Name: 沙漠裡竟有魚？揭秘世界上最稀有魚類的驚人真相！(Why The World’s Rarest Fish Is Trapped In The Hottest Desert On Earth)
Uploaded: 2025-11-06T21:01:10.000Z
Duration: 7 min 47 s

Devil's Hole is one of the worst places to be a fish.

魔鬼洞是對魚類來說最糟糕的棲息地之一。

情態副詞

It has lethally low dissolved oxygen, critically high temperatures.

那裡溶氧量致命地低、溫度危險地高。

程度副詞

Nearly any fish that goes into it would die.

幾乎任何進到那裡的魚都會死。

這些小鱂魚一直都活在邊緣狀態。

With such a small population in such a limited area.

在這麼有限的區域裡，族群量又這麼小。

This fish is found nowhere else in the wild or in nature.

這種魚在野外或自然界的任何其他地方都找不到。

With under 40 pupfish left in the wild, they are possibly the rarest fish on the planet.

野外剩不到 40 隻，它可能是地球上最稀有的魚類。

But how did they end up in such an inhospitable place?

但它們到底怎麼會出現在如此惡劣的地方？

And what makes their survival so important?

又是什麼讓它們的存續如此重要？

People will ask, should this fish exist in such an extreme environment?

人們會問：這條魚真的應該存在於這麼極端的環境嗎？

And honestly, I have to ask myself, yeah, I mean, how and why. Is it a pupfish miracle?

老實說，我也會問自己：對啊，為什麼？怎麼可能？這是小鱂魚的奇蹟嗎？

Devil's Hole is part of Death Valley National Park.

魔鬼洞是死亡谷國家公園的一部分。

Devil Hole was actually formed by a geological fault, and so that's what opened up.

魔鬼洞其實是因地質斷層形成的，而這就是它開口的方式。

And I like to call this a window into the aquifer or the groundwater.

我喜歡把它稱作通往含水層或地下水的「窗戶」。

Divers have been down to 436ft, and they didn't see a bottom.

潛水員最深到過 436 英尺，仍然沒看到底部。

It becomes a true cave system below 85ft.

在 85 英尺以下，它就變成真正的洞穴系統。

It's also considered an extreme environment.

That water you're looking at is 93 degrees Fahrenheit all the time.

你看到的那水溫，一年四季都維持在華氏 93 度。

The shelf doesn't get a lot of sunlight, so that limits the amount of algae that grows.

岩棚獲得的陽光很少，所以藻類的生長量也有限。

The pupfish originally got their name because they acted like puppies.

鱂魚原本名字的由來，是因為牠們像小狗一樣。

When we dive to count the fish, they'll come swimming up to you and say, wow, you're a big fish.

我們到水裡數魚時，牠們會游過來，好像在說：「哇，你是隻大魚。」

Genetics have estimated between hundreds of years to tens of thousands of years.

基因研究推估從數百年到數萬年。

We started counting the fish actually in 1972.

我們從 1972 年開始統計魚的數量。

We used scuba as well as surface counters to estimate the population size.

我們使用水肺潛水和地面觀察共同估算族群規模。

Historically, the highest count is just like 540 fish.

歷史上最高的紀錄大約是 540 隻。

In 1966, there was the Endangered Species Preservation act and the first species put on that list,

1966 年有瀕危物種保護法，而第一批被列入名單的物種之一，

Devil's Hole was one of the group of fishes in 1967.

魔鱂魚就在 1967 年那批魚類之中。

The Devil's Hole pupfish are kind of an odd conundrum because they are able to live in this really, really extreme environment.

魔鱂魚很矛盾，牠們能活在極端環境中，

But at the same time, they're a relatively delicate fish.

但同時牠們又是相當脆弱的魚類。

UNLV found that when the dissolved oxygen goes low, they actually start producing ethanol.

內華達大學拉斯維加斯分校發現溶氧量過低時，牠們會開始產生乙醇。

And essentially, when times get tough, the fish get a little bit drunk,

基本上，當時運不好時，這些魚會有點像「喝醉」。

and it helps them to survive a complete lack of oxygen.

而這竟然有助於牠們在完全無氧狀態下生存。

These are extremophiles, and they're living at the edges of what a fish can survive.

牠們是極端生物，活在魚類能承受的極限邊界。

Devil's Hole being so deep, such a large body of water that earthquakes around the world can create these large waves.

因為魔鬼洞如此深又水量巨大，世界各地的地震都能在此引發巨浪。

實際上叫「振盪波」（seiches）。

Certain earthquakes, depending on the depth and the magnitude in location, typically around the Ring of Fire.

某些地震，取決於深度、規模與位置，特別是環太平洋火山帶附近，

So from Chile, Mexico, up to Alaska, down to Japan, and along that western part of the Pacific,

從智利、墨西哥到阿拉斯加，再到日本，以及整個太平洋西側地區，

large earthquakes can cause waves up over this boulder here.

