How to Love an Oyster | Hakai Magazine
He called it the Olympia And coined a word specific Describing the Olympia As simply “Oysteriffic” —Jay Bolster, “Ode to the Olympia Oyster”
他将其称为“奥林匹亚”，并创造了一个专门的词，将“奥林匹亚”简单地描述为“Oysteriffic”——Jay Bolster，“奥林匹亚牡蛎颂”
Most people, even those who know a thing or two about oysters and may perhaps enjoy eating them, have no idea that the sweet and buttery bivalves they are slurping down in San Francisco or Vancouver are not the native species of the West Coast but Japanese imports.
大多数人，甚至那些对牡蛎略知一二并且可能喜欢吃牡蛎的人，都不知道他们在旧金山或温哥华吃的甜甜的黄油双壳类动物不是西海岸的本地物种，而是日本进口的。
It’s an easy mistake to make, considering that Japanese oysters ( Crassostrea gigas ) are commonly referred to as Pacific oysters—as in western Pacific—though they have been commercially cultivated in North American waters for nearly a century.
这是一个很容易犯的错误，因为日本牡蛎（Crassostrea gigas）通常被称为太平洋牡蛎（如西太平洋牡蛎），尽管它们在北美水域的商业养殖已有近一个世纪的历史。
There may be no intentional deception at work, but if you’re anything like me, you must be disappointed to discover another hitch in your quest to do right by the ocean: eating locally caught, native seafood, preferably shellfish because their carbon footprint is low.
工作中可能没有故意欺骗，但如果你和我一样，你一定会失望地发现在海边做事的另一个障碍：吃当地捕获的本土海鲜，最好是贝类，因为它们的碳足迹很低。
Japanese oysters?
日本生蚝？
Locally raised, yes.
本地养的，是的。
But this introduced species has spread so easily and become so common that you can find them rooted in places where no one has deliberately planted them.
但这种引入的物种非常容易传播并且变得如此普遍，以至于你可以在没有人故意种植它们的地方发现它们扎根。
Our appetites have fueled this alien invasion.
我们的胃口助长了这场外星人的入侵。
It is only on rare occasions at certain bougie establishments that you might encounter the much-smaller Olympia oyster ( Ostrea lurida ) on the menu, a Proustian remembrance with its miserly portion of meat and coppery taste.
只有在某些极少数的情况下，您才可能在菜单上遇到小得多的奥林匹亚牡蛎（Ostrea lurida），这是一种普鲁斯特式的回忆，其肉的比例很少，味道有铜味。
“Olys” were once the Pacific oyster.
“Olys”曾经是太平洋牡蛎。
They were sold in seafood markets up and down the West Coast in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
19 世纪末和 20 世纪初，它们在西海岸各地的海鲜市场上出售。
Coastal development, overharvesting, and polluting industries, mostly wood-pulp mills, resulted in the decline of their populations and their near-total erasure from the public consciousness.
沿海开发、过度采伐和污染工业（主要是木浆厂）导致其人口减少，并几乎完全从公众意识中消失。
One study from 2011 describes them as being functionally extinct across most of the Pacific coast.
2011 年的一项研究称，它们在太平洋沿岸的大部分地区已经功能性灭绝。
Pacific oysters from Japan supplanted Olympia oysters in bays throughout the native oyster’s habitat.
来自日本的太平洋牡蛎取代了整个本土牡蛎栖息地海湾中的奥林匹亚牡蛎。
Map by Aaron Kornbluth et al.
地图由 Aaron Kornbluth 等人绘制。
They aren’t unusual in that regard: scientists estimate that 85 percent of native oyster reefs around the world have been lost.
从这方面来说，它们并不罕见：科学家估计，世界各地 85% 的本土牡蛎礁已经消失。
But while efforts to protect and restore Atlantic oysters in the United States have received massive popular and federal support along the Gulf of Mexico and the East Coast, the fate of the Olys—a species that ranges from the middle of Baja California to Northern British Columbia—has been left in the hands of a few determined zealots.
然而，尽管美国保护和恢复大西洋牡蛎的努力得到了墨西哥湾和东海岸的民众和联邦政府的大力支持，但奥利斯牡蛎——一种分布在下加利福尼亚州中部到不列颠哥伦比亚省北部的物种——的命运却掌握在一些坚定的狂热者手中。
And you pretty much have to be a zealot to love an oyster.
你必须是一个狂热分子才能热爱牡蛎。
Just about anyone can fall for a whale.
几乎任何人都可能爱上鲸鱼。
A select few might grow fond of an octopus.
少数人可能会喜欢章鱼。
An oyster, immobile and nearly brainless, is hardly even an animal, despite what the taxonomists tell us.
尽管分类学家告诉我们，牡蛎一动不动，几乎没有大脑，甚至很难算作动物。
Some plants possess more personality: They sport showy flowers, fuzzy leaves, colorful fruits.
有些植物更具个性：它们有艳丽的花朵、毛茸茸的叶子、色彩缤纷的果实。
They grow and change with the seasons, luring in pollinators and herbivores.
它们随着季节的变化而生长和变化，吸引传粉者和食草动物。
Loving an oyster is like loving a rock.
