TED演讲之生存故事 黛安·德娜珀丽:企鹅大救援(4)
Now the day after we arrived, a new crisis began to unfold.
也就是在我们抵达的第二天，一个新的危机出现了。
The oil slick was now moving north towards Dassen Island, and the rescuers despaired, because they knew if the oil hit, it would not be possible to rescue any more oiled birds.
泄漏的油开始向北部的达森岛(Dassen Island)漂移，当时救援者们都快绝望了，因为他们知道一旦那些油漂到达森岛，新被污染的企鹅将得不到及时的救助。
And there really were no good solutions. But then finally, one of the researchers threw out this crazy idea.
当时我们真有点黔驴技穷的感觉。但后来，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 at the greatest risk of getting oiled” —
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”
they collected 20,000 — “and we’ll ship them 500 miles up the coast to Port Elizabeth in these open-air trucks,
后来他们收集到两万只，“然后我们再用敞篷卡车将他们运送至500英里开外的伊利莎白港口(Port Elizabeth)。
and release them into the clean waters there and let them swim back home?”
在那里，我们把它们放入干净的水域，让它们自己游回家。”
So three of those penguins — Peter, Pamela and Percy — wore satellite tags,
这批企鹅中的三只——彼得，帕米拉和普希——身上带有卫星标签。
and the researchers crossed their fingers and hoped that by the time they got back home, the oil would be cleaned up from their islands.
研究员们合手为它们祈祷，愿它们回到家的时候，泄漏的油污已经被清理干净。
And luckily, the day they arrived, it was. So it had been a huge gamble, but it had paid off.
幸运的是，当企鹅们回到家时，油污真的被清理干净了。那确实是很大一博，但他们赌赢了。
And so they know now that they can use this strategy in future oil spills.
那么现在他们就知道了，今后一旦遭遇油污染，他们就可以采取这一招来对付。
So in wildlife rescue as in life, we learn from each previous experience, and we learn from both our successes and our failures.
所以在野生动物救援中，如同在生活中一样，我们从每一次经验中汲取知识，从每一次成功和失败中获得经验。
And the main thing learned during the Apollo Sea rescue in ’94 was that most of those penguins had died due to the unwitting use of poorly ventilated transport boxes and trucks,
而94年的阿波罗海(Apollo Sea)救援事件教给我们的则是，通气性差的运输箱和卡车将会导致企鹅的大量死亡，
because they just had not been prepared to deal with so many oiled penguins at once.
因为当时救援队的条件不足以同时应付那么多企鹅。
So in these six years between these two oil spills, they’ve built thousands of these well-ventilated boxes.
因此在这两次漏油事件相隔的六年间，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, just 160 penguins died during the transport process, as opposed to 5,000. So this alone was a huge victory.
从而在这次的”宝藏(Treasure)”号事故中，只有160只企鹅在运输途中夭折，而六年前这个数字是5000。所以单从这一点来看，此次的救援已是绝大的胜利。
演讲简介：
这是一次个人经历，亦是一个团体取得的胜利：黛安·德娜珀丽给我们带来一个世界上最大规模的志愿者拯救动物的故事，这次行动挽救了四万多只被南非海岸泄漏的石油累及生命的企鹅。而这样浩大的工程志愿者们是如何完成的呢？那只有一只、一只、一只企鹅地拯救…