印度鲃（bā）是南亚和东南亚地区的一种代表性鱼类。它们生活在湍急的河流里，由于数量庞大、外观漂亮、能长很大等特征，一直以来被奉为“神明之鱼”。印度鲃也被垂钓者们视为世界上最难对付的淡水游钓鱼之一，因此获得了“水中之虎”的名声。
The mahseers are an iconic group of fish found throughout the fast-flowing rivers of South and South-east Asia. Characterised by their large scales, attractive appearance and potentially vast size, the mahseers have long been afforded saintly status as “God’s fishes”. They are also known to anglers as some of the world’s hardest fighting freshwater game fish, earning them the reputation of “tigers of the water”.
尽管很多人对印度鲃感兴趣，但其未来危机重重。这是因为它们栖息的河流遭到污染，为了支撑快速增长的人口而修建的水电站也将河流阻断。即便那些幸存下来的鱼也很容易受到非法“炸鱼”的危害，这种方法会把所有水生物炸死或炸伤，偷渔者就可以任意捡拾漂在水面上的东西。
But despite lots of interest in mahseers, their future is under serious threat as their rivers become polluted and blocked by hydropower dams in order to support a rapidly growing human population. Those fish that do survive are vulnerable to illegal “dynamite fishing” in which a blast kills or injures all aquatic life, allowing poachers to harvest anything that floats to the surface.
目前有效的18种印度鲃中，有4种被世界自然保护联盟濒危物种红色名录列为濒危物种、1种列为 易危、1种列为近危。其他几种要么缺乏足够的数据作出结论，要么没有进行评估。
Of the 18 currently valid species of mahseer, the official IUCN Red List of Threatened Species currently lists four as endangered, one as vulnerable, and one as near threatened. The rest either lack enough data to reach a conclusion or haven’t been evaluated.
最近我和同事在 PLOS ONE杂志上发表了一项研究成果，研究对象是弓背印度鲃，这是所有印度鲃中体型最大、濒危度最高的一种。这种鱼曾经在印度南部的高韦里河及其多条支流里非常常见，但如今只剩下屈指可数的几个孤立的小种群。它能长到与一个小个子成年人一样重（55公斤），可谓淡水鱼中的“庞然大物”，但奇怪的是，很长一段时间里它在分类学上仍是一个谜团，没有正式的拉丁文学名。
Recent research published by colleagues and I in PLOS ONE focused on the hump-backed mahseer, the largest and most endangered of all mahseers. The fish was once common throughout the Cauvery River and its various tributaries in southern India, but it is now limited to just a handful of small isolated populations. Weighing as much as a small adult human (55 kilograms), this freshwater giant qualifies as megafauna, yet bizarrely it has remained a taxonomic enigma without a valid scientific name.
这个谜团目前已经被解开。我和同事发现弓背印度鲃实际上就是Tor remadevii，一种之前一直没有通称的印度鲃。2007年科学家们根据在喀拉拉邦高韦里河流域最南端支流中捕获的幼鱼最初将Tor remadevii确定为一个新物种。他们完全没有意识到，这些从最偏远的子流域发现的小鱼和在高韦里河干流中上游看到的那些巨大印度鲃是同一种鱼。
Until now. Colleagues and I discovered that the hump-backed mahseer is actually the same species as Tor remadevii: a mahseer that previously lacked a common name. Scientists first described Tor remadevii as a new species in 2007, based on a small sample of juvenile fish from the most southerly tributary of the Cauvery catchment in the state of Kerala. Little did they realise that the small fish they had discovered from this remote sub-catchment was the same as the monster mahseer found in the upper and middle reaches of the main river Cauvery.
高韦里河流域示意图
淡水鱼明星的兴衰
The rise and fall of a freshwater icon
第一次把弓背印度鲃带入全世界垂钓者视野的是亨利·沙利文·托马斯1873年出版的经典著作《钓遍印度》。在英国统治期间，曾经有好几个巨型标本被记录在案，其中一条至今仍然保持着世界钓获纪录。这条120磅（54公斤）的庞然大物由一位名叫德维特·范·印根的标本制作师于1946年在迈索尔捕获。此后不久印度就独立了，印度鲃几乎被外部世界所遗忘，很多人认为这种鱼已经被炸得灭绝了。
The hump-backed mahseer was first brought to the attention of the world’s anglers in Henry Sullivan Thomas’s 1873 classic, The Rod in India. During British rule, several huge specimens were recorded, including the still-standing world rod-caught record, a 120 pound (54 kilogram) monster captured in 1946 by a taxidermist from Mysore known as de Wet Van Ingen. Indian independence followed soon after, and the mahseer was largely forgotten by the outside world, with many believing the fish had been dynamited to extinction.