爱牡蛎就像爱岩石。
And a person who advertises their love of Olys is like that insufferable friend who rides around town on a fixed-gear bicycle and listens to bands you can’t stream on Spotify.
一个宣传自己对 Olys 的热爱的人就像那个令人难以忍受的朋友，骑着固定齿轮自行车在城里转来转去，听你无法在 Spotify 上播放的乐队。
But also, that friend sometimes has a point.
而且，这位朋友有时也有道理。
There’s a whole world out there that you and I might benefit from knowing a little more about.
外面的世界是一个完整的世界，你和我如果多了解一些，可能会受益匪浅。
Olympia oysters, called Olys, are small but have a mighty taste.
奥林匹亚牡蛎被称为 Olys，个头虽小，但味道鲜美。
Photo by Bryan Chan/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
摄影：Bryan Chan/洛杉矶时报，盖蒂图片社
Last fall, my editor suggested I spend some time with the zealots, starting with an afternoon symposium on Olympia oysters taking place at the annual meeting of the Western Society of Naturalists.
去年秋天，我的编辑建议我花一些时间与狂热者在一起，从在西方博物学家协会年会上举行的下午奥林匹亚牡蛎研讨会开始。
Several dozen experts, representing 3,000 kilometers of coastline, packed into a conference room at a beachside hotel in Southern California.
代表 3000 公里海岸线的数十名专家挤在南加州一家海滨酒店的会议室里。
One graduate student had used a special sensor to measure the heartbeat of an oyster in situ.
一名研究生使用一种特殊的传感器现场测量牡蛎的心跳。
Another had staked GoPro cameras into the shallows to see what kind of fish frequented an oyster bed.
另一个人将 GoPro 相机固定在浅滩上，看看有哪些鱼经常光顾牡蛎养殖场。
At one point, a group of marine biologists decamped from the festivities, crossed a four-lane road, and were delighted to confirm the presence of a few isolated urban Olys amid the sailboats moored at a harbor behind a residential development.
有一次，一群海洋生物学家从庆祝活动中撤离，穿过一条四车道的道路，很高兴地确认在停泊在住宅开发区后面港口的帆船中存在一些孤立的城市奥利斯。
“There’s still a strong belief that there weren’t any here,” says Danielle Zacherl, an ecologist at California State University–Fullerton, referring to the Olys’s range in Southern California.
加州州立大学富勒顿分校的生态学家丹妮尔·扎切尔 (Danielle Zacherl) 说：“人们仍然坚信这里没有任何动物。”她指的是南加州的奥利斯山脉。
These researchers are all conducting objective, rigorous science.
这些研究人员都在进行客观、严谨的科学研究。
But it’s clear they’re also gunning for a particular outcome: proving to their families, their friends, and the rest of the world that the invertebrate indie band they care so much about is worth the trouble.
但很明显，他们也在追求一个特定的结果：向他们的家人、朋友和世界其他人证明，他们如此关心的无脊椎动物独立乐队是值得的。
Danielle Zacherl, leaning over the reef ball, and her team work on an oyster restoration project in the Port of San Diego in California.
丹妮尔·扎切尔 (Danielle Zacherl) 俯身在珊瑚礁球上，她和她的团队正在加利福尼亚州圣地亚哥港开展牡蛎修复项目。
Photo by Rob Hammer
罗布·哈默摄
“This species has a PR problem for sure,” admits April Ridlon, past coordinator of the Native Olympia Oyster Collaborative who’s now with the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
“这个物种肯定存在公关问题，”原住民奥林匹亚牡蛎合作组织的前协调员、现在蒙特利湾水族馆的阿普丽尔·里德隆 (April Ridlon) 承认。
“I think it’s hard for people to envision that these things are even alive.” At the very least, she says, we need to know what we will lose if these oysters vanish and what we might gain if we succeed in bringing them back.
“我认为人们很难想象这些东西是有生命的。”她说，至少我们需要知道，如果这些牡蛎消失，我们会失去什么，如果我们成功地将它们带回来，我们会得到什么。
When oyster populations are healthy, they spread billions of microscopic larvae that drift and sway with the currents before rooting themselves on terra firma, where they clean the water of detritus—including algae that they magically transform into sumptuous, edible protein.
当牡蛎种群健康时，它们会传播数十亿个微小的幼虫，这些幼虫会随着水流漂流和摇摆，然后在陆地上扎根，在那里它们清除水中的碎屑——包括藻类，然后它们神奇地转化为丰富的可食用蛋白质。
Like beavers or termites, they are ecosystem engineers, shaping the habitat where they live.
像海狸或白蚁一样，它们是生态系统工程师，塑造着它们居住的栖息地。
The Atlantic oyster, for instance, builds reefs off the coast that are over a meter in height and contain millions of individuals that, collectively, defend the shore from storm surges and erosion.
例如，大西洋牡蛎在海岸附近建造了高度超过一米的珊瑚礁，其中有数以百万计的个体，它们共同保护海岸免受风暴潮和侵蚀。
Just one of those oysters can filter nearly 60 liters per day—200 liters in ideal conditions—providing the clear water that allows aquatic plants to grow and creating a nursery for young fish, crabs, and other marine species.