大型地震都會讓浪打過這塊巨石。

This winter, Devil's Hole experienced seiches that were the result of two very poorly timed earthquakes.

今年冬天，魔鬼洞遭遇了由兩次非常不巧的地震引起的振盪波。

The effect of this was that sloshing of water back and forth washed all the algae,

其結果是水來回猛烈搖晃，把所有藻類、

all the food, invertebrates, everything off of the shelf.

所有食物、無脊椎動物，全都從岩棚上沖掉。

That caused a food limitation, and the fish began to suffer.

這造成食物不足，魚開始受苦。

Recently, we're concerned about the population.

We went from over 200 fish in September of 2024 to as few as 20 in the end of February.

2024 年 9 月我們還有 200 多隻，但到了 2 月底只剩 20 隻左右。

We are in basically the middle of nowhere in the Mojave Desert, inside Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge in Amargosa Valley, Nevada.

我們現在身處莫哈維沙漠深處，位於內華達州阿馬戈薩谷的白楊草原野生動物保護區。

And we are approximately one mile away from where the actual Devil's Hole exists.

而我們距離真正的魔鬼洞大約一英里。

The Ash Meadows Fish Conservation Facility is designed to maintain a lifeboat population of the Devil's Hole pupfish.

白楊草原魚類保育中心的設計目的，就是維持魔鱂魚的「救生艇族群」。

So we tried to represent, recreate a really bad ecosystem, essentially, in captivity.

所以我們嘗試在圈養環境中重現一個非常糟糕的自然生態系。

We had to figure out a way to collect fish without collecting fish.

我們必須想辦法「收集魚」，但不能真的捕魚。

We did that by collecting eggs that were produced initially.

我們透過收集牠們產下的卵來做到這點。

We collected during the peak of summer and the dead of winter,

when we knew that eggs produced during that time had an extremely low, almost 0% survival rate to adulthood.

因為在那些時期產下的卵，成長到成魚的存活率極低，幾乎是 0%。

We increased the amount and frequency of some frozen food.

我們增加了冷凍餌料的種類與餵食頻率。

We targeted some benthic macroinvertebrate food, and for just macroinvertebrates.

我們也針對底棲大型無脊椎動物的食物來源，提供更多營養。

We did actually use these fish for the first time in 10 years in their intended purpose as a lifeboat population.

我們實際上十年來第一次將這些魚用回原本的使命——作為救生艇族群。

We stocked 43 fish over two different stocking events into Devil's Hole to help the population.

我們在兩次放養行動中，共 43 隻小鱂魚被放回魔鬼洞。

And since then, the population has largely stabilized,

自那之後，族群大致穩定下來，

and we've started to see new babies, eggs being produced,

我們開始看到新生寶寶、產下的卵，

and signs that the population is starting to recover.

So it's encouraging that, you know, this lifeboat actually works.

所以令人鼓舞的是，這艘救生艇真的有效。

The fish facility is really playing a big role in both providing the data and the materials to be able to continue to shepherd them to success.

魚類保育中心在提供數據與資源方面，對牠們的延續扮演了重要角色。

總會有人問：為什麼要這麼做？

There are a few reasons that I show up for work every day.

They've been doing fine in the wild for the last 10,000 years,

牠們在野外活得好好的長達一萬年。

but since human intervention and human activities in the region have impacted them since the 1950s on,

但自從 1950 年代起，人類活動與開發使得牠們受到影響，

the population has been struggling and has nearly gone extinct at least three different times.

族群開始掙扎，甚至至少三次瀕臨滅絕。

So I feel like I have kind of a moral obligation that we should also do what we can to try and bring them back.

所以我覺得這是一種道德責任——我們應該盡力讓牠們恢復。

There's lots of other fish in the region that are going to be facing some of the same challenges that the Devil's Hole pupfish does.

這區域還有許多其他魚類會面臨與魔鬼洞小鱂魚相同的挑戰。

It's really the canary in the coal mines.

牠們真的是「礦坑中的金絲雀」。

你可能會問：小鱂魚為何重要？

One, humans develop a lot of our medications from extreme environments.

首先，人類有許多藥物都是從極端環境中取得靈感或發現的。

And so we are learning how this vertebrate species lives in warm, low-oxygen water,

我們正研究這種脊椎動物是如何在高溫、低氧的水中生存的，

and we still don't know everything about it.

And so these are things that we still have a lot to learn from the fish and from the ecosystem.

這些都是我們仍需從魚類與這個生態系中學習的事。

If we let it go extinct, so does our opportunity to learn from the fish.

如果我們讓牠們滅絕，我們學習的機會也會跟著消失。