【精英翻譯】的部落格

World Sea Turtle Day: Don’t Let It Swim Away

世界海龜日：別讓海龜從我們身邊游走了

精英翻譯社轉自https://paper.udn.com/udnpaper/POH0058/353985/web/

World Sea Turtle Day is here at last. Celebrated on June 16th, this special day is dedicated to one of the world’s oldest and most fascinating creatures. Unfortunately, this is also a day to remind everyone of the sea turtle’s endangered status.

世界海龜日終於到了。這個特殊的日子在六月十六日慶祝，要獻給世界上最古老且最迷人的生物之一。遺憾的是，這也是提醒每個人海龜處境瀕危的一天。

Sea turtles have been around since the time of the dinosaurs. They typically live to between 30 and 50 years of age, spending most of their lives at sea. Part of the reptile family, sea turtles can hold their breath for up to five hours. This comes in handy since some species can dive as deep as 1,000 meters below the water’s surface before needing to come up for air. Sea turtles also like to get around, often migrating very long distances. One species migrates over 12,000 km from nesting beaches in Japan all the way to feeding grounds near Mexico. Their amazing sense of direction is due to their ability to detect Earth’s magnetic field.

海龜從恐龍時代就已經存在了。牠們通常能活三十至五十歲，大部分時間都在海裡度過。海龜為爬蟲類的一員，可以屏住呼吸長達五個小時。這很管用，因為有些物種可以潛至水面下一千公尺深，才需要回到水面上呼吸空氣。海龜也喜歡到處活動，經常長途遷徙。有一個物種從日本的築巢海灘一路游到墨西哥附近的索餌場，遷徙超過一萬兩千公里。牠們驚人的方向感歸因於牠們偵測地球磁場的能力。

Female sea turtles return to the beach they hatched on to nest. Some species lay up to 250 eggs in a single nest, and each egg takes around 60 days to incubate. However, it’s estimated that only one in a thousand baby turtles survives to adulthood.

雌海龜回到牠們孵化的海灘築巢。有些物種在單一個巢穴產下多達兩百五十顆卵，每顆卵需要大約六十天的時間孵化。然而，據估每一千隻海龜寶寶只有一隻能存活到成年。