仅其中一只牡蛎每天就可以过滤近 60 升（理想条件下为 200 升），提供清澈的水，使水生植物能够生长，并为幼鱼、螃蟹和其他海洋物种创造一个苗圃。
I could go on and on about the benefits of oysters, but a better way to develop an aficionado’s appreciation for “oysterhood” might be through the lens of a microscope.
我可以不停地谈论牡蛎的好处，但培养爱好者对“牡蛎”的欣赏的更好方法可能是通过显微镜的镜头。
Like many marine invertebrates, oysters start their lives as a tiny, mobile larva that experiences the vastness of the underwater world with the help of chemical sensors and a single pigmented eyespot.
与许多海洋无脊椎动物一样，牡蛎的生命始于微小的移动幼虫，在化学传感器和单个色素眼点的帮助下体验广阔的水下世界。
“Those two weeks are his one taste of vagabondage, of devil-may-care free roaming,” M.
“那两周是他第一次尝到流浪的滋味，无忧无虑地漫游，”M.
F.
F。
K.
K.
Fisher wrote in her classic book, Consider the Oyster .
费舍尔在她的经典著作《考虑牡蛎》中写道。
Oyster larvae are free-floating organisms looking for an ideal habitat in which to settle down and grow.
牡蛎幼虫是自由漂浮的生物，寻找理想的栖息地来定居和生长。
Photo by Wim Van Egmond/Science Photo Library
摄影：Wim Van Egmond/科学图片库
During a visit to the Moss Landing Marine Laboratories near Monterey, California, in early 2023, I lean in and watch these hyperactive critters use their cilia to zip around and bounce off each other like bumper cars.
2023 年初，在参观加利福尼亚州蒙特雷附近的莫斯兰丁海洋实验室时，我俯身观察这些过度活跃的生物，它们利用纤毛像碰碰车一样飞来飞去并相互弹跳。
My hosts, a group of marine biologists raising Olys in captivity, tell me the moment a larva settles down on a surface, he will never move again.
我的主人是一群圈养奥利斯的海洋生物学家，他们告诉我，一旦幼虫在表面安顿下来，他就再也不会动了。
(And it is a he , as most oysters begin life as a male and later switch sexes.)
（这是一个雄性，因为大多数牡蛎以雄性开始生活，然后转变性别。）
At this point in their lives, the Olys, like all oysters, do us a favor.
在生命的这个阶段，奥利斯就像所有牡蛎一样，帮了我们一个忙。
They become spat, a tiny version of their adult selves, less cute but more appetizing.
它们变成了唾沫，变成了成年自己的缩小版，不那么可爱，但更令人胃口大开。
To feed, they crack open their shells and use the abundant cilia on their gills to power the flow of water, capturing particles as they pass by and growing larger day by day.
为了进食，它们会打开贝壳，利用鳃上丰富的纤毛为水流提供动力，捕捉经过的颗粒，并一天天变大。
A “free gift from bounteous nature” is how one early 20th-century oyster partisan put it.
一位 20 世纪初的牡蛎爱好者将其形容为“来自丰富大自然的免费礼物”。
Judging from the piles of shells they left behind, the coastal tribes along the Pacific coast agreed: they took advantage of this bounty beginning at least 6,000 years ago.
从他们留下的成堆的贝壳来看，太平洋沿岸的沿海部落一致认为：他们至少从 6000 年前就开始利用这一财富。
Once the Europeans arrived, they, too, sang its praises.
欧洲人到来后，也对它大加赞扬。
“This oyster is very palatable …
“这个牡蛎非常好吃……
what there is of it, which is not much, and a sufficient number of them make an excellent stew,” wrote one gourmand in 1891.
1891 年，一位美食家写道：“虽然数量不多，但足够的数量可以做成一道美味的炖菜。”
The West Coast oyster industry took off in the tidal bays and inlets in central and southern Puget Sound in Washington State, where you only had to look for Indigenous dwellings to know where oyster beds lay.
西海岸的牡蛎产业在华盛顿州普吉特湾中部和南部的潮汐海湾和海湾起飞，您只需寻找土著住宅就可以知道牡蛎养殖场的位置。
Indigenous people sold the bivalves to the newcomers for about 25 cents a basket, according to Earl Steele’s 1957 book, The Rise and Decline of the Olympia Oyster .
根据厄尔·斯蒂尔 (Earl Steele) 1957 年出版的《奥林匹亚牡蛎的兴衰》(The Rise and Decline of the Olympia Oyster) 一书，原住民以每篮 25 美分左右的价格向新来者出售双壳类动物。
“‘Chief Seattle’ became quite a famous personage as he peddled his oysters around the streets and markets of the city dressed in Indian blankets and feathered head gear,” Steele wrote.
“‘西雅图酋长’成为了相当著名的人物，因为他穿着印度毯子和羽毛头饰，在城市的街道和市场上兜售牡蛎，”斯蒂尔写道。
White settlers often married Indigenous women in order to enter the business.
白人定居者经常与土著妇女结婚以进入这个行业。
After Washington became a state in 1889, the legislature passed laws allowing citizens to lay claim to tidelands for the cultivation of oysters.
