衛星幫忙搬走海產海盜的贓物

Fish on ice in Palau Misa Island, Indonesia. Thanks to satellite data, John Amos of SkyTruth can track fishing activity near the Pacific island nation from his office in West Virginia. Randy Olson/National Geographic/Getty Images hide caption

印度尼西亞的帕勞密薩島——冰上的魚。在衛星數據的幫助下，約翰·阿莫斯可以從西弗吉尼亞的辦公室裏追蹤這個太平洋島國附近的魚羣活動。

Most of the seafood Americans eat comes from abroad. And a lot of that is caught illegally — by vessels that ignore catch limits, or that fish in areas off-limits to fishing.

美國人吃的大部分海產品來自國外，而其中的大部分屬於非法捕撈，手法則是根本不顧漁船的承載量的大肆捕撈，或進入不準捕魚的水域捕魚。

No one knows how much of it is illegal, because the oceans are too big to patrol. Or at least, they were. Now environmental groups have harnessed satellite technology to watch pirate fishing vessels from space. And they've caught some of them.

因爲海洋太大，沒法全面巡邏，所以沒人知道究竟有多少（魚）是非法捕撈上來的。不過至少這種情況正在成爲過去。現在環境組織利用衛星技術從太空觀察海盜捕魚船，甚至抓住了一些海盜捕魚船。

Environmental groups, as well as the U.S. government, say pirate fishing endangers fish stocks and undercuts U.S. fishing fleets that follow the consumers care as well. And the people who supply them.

除了環境組織，美國政府也說捕魚海盜們危及海魚儲備，讓遵紀守法的船隊的利潤下降。但是消費者和賣魚的商人也很在乎（這個事）。

ProFish is a big seafood distributor in Washington, D.C. It's in a part of town tourists never see — in a compound of brick warehouses. Inside, in a maze of high-ceilinged rooms, workers in waterproof overalls filet fish on cutting tables and hose down cement floors. Giant refrigeration units keep the place numbingly cold.

“愛魚”是華盛頓特區的一家大型海產品供應商，地處鎮上一個旅遊者永遠不會發現的地方。它的被院牆圍起來的磚砌倉庫裏面是狀若迷宮的高屋頂房子，一間接着一間。而穿防水緊身衣褲的工人們則在巨大的案板上切割魚肉，並用水管沖洗水泥地面。一列列巨大的製冷機讓這個地方冷得讓人麻木。

John Rorapaugh is the sustainabity director at ProFish. Rorepaugh says sustainable seafood is caught or farmed in a "responsible" way that doesn't threaten fish populations or harm the environment. His fish lie in tubs of crushed ice: steel-colored tuna and glittering striped bass. There's a fish with a yellow stripe like a Nike swoosh.

約翰·洛拉帕是“愛魚”分管“魚類信息可持續性”的主任。洛拉帕說捕撈可以提供“不間斷信息”的海產品，或是以“負責任的”方式養殖海產品不會威脅魚羣數量或傷害環境。他的魚躺在碎冰桶裏，其中有銀灰色的金槍魚和帶閃光條紋的歐洲鱸魚。這裏還有一條魚身上的淡黃色條紋很像耐克商標上的那個“勾”。

"Mahi mahi," he says, in a tone you might use to describe show horses. "You should see it when it comes out of the water. It is just the most beautiful fish."

他用一種描述最炫參賽馬的口氣說：“那是青花魚。當它躍出水面的時候你應該能夠看到它。它可以算是最漂亮的魚。”

Rorapaugh says to assure its pedigree as sustainable, a fish needs a story: its genus and species, who caught it, when and where it was caught. Rorapaugh says fish caught in the U.S. come with that information, but imported seafood usually does not.

洛拉帕說爲了確保一條魚不絕種，（捕撈）這條魚需要提供如下資料：它的屬名和種名、誰捕撈、以及在何時何地捕撈，但是進口海產品往往沒有（這些資料）。

"God forbid you ask where it was caught, and most people, by the time it gets to us, they have no idea," he says. I ask if he would like to have that information from importers. "Of course. I would love to see more chain of custody," Rorapaugh says. "And I think that's what the consumer wants. We're seeing that people want to buy fish that have a story, that are sutainable and clearly are legal."

他說：“上帝禁止你詢問它是在哪裏被捕撈的，而且當這條魚到達我們這兒的時候，大部分人也不清楚（它是在哪裏被捕撈的）。”我問他是否想從進口商那裏獲得這些信息。洛拉帕說：“當然。我非常想看到更多的監管信息鏈。而且我認爲消費者也想。我們看到消費者們願意購買有信息資料的魚，並且這些資料沒有間斷，是合法的。”

He notes that those people are the high end of the market, not the ones who buy frozen fish sticks at the supermarket. But he says more people are asking about the kind of fish they're getting and how it was caught.

