In warm waters around the world a cold-blooded killer hunts its victims. Mysterious in its movements, ferocious and feared, the terrifying tiger shark is distinctive in its dark stripes. They can slip past our defenses to savage us. Highly-adaptable hunters, they swallow up whatever they can catch. Even turtle shell is no defense against powerful jaws and saw-edged teeth. But are these secretive monsters as predatory as they seem? And with shark numbers dropping, can they survive in the 21st century? The world around sharks is changing at a growing pace, devastating the way they have lived for millennia. Sea temperatures are rising, fish stocks disappearing; breeding habitats vanish overnight.
有種冷血殺手在全球溫暖海域獵捕受害者;行蹤隱密又凶惡殘暴的可怕虎鯊,身上有明顯的暗色條紋,牠們能溜過人類防線展開攻擊。這種適應力極強的獵者,能吞下捕捉到的所有獵物,就連龜殼也無法抵擋牠們的強力雙顎與利齒。但這些神祕巨獸真如一般認為的危險嗎?隨著鯊魚數量遞減,虎鯊能否撐過二十一世紀?鯊魚的生活環境正在急速改變,衝擊牠們數千年來的生存方式,海水溫度不斷上升,魚群開始減少,繁殖棲地在一夕間消失。
Coconuts kill 25 people a year. Sharks kill about 10 people a year. A bite pressure of three tonnes per square centimeter allows voracious tiger sharks to tackle almost anything. Many of those items are not digestible, things like plastic bags and tin cans.
椰子每年害死二十五人,每年只有約十人死於鯊魚之口。一口咬下可施加每平方公分三公噸壓力,幾乎沒有任何事物能對抗好胃口的虎鯊,其中很多東西不能消化,包括塑膠袋和罐頭。
The lone adults may appear sluggish, but they can hit over 30km per hour in bursts. Ragged-tooth sharks hide in caves, taking refuge from strong currents. They gulp air into their stomachs at the surface — below, this added buoyancy allows them to remain almost motionless. Despite their fearsome teeth, they are rarely aggressive to divers, hunting calmer regions for fish.
單獨行動的成鯊或許看似懶散,但牠們能突然加速到時速三十公里以上。錐齒鯊藏在洞穴裡,躲避強勁的海流。牠們在海面吞下空氣到胃部,下潛後,這種額外的浮力能讓牠們幾乎靜止不動,雖然擁有駭人利齒,牠們卻鮮少攻擊潛水者,只在較平靜的海域捕魚。
Tiger sharks are on the IUCN red list of species at risk, which could be key to saving them. The mighty tiger shark has been a hunter for 60 million years, but is now facing a rapidly-altering world. Pursued for sport and meat, drowned in safety nets and killed in their thousands by commercial fishing. Close-up these great ocean-going fish no longer appear mere killing machines, but solitary scavengers struggling to survive. Now they are in a new race against time — change is needed or they will be swept aside by forces beyond their control.
虎鯊名列世界自然保育聯盟瀕危物種紅皮書上,這或許就是拯救虎鯊的關鍵。雄偉的虎鯊是生存六千萬年的獵者,現在卻面臨急速變遷的世界。人類為了娛樂和滿足口慾追捕這些大魚,每次有數千條溺斃在安全網上或遭商業漁業殺害。就近觀察可以發現這些海洋巨獸並非殺人機器,而是掙扎求生的獨行清道夫。現在虎鯊面臨與時間賽跑的新挑戰,我們必須做出改變,否則虎鯊將被牠們無法控制的力量撲滅。



