CNN News:海豚與伊拉克戰(zhàn)爭

See if you can ID me. I`m both a mammal and a carnivore. I breathe air, although I don`t live on land. I don`t have much of a sense of smell, but I make up for it with a great sense of hearing.

看你能猜出我么。我既是哺乳動物又是食肉動物，我呼吸空氣但又不住在陸地上。我嗅覺不太好但是我能聽到來自很遠的聲音。

I`m a dolphin, and there are dozens of species of me around the world.

我就是海豚，在這個世界上還有許多我這樣的生物。

And some of those species work for the U.S. Navy. Dolphins have been part of the Marine Mammal Program since the 1960s. These animals have a natural sonar ability called echolocation and they use it to help the Navy identify potential dangers.

一些這樣的生物為美國海事機構(gòu)服務(wù)。海豚是自從十九世紀六十年代就開始被美國海軍海洋哺乳動物專案計劃研究的物種之一。這些動物都有一種天然的聲吶系統(tǒng)我們成為回聲定位，用來幫助海軍探測潛在的危險。

So you`ve heard of bomb-sniffing dogs? This is kind of like the underwater version. Kaj Larsen shows us how it all works.

你聽說過安檢犬么?而這，是一種水下探測工作。讓我們來請Kaj Larsen向我們展示一下他們是怎樣工作的。

Dolphins` jobs go beyond what the Navy calls swimmer interdiction. It turns out that they are good at finding not only people in the water but also things, things like mines.

海豚的工作遠遠超過了海軍所謂的保護游泳者安全的任務(wù)。結(jié)果證明海豚不僅擅長搜救遇難者，并且可以檢測地雷。

So the animal is using its echolocation, looking out in front of the boat.

所以這些動物就利用它們獨有的回聲定位系統(tǒng)，游走在船舶的前方，檢測水域安全。

Braden Duryee supervises operations for the Marine Mammal Program and works with the Navy`s Explosive Ordinance Disposal Unit.

Braden Duryee負責操控海軍海洋哺乳動物訓(xùn)練計劃，并負責海軍爆炸物的處理。

Over time we have to train the animals to discriminate between -- you know, it could be a lobster trap.

隨著時間的推移，我們不得不訓(xùn)練這些動物學會區(qū)分，有些東西也許是龍蝦。

Oh, sorry. Got a positive. Right now the animal just went positive.

哦，發(fā)現(xiàn)目標，現(xiàn)在這些動物就朝著發(fā)現(xiàn)物前進了。

All right, so what`s she doing now?

好樣的，那她現(xiàn)在將做什么呢?

Right now, she`s carrying the marker down to the mine shape that she`s told us she`s found. That means the marker has deployed. The diver`s going to go down, go to that anchor and then do a circle search, verify that the animal has found the target.

她現(xiàn)在正拖著標志物潛入水下，然后告訴我們發(fā)現(xiàn)了東西。這就意味著標志物已經(jīng)放好了，隨后潛水員會潛到水下她投放的標志物那做一圈檢查，確認這些小家伙們發(fā)現(xiàn)了目標。

In 2003, the Navy performed this operation in wartime, deploying mine-detecting dolphins to Iraq to ensure safe passage for humanitarian ships, meaning some of these dolphins are Iraq war veterans.

在2003年，海軍軍隊將此成果運用到了戰(zhàn)爭中。這些用來探測水雷的海豚被部署到了伊拉克，為的是確保人道主義船只乘客的安全。也就是說，這些小家伙們也是參與伊拉克戰(zhàn)爭的一員。

What about danger to the animal? You`re asking them to go get close to explosive devices underwater.

你讓這些動物這么近距離的接觸爆炸物，那這些動物會遇到危險么?

Mines are very complicated, high-grade machinery. They are not set off to go on dolphins. They are set off to go on ships.

水雷是非常復(fù)雜精細而高水準的化學武器，它們遇到動物或人不會發(fā)生爆炸，只有在遇到船只的情況下才會引爆。