直到1977年，三名英国人组成的 “跨世界钓鱼队”来到印度，花了好几个月把该国的河流都考察了一遍，最后来到高韦里河。他们发现弓背印度鲃在那里依然活得好好的，并且圆了自己的垂钓梦想，钓到一条重达42公斤的大鱼。
That was until 1977, when the Trans World Fishing Team – comprised of three Englishmen – travelled to India and spent several months exploring the country’s rivers before reaching the Cauvery. There they found the hump-backed mahseer very much alive, and realised their sporting dreams by recording individual catches up to 42 kilograms.
这重新激起了全球的兴趣，“捉了就放”的垂钓者们从世界各地涌向高韦里河来寻找这种传说中的大鱼。当地居民获得了钓鱼向导、厨师和司机等工作，其中一些人还曾经是偷渔者，因为他们意识到一条活的印度鲃具有源源不断的价值，比市场上死鱼的一锤子买卖强多了。当地成立了巡逻队全天候保护这种鱼，使高韦里河的生态保持了活力。
This reignited global interest, and catch-and-release anglers from around the world flocked to the River Cauvery in search of the legendary fish. Local villagers found employment as angling guides, cooks or drivers, some of them rehabilitated poachers who realised that a live mahseer had renewable value, unlike the single value of a dead one at market. Patrols were set up to protect the species 24/7, allowing the ecology of the river to flourish.
但并非一切都像看起来那样美好。自从20世纪70年代建立以来，各钓鱼营地就收集着宝贵的数据，从这些数据中可以进一步了解印度鲃的现状。我和同事们在对这些具体的钓获纪录进行分析时，发现弓背印度鲃已经近乎绝迹。尽管印度鲃整体种群数量在增加，但弓背印度鲃却被一种具有高度入侵性的外来印度鲃迅速取代，后者是70年代末被人有意引入高韦里河的。2015年我们发表了一篇论文，阐述了弓背印度鲃迫在眉睫的灭绝危机。
But all was not what it seemed. Since their establishment in the 1970s, the angling camps had been collecting invaluable data which shed new light on the situation. When colleagues and I analysed these detailed catch records, we realised the hump-backed mahseer had almost disappeared. Although overall mahseer stocks were rising, the humpback itself was being rapidly replaced by a non-native and highly invasive species of mahseer, which had been deliberately introduced to the River Cauvery to boost stocks in the late 1970s. This led us to publish a paper in 2015, outlining the threat of imminent extinction facing the hump-backed mahseer.
那么，它到底叫什么？
So, what’s in a name?
弓背印度鲃在全世界使用的都是其通称，但学名上的混淆使其无法被列入世界自然保护联盟濒危物种红色名录。由于这种鱼处在灭绝边缘，所以很难找到野生样本来收集DNA和相关证据以支持其正式的分类。在三年的考察之后，我们的团队终于成功地在高韦里河的一条支流——莫亚尔河林木丛生的荒僻河段找到了一个小种群。
The hump-backed mahseer has been known around the world by its common name, but confusion over its scientific name has prevented its inclusion in the IUCN Red List of threatened species. Given the fish is on the edge of extinction, it proved a significant challenge finding wild specimens from which to collect the DNA and associated evidence required to support a formal taxonomic clarification. Only after three years of expeditions was our team finally successful in finding a small population of humpbacks in a remote jungle section of the River Moyar, a tributary of the Cauvery.
我们最近发表的论文将弓背印度鲃的学名定为Tor remadeviia。下次红色名录更新时，这种代表性的物种将有望被列为“极危”物种。这项研究的意义在于可以让这种代表性鱼类得到认可和亟需的法律保护，以制定可靠的保护规划。
The paper we recently published fixes the scientific name as Tor remadeviiand should see the iconic species assessed as “critically endangered” in the next update of the Red List. The significance of the research published will afford this iconic fish the recognition and legislative protection it so urgently requires to develop robust conservation planning.
但是，从长远看这种鱼的未来掌握在高韦里河流域三个有着激烈竞争关系的邦手中，即泰米尔纳德邦、喀拉拉邦和卡纳塔克邦。我们希望弓背印度鲃能成为一个团结的力量，将这些邦凝聚在一起，共同防止高韦里河丰富的生物多样性和自然功能进一步衰退，使其能够继续支撑沿岸千百万居民的生计。
However, in the long term, the fish’s future rests in the hands of the three Indian states with stakes in the highly-contested Cauvery river system – Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Karnataka. One hope is that the humpback mahseer will become a unifying force and bring these states together to protect the rich biodiversity and natural function of the Cauvery from further decay, allowing the river to continue to support the many millions of people who depend on it.
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