1889 年华盛顿成为一个州后，立法机构通过了法律，允许公民拥有潮汐地用于养殖牡蛎。
State maps show that many of the first claimants were Indigenous people with names like Mud Bay Tom and Olympia Jim.
州地图显示，许多第一批声索者都是原住民，他们的名字包括泥湾汤姆（Mud Bay Tom）和奥林匹亚吉姆（Olympia Jim）。
There was only so much natural habitat with just the right conditions for oysters, and oystermen built dikes to augment their numbers.
自然栖息地的面积非常有限，适合牡蛎生长，牡蛎养殖者修建了堤坝来增加牡蛎的数量。
Washington’s capital, Olympia, naturally became the heart of the oyster industry, giving the bivalves their common name.
华盛顿州首府奥林匹亚自然成为牡蛎产业的中心，双壳类也因此得名。
Whole oysters were loaded into “two-bushel” burlap sacks, weighing about 50 kilograms and containing enough meat to fill around 30 tin cans.
整只牡蛎被装入“两蒲式耳”粗麻袋中，重约 50 公斤，肉量足以装满约 30 个锡罐。
By the mid-1920s, production in Puget Sound peaked at around 50,000 bushels per year.
到 20 年代中期，普吉特海湾的产量达到每年 50,000 蒲式耳左右的峰值。
Much of it was shipped south to California.
其中大部分被运往南方加利福尼亚州。
On what is today West Fourth Avenue in Olympia, Washington, J.
位于今天华盛顿州奥林匹亚的西第四大道。
J.
J。
Brenner opened the first shucking and shipping plant for Olys.
布伦纳 (Brenner) 为 Olys 开设了第一家脱壳和运输工厂。
Photo from The Rise and Decline of the Olympia Oyster via Biodiversity Heritage Library
照片来自生物多样性遗产图书馆《奥林匹亚牡蛎的兴衰》
Although San Francisco Bay had its own Olys, they were evidently only half the size of those up north.
尽管旧金山湾也有自己的奥利斯，但它们的大小显然只有北部的一半。
They were prized not so much for their meat but for their shells, which were loaded onto schooners to be used in garden walks or ground up as calcium-rich feed for egg-laying chickens.
它们之所以受到重视，与其说是因为它们的肉，不如说是因为它们的壳，它们被装到帆船上用于花园散步，或者磨碎作为产蛋鸡的富含钙的饲料。
In fact, they proved to be something of a pest to the local oystermen, who were trying to raise the larger, more desirable Atlantic oyster in the tidelands.
事实上，事实证明，它们对当地的牡蛎养殖者来说是一种害虫，他们试图在潮间带养殖更大、更令人向往的大西洋牡蛎。
“So closely do these indigenous oysters crowd upon the shells of the large species that when a heap of the latter have been cleaned for market the accumulated parasites almost equal in bulk the edible species,” reads a fisheries report from that era.
当时的一份渔业报告写道：“这些本土牡蛎如此紧密地聚集在大型物种的贝壳上，以至于当一大堆后者被清理干净准备上市时，积累的寄生虫数量几乎与可食用物种的数量相同。”
In 1926, Rainier Pulp & Paper Company was founded in Shelton, Washington, a small town on a finger of the Puget Sound known as Oakland Bay.
1926 年，雷尼尔纸浆造纸公司在华盛顿州谢尔顿成立，这是普吉特湾一指上的一个小镇，被称为奥克兰湾。
The company’s first mill took in leftover scraps from a nearby logging company and turned them into pulp for books and other paper products.
该公司的第一家工厂收集附近一家伐木公司的剩余废料，将其转化为书籍和其他纸制品的纸浆。
Four years later, it had expanded to three mills on the Puget Sound shoreline and beyond, becoming one of the largest pulp producers in the country.
四年后，该公司已在普吉特海湾海岸线及其他地区扩建了三家工厂，成为美国最大的纸浆生产商之一。
Rainier’s rise over a 20-year period corresponded with a crash in the Olympia oyster industry.
雷尼尔在 20 年间的崛起与奥林匹亚牡蛎产业的崩溃相对应。
While 10 to 20 percent of mature oysters might have died in past years, that number was now as high as 30 to 50 percent and higher, according to Steele.
斯蒂尔表示，虽然过去几年可能有 10% 到 20% 的成熟牡蛎死亡，但现在这一数字高达 30% 到 50% 甚至更高。
The industry’s value had declined by more than half, and many began to suspect that Rayonier—as the pulp producer had renamed itself—was the source of their problems.
该行业的价值下降了一半以上，许多人开始怀疑 Rayonier（纸浆生产商已更名）是他们问题的根源。
Tempers were ignited.
脾气被点燃了。
Lawsuits were filed.
已提起诉讼。
Studies were conducted.
进行了研究。
In January 1943, the US Fish and Wildlife Service began the most comprehensive investigation to date into the decline of Olys in the Pacific Northwest.
1943 年 1 月，美国鱼类和野生动物管理局开始对西北太平洋地区奥利斯鱼的数量减少进行迄今为止最全面的调查。
A researcher named Theron Odlaug set up a series of tanks with captive oysters.
