How Do BlueWhales Find Food?蓝鲸如何寻找食物?

张紫轩

Blue whales are large and mysterious2 animals. There are many unansweredquestions about them. They are found all over the world， except3 the Arctic Ocean.They usually just move around when they need to have babies and look for food.They move really fast. They can move about 30 miles4 every day on their way toCalifornia in the summer.

蓝鲸是巨大而神秘的动物，关于它们的未解之谜有很多。除了北冰洋，它们遍布世界各地。它们通常只在繁殖期和觅食期四处活动。它们游动的速度非常快，在夏天前往加利福尼亚的途中，每天可以游大约30 英里。

The blue whales also sound uniquely5. Researchers6 try to listen for bluewhale sounds. They used these sounds to track7 the blue whalesmovements8， andlearned that blue whales made use of wind to find food.

蓝鲸的声音也很独特。研究人员试图倾听蓝鲸的声音，他们用这些声音来追踪蓝鲸的活动，并了解到蓝鲸利用风来寻找食物。

During the spring and summer， we can see unique “upwelling9”in the PacificOcean. Wind makes the top layer10 of ocean water come down to sea， but the othercolder water goes higher. And blue whales can find krill11 to eat on the plumes12 ofcooler water. When the upwelling stops and the plumes of food go away， the whalesmove away. The wind is a great help to blue whales.

在春天和夏天，我们可以在太平洋看到独特的“上升流”景象。这时，风把最上层的海水下降到海里，但其他较冷的海水则往上升。而蓝鲸可以在这些较冷的水柱中找到磷虾吃。当上升流停止，含有食物的水柱消失时，鲸鱼就会离开。风对蓝鲸来说是一个很大的助力。

Researchers tried to find where some sounds come from. They tried a lot tomake sure that it was a blue whale that makes sounds. A research shows thatblue whales will know it when the wind changes. Then they would find placeswhere upwelling brings them food. These big blue whales find groups of krill tolive， because they need to eat about two million tons of krill a year. The bluewhales track the upwelling to have more time to eat.

研究人員试图找到一些声音的来源。为了确定是蓝鲸发出的声音，他们做了很多尝试。一项研究表明，蓝鲸会识别出何时风会发生变化，然后找到上升流给它们带来食物的地方。这些大型蓝鲸依靠成群的磷虾存活，因为它们每年需要吃大约200 万吨的磷虾。蓝鲸追踪上升流是为了有更多的时间来吃东西。

▏Notes

1. whale . 鲸

2. mysterious . 神秘的；难以解释的

3. except. 除了……之外

4. mile. 英里

5. uniquely. 独特地

6. researcher. 研究人员

7. track. 跟踪；追踪

8. movement . 运动；活动

9. upwelling. 上涌；[海洋]上升流

10. layer. 层；层次

11. krill. 磷虾；鱼苗

12. plume . 一股水柱