人·魚·海的兩種未來

如今，大洋彼岸的轉(zhuǎn)基因鮭魚為成為世界首個可食用轉(zhuǎn)基因動物正在全力沖刺。人們認(rèn)為魚類從茫茫大海到餐桌的這段旅程理應(yīng)擁有被知曉這一基本的尊重。保羅·格林伯格（Paul Greenberg，1967年生，美國作家和散文家）在書中以親切、詼諧的筆鋒，從文化、社會、經(jīng)濟(jì)、生態(tài)等方面，結(jié)合采訪紀(jì)實、親身體驗和漁業(yè)科學(xué)，深入報道了鮭魚、海鱸、鱈魚、鮪魚這四種魚的故事。關(guān)心海洋、愛魚或喜愛海鮮的人們，或許你們會愿意跟隨作者：

——去尤皮克愛斯基摩人祖?zhèn)鞯暮恿鳌郎献铋L的鮭魚河，造訪世上唯一一家獲得公平貿(mào)易聯(lián)盟認(rèn)證的漁業(yè)公司。

——了解多氯聯(lián)苯和汞進(jìn)入海產(chǎn)食物的過程，了解荷、法營養(yǎng)學(xué)家如何改良食物、以色列內(nèi)分泌學(xué)家如何制造荷爾蒙，讓地中海海鱸行銷全球。

——向《鱈魚》的作者提出挑戰(zhàn)，要求對方品嘗養(yǎng)殖鱈與野生鱈的差異，講述漁業(yè)的警示寓言。

——南太平洋海底，尋找以取代瀕危的黑鮪魚的魚類，為我們描繪出入科幻小說般的代理孕魚技術(shù)。

一九七八年，不知是因為強(qiáng)烈的暴風(fēng)雨，還是前一年為了控制藻類大量生長撒進(jìn)的硫酸銅，或者是因為非法入侵的漁民，保羅在他的魚塘里再也沒見著活魚，于是他尋找到新的釣魚地——一片數(shù)千平方英里的海洋。本文節(jié)選自書的前言，講述了作者兒時的釣魚經(jīng)歷。

ike any hunter whose grounds have gone bad， I set out looking for new territory. I followed the outflow of the pond down a series of cascades that in turn flattened out into a low， 1）swampy meadow of deep 2）oxbows. Only 3）minuscule 4）shiners， crawfish， and escaped goldfish swam here. Farther and farther I went， until the stream joined a larger river and passage was blocked by a fence that a wealthy landowner had erected. Inspecting a map at the library， I found that this was a significant juncture for my stream （as with “my” pond， I had 5）annexed the stream and referred to it now as “mine”）. The point at which it was no longer my stream was where it entered the Byram River， a flow that during the times of Native American 6）sovereignty was called the Armonck， or “fishing place，” but which， according to one local legend， the English renamed because of the native tendency to 7）pester white men with armfuls of 8）shad and 9）herring for trade and the endlessly repeated 10）entreaty “Buy rum？ Buy rum？” The Byram continued south for another ten miles after the juncture before widening and finally emptying out into the sea. The beginning of an idea came to me.

Several hundred dollars made it into my account after an 11）ersatz 12）bar mitzvah that my partially Jewish family 13）cobbled together for me when I turned thirteen， and through a debt-leveraged matching grant from the depths of my mothers complicated finances I was able to purchase a used aluminum boat and a twentyhorsepower outboard engine. Using her good figure and her ability to forge solidarity with the working classes （she had been a friend of the American socialist Michael Harrington and was an experienced strike 14）aide-de-camp）， my mother persuaded the Greenwich harbormaster to let us jump the waiting list for a boat slip at the Grass Island Marina. By the summer of 1981， I had a boat， a place to store it， and serveral thousand square miles of sea for my own use. Better hunting grounds had been found at last.

This was not the time of child seats or swallow-proof soda-can tabs. No safety seals secured 15）Tylenol bottles or yogurt containers. Today it would be considered parental negligence， but in that first summer of boat ownership my mother would drive me down to the Grass Island Marina， seat belt-less， in her black secondhand luxury-edition Chrysler Cordoba， and drop me off at my thirdhand boat. As I finished dumping my gear out of her trunk， she would light a Dunhill cigarette， cough heavily， and then， with a glance in her rearview， speed off into the childless afternoon ahead of her. So， at the age of thirteen， I learned how to navigate and fish on the sea by myself. It wasnt difficult—Im sure most children， given the opportunity， could have figured it out. Once upon a time， being thirteen really did mean you were a man. But the feeling of steaming out into open water in pursuit of wild game， leaving the financial and physical constriction of mainland Connecticut behind， was exhilarating.