一位名叫塞隆·奥德劳格 (Theron Odlaug) 的研究人员设置了一系列圈养牡蛎的水箱。
Some of the tanks had pure seawater, while others were exposed to varying concentrations of sulfite liquor, a pollutant from the pulp industry.
一些储罐装有纯净海水，而另一些储罐则暴露在不同浓度的亚硫酸盐溶液中，亚硫酸盐溶液是纸浆工业的污染物。
Odlaug glued a kind of apron to each oyster so that he could measure the rate at which they were siphoning water over two months while also documenting the periods when they opened and closed their shells.
奥德劳格在每只牡蛎上粘了一种围裙，这样他就可以测量它们在两个月内吸水的速度，同时还记录它们打开和关闭贝壳的时间。
The oysters in pure seawater kept their shells open most of the time, happily siphoning water at a relatively continuous rate.
纯净海水中的牡蛎大部分时间都打开壳，以相对连续的速度快乐地吸水。
Those in the polluted water, however, seemed to recoil with each pulse of noxious water, opening and closing their shells again and again to see if the situation would ever improve.
然而，那些在污染水中的生物似乎会随着有毒水的每一次脉冲而后退，一次又一次地打开和关闭它们的壳，看看情况是否会有所改善。
People were hired to shuck oysters all day long.
人们被雇来整天剥牡蛎。
Photo from The Rise and Decline of the Olympia Oyster via Biodiversity Heritage Library
照片来自生物多样性遗产图书馆《奥林匹亚牡蛎的兴衰》
When Odlaug stopped one experiment and examined one of the oysters in the polluted water, Oyster No. 41, he noticed that he could wiggle the two halves of the shell—as though its closing muscles had grown weak.
当奥德劳格停止一项实验并检查污染水中的一只牡蛎（41号牡蛎）时，他注意到他可以摆动贝壳的两半——就好像它的闭合肌肉变得无力一样。
When he opened it up and looked at the body and gills, it was not translucent and creamy like a healthy oyster but brown and mushy.
当他打开它并观察身体和鳃时，它并不像健康的牡蛎那样半透明和奶油状，而是棕色和糊状的。
Another oyster, Oyster No. 31, had “soft and flabby” muscles, while Oyster No. 43 stopped pumping for eight straight days, leaving its gills “shrunken and brown.”
另一种牡蛎，31 号牡蛎，肌肉“软而松弛”，而 43 号牡蛎则连续八天停止抽水，使其鳃“萎缩并呈棕色”。
By 1955, Olympia oyster production in Puget Sound had declined to 3,500 bushels per year, and the hardier Japanese oyster was brought in to replace them.
到 1955 年，普吉特海湾的奥林匹亚牡蛎产量已下降至每年 3,500 蒲式耳，于是引进了更耐寒的日本牡蛎来取代它们。
Oly numbers also crashed in smaller estuaries in Oregon and California that were diked, dammed, and otherwise modified as the rapidly growing human population overran the coastline.
俄勒冈州和加利福尼亚州的较小河口也出现了奥利数量的下降，随着快速增长的人口淹没海岸线，这些河口被筑堤、筑坝和进行其他改造。
Steele, who also served as the secretary of the Olympia Oyster Growers Association for 35 years, wrote that the Olympia oyster industry was ailing due to the pulp mills.
斯蒂尔还担任了奥林匹亚牡蛎种植者协会秘书 35 年，他写道，奥林匹亚牡蛎产业因纸浆厂而陷入困境。
“It is, at this writing, on its death bed, unless the knife that is stabbing at its heart can be removed,” he wrote.
他写道：“在写这篇文章时，它已经濒临死亡，除非能够拔掉刺在它心脏上的刀。”
“Those who love the Olympia Oyster, and who grew it still have hope.”
“那些热爱奥林匹亚牡蛎并种植它的人仍然充满希望。”
Everyone, or at least every Oly fan I speak to, tells me that if I want to know what hope looks like, I need to talk to Betsy Peabody, the executive director of the Puget Sound Restoration Fund .
每个人，或者至少是与我交谈过的每个奥利球迷都告诉我，如果我想知道希望是什么样子，我需要与普吉特海湾恢复基金的执行董事贝齐·皮博迪交谈。
In August 2000, she launched the first large-scale effort to restore Olys to the landscape.
2000 年 8 月，她发起了第一次大规模的恢复奥利斯景观的努力。
That project in Liberty Bay, Washington, began by hand and eventually expanded with the help of a barge and fire hose that dumped hundreds of cubic meters of oyster shell on an area of rocky tideland about the size of a soccer field.
华盛顿自由湾的这个项目是手工开始的，最终在驳船和消防水龙的帮助下扩大规模，将数百立方米的牡蛎壳倾倒在足球场大小的岩石滩涂上。
Over the next 20 years, her organization spent several million US dollars on the effort, which now covers more than seven hectares.
在接下来的 20 年里，她的组织为此花费了数百万美元，目前面积已超过 7 公顷。
Peabody tells me her life story: visiting the mangroves and coral reefs in Australia as a child, scuba-diving off the Florida Keys as a teenager, and studying literature in college before eventually moving to Washington State.