他注意到那些人位於市場的高端，根本不是在超市買冰凍魚塊的那些人。不過，他也說越來越多的人開始詢問他們要買的魚的種類，以及它是如何被捉住的。

And what most people don't know is that a lot of it, billions of dollars' worth of seafood every year, is caught illegally — caught in protected areas, or from overfished populations, for example. Tracking the illegal trade is a nightmare. A fish could be caught by a Korean vessel, shipped to a Chinese packing plant and sold to a distributor in Canada before it gets to the U.S.

當然，大部分買魚的人所不知道的是，每年他們消費的魚的絕大部分——共計億萬美元的海產品——是非法捕撈的。舉例來說吧，（它們）要麼是在受到保護的海域（被捕撈），要麼是從已然遭到過度捕撈的魚羣中（捕撈）。

SkyTruth followed the ship Shin Jyi Chyuu 33 during one week last month. The group says the ship's irregular track and variations in speed, as seen on a map, are indicative of fishing.

在上個月“天空真相”用了一週的時間跟隨“Shin Jyi Chyuu 33"號漁船。該組織說該船在地圖上顯示的無規律的蹤跡和速度變動表明它正在捕魚。

But now there's a new way to monitor the trade, at its very start, on the high seas: By watching it from space.

但是現在有了一種新的方法可以從一開始就監控公海上的捕撈，那就是從太空觀察他們。

John Amos is one of the pioneers. He runs a small organization in West Virginia called SkyTruth. He started out collecting satellite images of oil spills in the ocean. In 2011, he learned about the automatic identification system, or AIS, which ships use to prevent collisions at sea.

約翰·阿莫斯就是創始者之一。他在西弗吉尼亞有一家小公司，名字是“天空真相”。他開始是收集海上漏油的衛星圖片。在2011年，他學習了自動識別系統（AIS）的相關知識。船隻使用這套系統防止在海上發生碰撞。

"Those AIS communication broadcasts can be picked up by orbiting satellites," Amos explains. Large ships carry electronic devices that constantly broadcast the ship's location and heading. This signal includes the boat's name, and where it's from.

阿莫斯解釋說：“那些AIS通訊廣播可以通過在軌衛星截獲。”大型海船都攜帶有持續廣播該船位置和走向的電子設備，而播送的廣播信號中又包括了該船的名稱和起始港。

Working with Google, Amos developed software that uses AIS signals to track up to 150,000 vessels all over the world.

阿莫斯與“谷歌”一起開發了一套軟件，該軟件可以用AIS信號跟蹤遍及世界的15萬艘船。

And he's also collaborating with the Pew Charitable Trusts, a nonprofit that's trying to curb illegal fishing with a program called Eyes on the Seas.

他也和一家非盈利組織——皮尤慈善受託基金——合作。這個組織試圖用一個被稱作“海洋上的眼睛”的計劃來控制非法捕魚。

Amos learned how to recognize the kind of movement displayed on a map of the ocean that indicates a boat is fishing. "It's kind of a slow back and forth movement that would indicate they've put fishing gear, like long lines with baited hooks, into the water," he says.

阿莫斯學習如何識別顯示在海圖上的那種表明漁船正在捕魚的活動。他說：“一種緩慢的前後移動表明他們已經往水裏放置了打撈裝置，比如長繩子，上面裝着帶有食餌的鉤子。”

Now, clearly Amos can't watch all the world's oceans. Instead, he's been watching areas pinpointed by experts at Pew, such as new or proposed marine reserves, and places frequented by pirate fishing vessels.

顯然阿莫斯現在還不能觀察所有的大海。他只觀察皮尤慈善受託基金的專家們精確定位的區域，諸如新的或是被推薦的海洋保護區，以及被海盜捕魚船頻繁光顧的區域。

Last month, Amos was tracking boats near Palau, an island nation in the Pacific Ocean, near Indonesia. He spotted one following that tell-tale fishing pattern. The AIS data revealed it was a Taiwanese boat. He contacted officials in Palau, who said the boat was fishing illegally. "The authorities in Palau decided to intercept it, and they sent their patrol boat out," Amos recalls. He monitored both boats from his office in West Virginia, using AIS data.

上個月阿莫斯追蹤了帕勞附近的船隻。這座太平洋島國位於印度尼西亞附近。根據辨別移動方式，他發現一艘正在捕魚的船。 AIS數據顯示那是一艘臺灣漁船。他與帕勞官方聯繫，帕勞官方告訴他該船正在非法捕撈。阿莫斯回憶道：“帕勞當局決定攔截它，並派出了巡邏艇。”他在西弗吉尼亞的辦公室裏使用AIS數據監控雙方的船。

"(It was) kind of a nail-biting time," he remembers, "where we're sitting in the office past midnight, monitoring our computer screen so that we could provide updated location information to the authorities in Palau that they could relay to the patrol boat."

