第1781期:The survival of the sea turtle

Sea turtles are miraculous. First, they've been around since the late Jurassic, roughly 150 million years ago. Cohorts of the dinosaurs, sea turtles have survived through the challenges of eons, existing still today, where many others have ended their evolutionary run. Second, throughout the centuries and up till today, every living adult sea turtle has overcome the odds, existing as a consequence of chance, skill, and capability.

海龟是神奇的。首先，它们从大约 1.5 亿年前的侏罗纪晚期就已经存在。恐龙的同类，海龟在亿万年的挑战中幸存下来，今天仍然存在，许多其他海龟已经结束了它们的进化过程。其次，从几个世纪到今天，每一只活着的成年海龟都克服了困难，因为机会、技能和能力而存在。

The gauntlet each sea turtle faces in the course of its lifetime goes thus: First, deposited as a clutch of leathery, ping-pong ball-sized eggs into a nesting pit dug by its mother high on the beach, of the 50 to 200 eggs laid, roughly 20 percent will never hatch. Roughly a month and a half after having been laid, the surviving eggs hatch, and the young turtles, each small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, squirm to the surface, emerging from the sand en masse, and making their desperate dash for the sea.

每只海龟在其一生中面临的挑战是这样的：首先，将 50 到 200 颗海龟蛋放入海龟妈妈在海滩高处挖的筑巢坑中，放入一堆坚韧的、乒乓球大小的蛋中下蛋后，大约 20% 永远不会孵化。产下大约一个半月后，幸存的卵开始孵化，小海龟每只都小到你的手掌大小，它们蠕动到水面，成群结队地从沙子里冒出来，拼命冲刺为了大海。

Along the way, debris, pitfalls, crabs, gulls, raccoons, and other threats will claim roughly 50 percent of those who rose from the sand. For those that actually reach the surf, they trade one set of threats for another, as they first face the repelling force of the waves, and then find a whole new host of predators awaiting them: Various fish, dolphins, sharks, and sea birds, as the young turtles come to the surface for air. For their first few days of life, should they count themselves amongst the living, the vulnerable turtles swim frantically forward. Ultimately, they will often look to settle in a patch of flotsam, preferably a patch of floating seaweed.

沿途，碎片、陷阱、螃蟹、海鸥、浣熊和其他威胁将夺去大约 50% 从沙滩上爬起来的人的生命。对于那些真正到达海浪的人来说，他们将一组威胁换成另一组威胁，因为他们首先要面对海浪的排斥力，然后发现一大群新的捕食者在等着他们：各种鱼、海豚、鲨鱼和海鸟，当小海龟浮出水面呼吸空气时。在他们生命的头几天，如果他们把自己算作活着的人，脆弱的海龟就会疯狂地向前游。最终，他们通常会寻求在一片漂浮物中安顿下来，最好是一片漂浮的海藻。

Now for the next several months, they will seek to avoid those that would eat them, find that which they might eat themselves, and not fall to the pressures of challenging weather or unfortunate currents. In this phase, roughly 50 percent of those who reach the surf will perish. Ultimately, with the passage of years, the survivors will increase in size, from that of a dinner plate at year one to that of a dinner table, in the case of one species at least, the leatherback, a decade or so later. With size comes some measure of protection. The only truly worrisome predators now are some of the larger shark species-- bulls, tigers, and whites -- and the occasional killer whale.

现在在接下来的几个月里，他们将设法避开那些会吃掉他们的人，找到他们自己可以吃的东西，而不是屈服于恶劣天气或不幸水流的压力。在此阶段，大约 50% 的冲浪者将会死亡。最终，随着岁月的流逝，幸存者的体型会增加，从第一年的餐盘到餐桌，至少在一个物种的情况下，棱皮龟，十年左右。尺寸带来了一些保护措施。现在唯一真正令人担忧的捕食者是一些较大的鲨鱼种类——公牛、老虎和白鲨——以及偶尔出现的虎鲸。

At approximately two decades of age, the survivors will be old enough themselves to breed, and continue the cycle which their very existence heralds. Of those that began as eggs on a distant beach, now less than 10 percent remain, at least, those were the odds prior to significant human interference. Over the past century, and in particular in the last several decades, human endeavors, from beach development to plastic refuse to poaching, long lines, nets, and even noxious chemicals, including oil, have upped the ante for sea turtles, causing their survival rate to drop to around one percent or less, from each nesting cycle. It is this added human pressure which has pushed each of the eight sea turtle species into either a threatened or endangered state.

在大约二十岁时，幸存者将足够大，可以繁殖，并继续他们的存在所预示的循环。在那些最初作为遥远海滩上的鸡蛋的鸡蛋中，现在至少剩下不到 10%，这是在受到重大人为干预之前的几率。在过去的一个世纪里，尤其是在过去的几十年里，人类的努力，从海滩开发到塑料垃圾再到偷猎、排长队、渔网，甚至包括石油在内的有毒化学物质，都加大了海龟的生存压力，导致它们的生存从每个嵌套周期中，比率下降到大约 1% 或更少。正是这种额外的人类压力将八种海龟中的每一种都推向了受威胁或濒临灭绝的状态。

For while they have evolved to overcome a host of obstacles, the most recent has arisen so quickly and at such scale that the species find themselves overwhelmed. So let's quickly recap this cycle of odds. Using a hypothetical nesting season, for females may nest multiple times in a single year, of 1,000 eggs, for sake of ease. 1000 eggs laid. 800 hatch. 400 make it to the water. 200 progress toward adulthood. 20 survive to breeding age -- that is, without human interference. Two survive to breeding age with human interference. So a breeding adult sea turtle is the very embodiment of a long shot. It is the exception, not the rule. A jackpot. It is, in a very real sense, a miracle.

因为尽管它们已经进化以克服许多障碍，但最近出现的障碍如此之快且规模如此之大，以至于该物种发现自己不堪重负。因此，让我们快速回顾一下这个几率循环。使用假设的筑巢季节，为了方便起见，雌性可能在一年内多次筑巢，每次产卵 1,000 个。下了1000个蛋。800个舱口。400 人到达水中。200 向成年迈进。20 只活到繁殖年龄——也就是说，没有人为干预。两个在人为干扰下存活到繁殖年龄。因此，繁殖的成年海龟是远射的体现。这是例外，而不是规则。大奖。从非常真实的意义上说，这是一个奇迹。