皮博迪向我讲述了她的人生故事：小时候参观澳大利亚的红树林和珊瑚礁，青少年时期在佛罗里达群岛潜水，在大学学习文学，最后搬到华盛顿州。
She was taken in by the idea that oysters, like plants or coral reefs, provide an organizing structure to the marine world simply by virtue of their existence.
她被这样的想法所吸引：牡蛎就像植物或珊瑚礁一样，仅仅凭借它们的存在就为海洋世界提供了一个组织结构。
To see their beauty, she says, she needed to think beyond a single oyster and envision their collective impact.
她说，为了看到它们的美丽，她需要超越单一牡蛎的思维，并想象它们的集体影响。
“That is such a powerful thing,” she says.
“这是一件非常强大的事情，”她说。
“I want for Olympia oysters to be a living presence along the West Coast as they have always been since the retreat of the glaciers.”
“我希望奥林匹亚牡蛎能够成为西海岸的活生生的存在，就像冰川消退以来它们一直存在的那样。”
Betsy Peabody of the Puget Sound Restoration Fund has worked to restore Olympia oysters to Washington State for decades.
普吉特海湾恢复基金会的贝特西·皮博迪（Betsy Peabody）几十年来一直致力于将奥林匹亚牡蛎恢复到华盛顿州。
Here she is in 2006 with a mat of Olys.
这是 2006 年她拿着 Olys 垫子的照片。
Photo by Jim Bryant/AP Photo
吉姆·布莱恩特拍摄/美联社照片
Some of the most persuasive arguments for restoring oysters around the world often come down to their benefits to both people and the ecosystem.
世界各地恢复牡蛎的一些最有说服力的论据往往归结为牡蛎对人类和生态系统的好处。
For Olympia oysters, one challenge is the perception that they never played a major role in coastal ecosystems.
对于奥林匹亚牡蛎来说，一个挑战是人们认为它们从未在沿海生态系统中发挥过重要作用。
Unlike the substantial reef mounds of the Atlantic oysters that are visible from space, Olys mostly stitch themselves together into smaller, low-lying mats.
与从太空中可见的大西洋牡蛎的巨大礁丘不同，奥利斯牡蛎大多将自己缝合成较小的低洼垫。
That doesn’t mean they aren’t creating habitat for other species—they are, just on a smaller scale .
这并不意味着它们没有为其他物种创造栖息地——它们确实为其他物种创造了栖息地，只是规模较小而已。
As for their clean-water benefits, Olympia oysters do filter the water, though, admittedly, no more efficiently than the non-native Japanese oysters.
至于其清洁水的好处，奥林匹亚牡蛎确实可以过滤水，但不可否认，它并不比非本土日本牡蛎更有效。
For the Olys, one of the most persuasive reasons to restore them is that they belong here, and bringing them back isn’t like resurrecting the Tasmanian tiger or the wooly mammoth.
对于奥利斯人来说，恢复它们最有说服力的理由之一是它们属于这里，将它们带回来并不像复活塔斯马尼亚虎或长毛猛犸象。
Although Oly populations are undoubtedly lower than they once were, they are still hanging on in most parts of their range.
尽管奥利的数量无疑比以前少了，但它们仍然在其分布范围的大部分地区生存。
They just need a helping hand—typically, a better substrate for their spat to settle on to increase survivorship.
他们只需要伸出援助之手——通常是为他们的口角提供更好的基质，以提高生存率。
Over the last decade, at least 39 Olympia oyster restoration projects have gotten off the ground, according to the Native Olympia Oyster Collaborative.
据 Native Olympia Oyster Collaborative 称，在过去十年中，至少有 39 个奥林匹亚牡蛎恢复项目已经启动。
That’s an increase from the 24 projects launched the previous decade.
这比过去 10 年启动的 24 个项目有所增加。
Most of these projects are small efforts, costing a few hundred thousand dollars and covering less than a hectare.
这些项目大多数都是小规模项目，耗资数十万美元，占地不到一公顷。
But they are making a difference: most of the projects that kept track of oyster numbers and densities over time have reported success.
但他们正在发挥作用：大多数跟踪牡蛎数量和密度随时间变化的项目都取得了成功。
In the Port of San Diego, Zacherl and her team grow the population of Olys.
在圣地亚哥港，扎切尔和她的团队增加了奥利斯的人口。
Photo by Rob Hammer
罗布·哈默摄
One of the places where restoration hasn’t been so quick or easy is Elkhorn Slough, a couple of hours’ drive south of San Francisco.
埃尔克霍恩斯劳 (Elkhorn Slough) 是修复工作没那么快或容易的地方之一，距离旧金山以南仅几个小时车程。
Surrounded by coast redwoods and strawberry fields, the waterway wends its way along the base of the coastal hills and opens up into Monterey Bay.
水道周围环绕着海岸红杉和草莓田，沿着海岸山丘的底部蜿蜒流向蒙特利湾。
The wetlands were once an abundant source of oysters.
湿地曾经是牡蛎的丰富来源。
In the 1800s, San Franciscans would periodically come out to harvest them.