他回憶說：“當時真緊張。我們過半夜了還坐在辦公室裏，盯着電腦屏幕，以便我們能夠向帕勞當局提供最新的位置信息，然後他們再將信息傳遞給巡邏艇。”

Authorities boarded the vessel, and according to the Palau government, it was crammed with illegally caught tuna and shark fins.

帕勞當局強行登上該船，後來根據帕勞政府的說法，該船塞滿了非法捕撈的金槍魚和鯊魚魚鰭。

So AIS tracking works. But it's limited. It only transmits data on a ship's location and identity. And a ship captain can switch it off. So the Pew Trusts is now acquiring actual images of ships, taken from satellite cameras and radar onboard satellites.

所以AIS追蹤成功了。但是它也有自身的限制。它只能傳遞船隻位置和身份的數據，而船長可以關掉這些信息的發送。所以皮尤信託基金現在要取得船隻的實際圖像，而這些圖像可以通過衛星相機和衛星攜帶的雷達獲得。

Tony Long, who leads Pew's Ending Illegal Fishing campaign and is a former Royal Navy electronic warfare expert, says radar and photos give you much more information. "You can see what type of vessel it is," he says, "and any activity on deck, and indeed, if there is any fishing gear in the water."

託尼·龍負責皮尤信託基金的“結束非法捕魚”活動，他也是一位前皇家海軍電子軟件專家。他說雷達和照片給你更多的信息，“你可以看到船隻的類型。如果確實有捕魚裝置被放進水裏，你可以看到甲板上的一切活動。”

A Palauan law enforcement vessel (left) escorts a Taiwanese longline fishing vessel (center) and a Greenpeace ship (right) at sea in the Exclusive Economic Zone of the Pacific island nation in 2011. The 'Taiwanese ship was suspected of illegal shark finning in the area.

2011年，在太平洋島國帕勞的專門經濟區內，一艘帕勞強制執法船（左）正護送一艘臺灣多鉤長線捕魚船（中）和一艘綠色和平的船（右）。該臺灣船隻被懷疑在該海域非法捕撈鯊魚魚鰭。

One thing he looks for is the transfer of fish from one vessel to another. That's not illegal, but it's often a way to launder illegally caught fish, to mix it with a legal catch, for example. "You can see quite clearly two vessels side by side," he says of the images.

託尼·龍現在尋找的一件事情是把魚從一條船轉移到另一條船。那不違法，但卻是把非法所得同合法所得混在一起的常用方法之一。他談到一些圖片時說：“你可以相當清楚地看到兩艘船肩並肩航行。”

The satellite system has already caught at least two boats fishing illegally. But it can't catch every pirated fish. And once a fish reaches land, the route to the American dinner table gets, as Beth Lowell puts it, "Opaque, vague, foggy."

衛星系統至少已經抓住兩艘船在非法捕魚。但是它抓不到每一條被非法捕撈的魚。一旦魚到達陸地，那麼通往美國人飯桌的路徑，就像貝斯·勞爾說的：“是不透明的、朦朧的、模糊的。”

Lowell is a fisheries expert at Oceana, another environmental organization trying to curb illegal fishing. Lowell says when it comes to stories, even spinach has a clearer plot line than fish.

勞爾是“奧西阿那”——另一個試圖控制非法捕撈的環保組織——的漁業專家。勞爾說談及背景資料，甚至連菠菜都比魚更清楚。

"If you look on the back of some bags of spinach, you can put a code in and track it back to the farm it came from," she notes.

她指出：“如果你想重視菠菜的背景資料，你可以往裝菠菜的袋子裏放一個代碼，然後追蹤它的出產農場。”

The federal government is now drafting a plan that would encourage governments and international organizations to document every link in the whole seafood chain, something Lowell calls "traceability."

聯邦政府目前正在起草一份計劃，鼓勵政府和國際組織記錄整個海產品鏈的每一個環節，其中有些事項被勞爾稱作“具有追朔性”。

For every batch of seafood, she says, authorities would know that "it got picked up at the warehouse, it's on shipment to the next site, it's on a plane, now it's on your doorstep. And that's what we want to be able to do with seafood."

她說對應每一批次的海產品，政府當局都應該知道“它是從倉庫裏來的，它在去往下一站的運輸工具上，它在飛機上，現在它在你的家門口。而那就是我們打算爲海產品做的工作。”

The federal government is due to publish its plan for cracking down on illegal fishing this spring. If it works, more of your fish may be coming with a tale attached.

爲了採取嚴厲措施打擊今年春天的非法捕魚，聯邦政府會出版這份計劃。如果奏效，我們吃的魚中會有更多的魚擁有一份不間斷的資料鏈。