我跟在狩獵場打不到獵物的獵人一樣，開始尋找新的釣魚地點(diǎn)。我跟著從池塘流出的水流，經(jīng)過一連串小瀑布，來到一片有許多U字形牛軛灣、如沼澤般的低淺草地，那里只有銀色小魚、淡水鰲蝦和逃脫的金魚。我越走越遠(yuǎn)，最后發(fā)現(xiàn)這條小溪匯入一條較大的河流，然后水道被一個富有地主的柵欄攔住。到圖書館研究過地圖之后，我發(fā)現(xiàn)那里是我那條溪的重要匯流處（跟“我的”池塘一樣，我也把這條溪視為“我的”）。但是它匯入白拉穆河后，就不再是我的河流了；在美國原住民的統(tǒng)治時代，白拉穆河原本稱為阿爾蒙克，“釣魚地”之意，但是根據(jù)當(dāng)?shù)氐膫髡f，由于原住民經(jīng)常抱著滿懷的西鯡和鯡魚纏著白人買，他們重復(fù)懇求對方買魚的英文發(fā)音，類似“白拉穆”，后來英國人就將這條河重新命名為白拉穆河。白拉穆河經(jīng)過匯流處后，繼續(xù)往南十英里，然后開始變寬，最后注入大海。就在這時，我有了一個想法。

我的家族有猶太血統(tǒng)，十三歲時，他們草率地替我舉行成年禮后，將數(shù)百美元匯入我的賬戶，于是我利用債務(wù)杠桿的手法，通過母親復(fù)雜的財務(wù)操作取得等量的贊助金，買了一艘二手鋁制汽艇和一個二十馬力的船外馬達(dá)。我母親外形姣好，又有著使勞工階層團(tuán)結(jié)一致的能力（她跟美國社會主義者邁克爾·漢靈頓是朋友，在協(xié)助推動罷工上經(jīng)驗豐富），她利用這些優(yōu)勢說服格林威治港務(wù)局長，讓我們優(yōu)先使用草島小船停泊港的船塢，而不必在候補(bǔ)名單上等候。到了一九八一年夏天，我已經(jīng)有一艘小船、一個停泊地點(diǎn)和數(shù)千平方英里的海洋供我使用。我終于找到了更好的釣魚場。

當(dāng)時還沒有兒童座椅或防吞式汽水罐拉環(huán)，也沒有用于泰諾塑膠藥瓶或酸奶罐的封口。有些做法當(dāng)時稀松平常，若是今日卻會被視為父母的疏失，可就在我擁有那艘船后的第一個夏天，母親開著她那輛沒有座椅安全帶的二手黑色克萊斯勒科多巴豪華轎車，送我到草島小船停泊港，讓我在我那艘三手船旁下車。當(dāng)我把裝備從后車廂搬下來時，她會點(diǎn)一支登喜路香煙，重重地咳幾聲，然后瞄一眼后視鏡，確定我搬好后迅速離去，奔向不需要照顧小孩的午后。因此，我十三歲就學(xué)會了航海，獨(dú)自在海上捕魚。其實這并不難，我確定大多數(shù)的小孩只要有機(jī)會就能自行摸索成功。在以前的年代，滿十三歲便意味著成年。但是駕駛汽艇到大海上追捕野生獵物，把康涅狄格州本土的財務(wù)與有形限制都拋諸腦后的感覺，實在很棒。

I did not have a GPS to plot my position or sonar to help me find fish. There was no cell phone to “check in” with home. I learned to find quarry by chasing flocks of diving 16）terns or following a line of rocks from the shore with the assumption （usually right） that they indicated similar fish-holding rock piles down below the surface. If a 17）rivet came loose from the hull of my boat—a sometime occurrence， since the 18）hull had not been 19）anodized to withstand salt water—I would slip off a 20）flip-flop and hold the 21）errant piece of metal in place with my big toe. I was sometimes able to persuade my older brother to join me， but midway through that first summer he announced that he “no longer wanted to kill things.” I didnt mind. I was happy to be alone with the fish and the ocean.

By my second year of boat ownership， I began to understand the flow of fish as they came and left Long Island Sound. St. Patricks Day， around when the 22）forsythias first bloomed， was the time to test the mudflats for 23）flounder just off the Indian Harbor Yacht Club docks. By April， when the forsythia 24）shriveled to brown and the 25）dogwoods came into flower， 26）mackerel would have passed into the Sound and blackfish would be on the reefs surrounding Great Captain Island—a sure sign that it was time to put the boat in the water. Soon the lilacs would blossom， 27）heralding the arrival of the first 28）weakfish and29）porgies in May. And by the time lawns were being mowed with 30）ferocity ashore， bluefish were coming into the harbors.

當(dāng)時沒有衛(wèi)星定位系統(tǒng)可以標(biāo)示我的位置，也沒有聲納可以幫忙搜索魚群，當(dāng)然更沒有手機(jī)可以跟家里“報備”行蹤。我學(xué)會靠追蹤潛水的燕鷗來尋找獵物，或是沿著海邊的巖石航行，因為這些通常意味著海面下有巖石堆，藏有大量魚群，而我通常是對的。我那艘船的鉚釘有時會松脫，因為它的表面沒有經(jīng)過電鍍，無法抵擋海水的侵蝕。每當(dāng)發(fā)生這種情形時，我會脫掉一只涼鞋，用大腳趾把松脫的鉚釘踩在原位。有時我會說服我哥跟我一起去，但是那年夏天才過了一半，他就宣布“不再殺生”。我對此并不介意，反正我跟魚和海洋獨(dú)處也能自得其樂。

到了擁有船的第二年，我已經(jīng)找到魚群進(jìn)出長島海灣的路線。每到圣帕特里克日，也就是連翹首次開花的時節(jié)，可以到印第安港游艇俱樂部船塢外、退潮后形成的泥地，尋求鰈魚。到了四月，連翹枯萎，山茱萸綻放，這時鯖魚會游進(jìn)海灣，而黑魚會前往環(huán)繞大船長島的暗礁，顯然是把船開出去的好時機(jī)。過了不久，丁香盛開，便能迎接五月的第一群犬牙石首魚和鯛魚。等到岸邊大量除草時，就是扁 入港的時節(jié)。