在 1800 年代，旧金山人会定期出来采摘它们。
But the building of levees, including one to support railroad tracks, reduced some of the tidal flow, and by the early 1900s, landowners had filled in the marsh wherever they could to expand grazing land for dairy farming and crops.
但堤坝的修建，包括支撑铁轨的堤坝，减少了部分潮汐流量，到了 1900 年代初，土地所有者尽可能地填平了沼泽，以扩大牧场，用于奶牛养殖和农作物种植。
The mud has since become so deep and the sediment flow so goopy that anything placed in the slough gets quickly buried.
此后，泥浆变得如此深，沉积物流得如此粘稠，以至于任何放入泥沼中的东西都会很快被掩埋。
There are now so few oysters here that they fail to breed in most years.
现在这里的牡蛎太少了，大多数年份都无法繁殖。
An Olympia oyster restoration at Whistlestop Lagoon in Elkhorn Slough, California.
加利福尼亚州埃尔克霍恩斯劳 Whistlestop 泻湖的奥林匹亚牡蛎修复。
Photo by Luciane Coletti
卢西安·科莱蒂摄
Kerstin Wasson, research coordinator of the Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve, measures recruitment by setting out saucer-sized ceramic tiles from Home Depot and checking them for any settlement.
埃尔克霍恩斯劳国家河口研究保护区的研究协调员克斯汀·沃森（Kerstin Wasson）通过从家得宝（Home Depot）拿出碟子大小的瓷砖并检查它们是否有任何沉降来衡量招募情况。
Last year, out of 50 tiles, Wasson found a single oyster.
去年，沃森在 50 块瓷砖中发现了一颗牡蛎。
“That’s pretty typical,” she says.
“这很典型，”她说。
Other sites on the central California coast—Tomales Bay, north of San Francisco, for instance—are also among those most at risk of disappearing.
加州中部海岸的其他地点——例如旧金山北部的托马莱斯湾——也是最有可能消失的地点之一。
And a modest oyster population at Point Mugu, near Malibu, is probably at risk, too.
马里布附近穆古角的少量牡蛎种群也可能面临危险。
If restoration fails at Elkhorn, there will be a 600-kilometer gap between the populations in Southern California and those to the north.
如果埃尔克霍恩的恢复失败，南加州和北加州的人口差距将达到 600 公里。
I meet Wasson at the reserve during an oyster restoration event I’m joining, along with around a dozen volunteers from the local community.
我参加的牡蛎恢复活动期间，在保护区遇到了沃森，还有来自当地社区的大约十几名志愿者。
Wasson’s team has filled two family-sized coolers with juvenile Olympia oysters—the offspring of adults collected from the estuary years earlier.
沃森的团队在两个家庭大小的冷藏箱中装满了幼年奥林匹亚牡蛎——多年前从河口收集的成年牡蛎的后代。
They have been reared at the nearby Moss Landing Marine Laboratories and allowed to settle on shells and tiles.
它们在附近的莫斯兰丁海洋实验室饲养，并允许在贝壳和瓷砖上定居。
In 2017, after more than 15 years working at Elkhorn Slough, Wasson launched a hatchery program as a last resort to boost the Oly population.
2017 年，在埃尔克霍恩斯劳 (Elkhorn Slough) 工作超过 15 年之后，沃森启动了一项孵化计划，作为增加奥利种群数量的最后手段。
It requires growing algae in sterile bioreactors for the captive oysters and feeding it to them multiple times a day—a labor-intensive process.
它需要在无菌生物反应器中为圈养牡蛎培育藻类，并每天多次喂它们——这是一个劳动密集型过程。
Celine de Jong maintains the microalgae production in the hatchery at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories.
Celine de Jong 负责莫斯兰丁海洋实验室孵化场的微藻生产。
Photo by Luciane Coletti
卢西安·科莱蒂摄
Many marine species commonly breed in late spring and summer, when the algae at the bottom of the food chain are most abundant, giving their young ones the best chance of success.
许多海洋物种通常在春末和夏季繁殖，此时食物链底部的藻类最为丰富，为它们的幼崽提供了最好的成功机会。
In captivity, aquaculturists coax the Olys to reproduce by gradually warming the water, but it’s tricky.
在圈养条件下，水产养殖者通过逐渐加热水体来诱导奥利斯鱼繁殖，但这很棘手。
The oysters’ habit of switching back and forth between the sexes multiple times in their lives is a constant frustration to their captors, who need to make sure there are always enough males in each tank.
牡蛎在一生中多次在性别之间来回转换的习惯让捕获者们持续感到沮丧，他们需要确保每个水箱中总是有足够的雄性。
During their male phase, Olympia oysters breed by broadcasting millions of sperm into the water, and they have to be relatively close to females—about a meter—for fertilization to take place.
在雄性阶段，奥林匹亚牡蛎通过将数百万个精子播散到水中来繁殖，它们必须距离雌性相对较近（大约一米）才能发生受精。
Unlike Atlantic oysters, which release their eggs during spawning, Olympia oysters are brooders, keeping fertilized eggs inside their shells for one to two weeks of development before releasing them.
与在产卵期间释放卵的大西洋牡蛎不同，奥林匹亚牡蛎是育雏者，将受精卵保留在壳内发育一到两周，然后再释放。
The hatchery experts at Moss Landing, led by an Australian named Luke Gardner , have borrowed some techniques from commercial growers.
