枯竭。
Fishermen fear the loss of an iconic species if trends continue John Skinner, who wrote a book about striped bass fishing and runs a YouTube channel on the subject that has more than 100,000 followers, has been fishing off Long Island for more than 50 years and says once-reliable spots have completely dried up. “I’m not saying the fishing is bad. I’m saying when you go there in perfect conditions, you catch nothing,” Skinner said.
“我不是说钓鱼不好。我是说当你在完美条件下去那里时，什么也钓不到，”斯金纳说。“绝对什么也钓不到。”今年夏天和秋天，美国东北部许多其他条纹鲈渔民都讲述了一个反复出现的故事——这种鱼曾经成群结队，如今鱼群干涸见底，剩下的个体显然都很老，意味着多年的繁殖失败开始显现后果。
“Absolutely nothing.”Many other striped bass fishermen across the Northeast shared a recurring story this summer and fall — the fish’s once-plentiful schools are dried up, and the individuals that remain are clearly older, meaning years of reproduction failure are starting to take their toll. Some fishermen said stricter rules or a fishing moratorium could be the only ways to prevent the fish’s population from becoming dangerously low.
一些渔民表示，更严格的规则或捕捞禁令可能是防止该鱼种群数量降至危险低位的唯一途径。他们为在水面上所见情形感到惋惜——鱼群变小，许多个体又老又大，极少有幼鱼加入种群以提供未来。
And they lament what they’re seeing on the waters — smaller schools of fish, many of them older and larger, with few young fish entering the population to provide a future. They also see more factors than just the warming environment at play.
他们看到的影响因素不仅仅是环境变暖。一些人认为，多年来对条纹鲈的大量捕捞，如今以种群数量降低的形式显现出来。另一些人则归咎于鲨鱼的复苏，这是多年保护工作的成果，导致竞争者重新出现，与条纹鲈争夺资源。
Some see years of heavy fishing on striped bass becoming apparent today in the form of a lower population. Others blame the resurgence of sharks buoyed by years of conservation efforts, as a reintroduction of competition for the fish. Regulators have taken steps, but some call for a moratorium The Atlantic States commission considers the stock to be overfished, although it says overfishing is not occurring at the moment.
监管机构已采取措施，但有人呼吁实施禁令 大西洋各州海洋渔业委员会认为该鱼种群已遭过度捕捞，尽管它表示目前并未发生过度捕捞。这种鱼既有商业捕捞也有休闲捕捞，但休闲捕捞规模大得大多数休闲捕获的鱼都被活着放回海里。即便如此，一些鱼在遭遇后也无法存活。监管机构历史上预计放流后有9%会死亡，而较新数据显示这一比例可能低于5%。
The fish are caught commercially as well as recreationally, but recreational fishing is much larger. Most of the recreational catch is tossed back into the ocean alive. Still, some fish don’t survive the encounter. Regulators have historically expected 9% to die after release, while newer data shows the number could be less than 5%.
可捕捞保留的条纹鲈体长限制通常在28至31英寸（71至79厘米）之间，各州和地点的规则有所不同。条纹鲈深受钓后放流渔民喜爱，如今钓到体型更大的鲈鱼更为常见，许多个体体长远超31英寸。
Limits on how large a striped bass can be caught and kept are typically in the range of 28 to 31 inches (71 to 79 centimeters), with rules varying by state and location. Striped bass are popular with catch-and-release fishermen, and these days, it’s more common to catch larger bass, many well over 31 inches.
马萨诸塞州鲈鱼协会协调员、资深钓鱼爱好者帕凯特表示，如果不采取果断行动，他担心条纹鲈钓鱼活动将走向终结。
Paquette, the Massachusetts Striped Bass Association coordinator and a longtime angler himself, said that without drastic action he fears the end of striped bass fishing.
“如果你是个指望退休后去钓条纹鲈的人，而且打算很快退休，那就另想办法吧，”帕凯特说。
“If you’re a guy who thought he was going to retire and striped bass fish, and you’re planning on retiring soon, get a different plan,” Paquette said.
惠特尔在缅因州波特兰发回报道。美联社视频记者刘明松对此文亦有贡献。
Whittle reported from Portland, Maine. Associated Press video journalist Mingson Lau contributed.