由澳大利亚人卢克·加德纳 (Luke Gardner) 领导的莫斯兰丁 (Moss Landing) 孵化场专家从商业种植者那里借鉴了一些技术。
One of the key differences is that commercial growers are trying to raise individual oysters that diners think will look good on a bed of crushed ice.
主要区别之一是商业养殖者试图养殖单个牡蛎，食客认为这些牡蛎放在碎冰床上看起来不错。
Conservationists, on the other hand, want to grow clusters of shells.
另一方面，环保主义者希望种植贝壳簇。
Such starter reefs have more staying power when they are placed directly in a watery environment.
当直接放置在水环境中时，这种起始珊瑚礁具有更强的持久力。
In their tanks, some of the oyster spat are allowed to settle on tiles, others on spent shells, and others on long branches coated with an oyster-shell mimic, calcium carbonate, to attract the gregarious oysters.
在他们的水箱中，一些牡蛎卵被允许落在瓷砖上，另一些落在废贝壳上，还有一些落在涂有牡蛎壳仿制品碳酸钙的长树枝上，以吸引群居的牡蛎。
Wasson is still in the process of identifying the optimal method for restoration.
沃森仍在寻找最佳的修复方法。
Volunteers attached young Olys to tiles during a community-based oyster restoration bee at Elkhorn Slough.
在埃尔克霍恩斯劳举办的社区牡蛎修复蜜蜂活动中，志愿者将年轻的奥利斯贴在瓷砖上。
Photo by Luciane Coletti
卢西安·科莱蒂摄
At the slough, I watch the volunteers assemble oyster poles—roughly two-meter lengths of PVC with six shells or tiles dangling by a couple of zip ties from one end.
在沼泽地里，我看着志愿者们组装牡蛎杆——大约两米长的 PVC 杆，一端用几根扎带悬挂着六个贝壳或瓷砖。
The volunteers start by counting the number of oysters on each shell (or tile).
志愿者首先计算每个贝壳（或瓷砖）上牡蛎的数量。
The counting is tricky for the untrained eye: one team tallies 29, but when the experts double-check, they identify about 47 little guys, all crammed together.
对于未经训练的人来说，计数是很棘手的：一个团队统计了 29 个，但当专家仔细检查时，他们发现大约有 47 个小家伙，全部挤在一起。
“When they’re covered in slime, do we just count through the slime?” asks one volunteer.
“当它们被粘液覆盖时，我们只计算粘液吗？”一位志愿者问道。
“I need professional help,” says another volunteer.
“我需要专业帮助，”另一位志愿者说。
“Is this one or two, or just bird shit?”
“这是一两个，还是只是鸟屎？”
After an hour of this, several dozen oyster poles have been assembled.
这样一个小时过去了，几十根蚝竿已经组装完毕。
Wasson heads out into the waist-deep water with her team and uses a rubber mallet to pound each pole partway into the mud one after another as if driving in fence posts.
沃森和她的团队一起走进齐腰深的水中，用橡胶锤将每根杆子一个接一个地敲入泥浆中，就像在栅栏柱上行驶一样。
The oysters dangle millimeters above the water’s surface.
牡蛎悬挂在水面上方几毫米处。
The group has just added over 6,000 juvenile oysters, doubling the estimated population in the slough.
该组织刚刚添加了 6,000 多只幼年牡蛎，使泥沼中的估计数量增加了一倍。
“My goal is to get a million oysters into this estuary,” Wasson says.
“我的目标是让一百万只牡蛎进入这个河口，”沃森说。
April Ridlon takes notes at an Oly restoration project in Elkhorn Slough.
艾普里尔·里德隆 (April Ridlon) 在埃尔克霍恩斯劳 (Elkhorn Slough) 的奥利修复项目中做笔记。
Photo by Luciane Coletti
卢西安·科莱蒂摄
It sounds absurd, considering that only half the oysters the volunteers have just put out will make it through their first year, but Wasson believes her goal can be reached over the next 10 years.
考虑到志愿者刚刚放出的牡蛎中只有一半能度过第一年，这听起来很荒谬，但沃森相信她的目标可以在未来 10 年内实现。
Once the oysters reach a critical mass, they’ll no longer need her help.
一旦牡蛎达到临界质量，它们就不再需要她的帮助。
“A million is not like a Mars mission,” she adds.
“一百万不像火星任务，”她补充道。
Wasson hands out her homemade chocolate chip cookies to the volunteers before they depart that afternoon.
那天下午出发前，沃森向志愿者分发了她自制的巧克力饼干。
I head up the trail and back to my truck.
我沿着小路走回我的卡车。
I look back one last time.
我最后一次回头看一眼。
The tide will soon come in.
潮水很快就会涌来。
One by one, those little oysters will crack their shells open and start cleaning the water as best as they can.
这些小牡蛎会一一打开它们的壳，开始尽其所能地净化水。
They may not be much to look at, but they are our oysters, our Pacific oysters.
它们可能没什么好看的，但它们是我们的牡蛎，我们的太平洋牡蛎。