Back home, my friends call me nicknames, such as "The Giant Clam Girl," "Clam Queen," or, "The Mother of Clams."
在我的家乡，朋友们给我起了一些绰号，比如“巨蚌女孩”、“巨蚌皇后”或者“巨蚌之母”。
This is because every time I see them, I talk nonstop about giant clams all day, every day.
这是因为每当我和他们在一起的时候，我总是整天、每一天喋喋不休地谈论巨蚌。
Giant clams are these massive and colorful shelled marine animals, the largest of its kind. Just look at this shell.
巨蚌是这些巨大的色彩斑斓的有壳海洋生物，最大的那种。看看这个贝壳。
The biggest recorded individual was four-and-a-half-feet long and weighed about 550 pounds.
有记载的最大的巨蚌个体有4英尺半那么长，重量大概550磅。
That is almost as heavy as three baby elephants.
那基本上相当于3个婴儿大象那么重。
South Pacific legends once described giant clams as man-eaters that would lie in wait on the seabed to trap unsuspecting divers.
南太平洋传说曾经将巨蚌描述成食人动物，这些食人动物会潜伏于海床，从而捕捉毫无戒心的潜水者。
A story goes that a diver had lost his legs while trying to retrieve a pearl from a giant clam.
有一个故事广为流传：当一名潜水者尝试着将一个珍珠从一个巨蚌里取出的时候，他失去了双腿。
I thought, "Really?" So out of curiosity, I did an experiment using myself as bait.
我想，“真的吗？”于是出于好奇，我用自己做诱饵做了一个实验。
I carefully placed my hand into the clam's mouth and waited. Hmm ... I still have my hand.
我小心地将我的手放在巨蚌的嘴里然后等待着。嗯...我的手还在。
It seems that these gentle giants would rather retreat and protect their fleshy bodies than feed on me.
这些温和的巨蚌似乎更倾向于撤退，从而保护它们的肉体，而不是将我作为食料。
So much for those killer clam myths!
食人巨蚌真是太过神话了！
Unfortunately, the reality is, we are the giant clams' biggest threat.
不幸的是，现实中我们是巨蚌最大的威胁。
Considered a delicacy throughout the Western Pacific and Indian Oceans, giant clams have been traditionally fished as seafood.
想象一下跨越西太平洋和印度洋的美食，巨蚌一直以来都是被作为海鲜来捕捉的。
Fishermen are particularly interested in their adductor muscles, which are organs that hold the two shells together like a hinge.
捕鱼人尤其对它们的内收肌很感兴趣，内收肌是将它们的两个贝壳绑在一起的器官，就好像一个铰链。
Just for their muscles, giant clams were almost hunted to extinction between the 1960s and 1980s.
仅仅是因为它们的肌肉，巨蚌就在二十世纪60到80年代之间几乎因为捕捉而灭绝。
Clamshells are also popular in the ornamental trade as jewelry and for display.
作为首饰以及展品。蚌的壳在装饰品贸易市场也很流行。
In the South China Sea, fishermen went out of their way to collect fossilized clamshells by digging through large areas of coral reefs.
在中国南海，捕鱼人深入挖掘巨大的珊瑚礁区域，去收集变成化石的蚌贝壳。
These were later carved and sold as so-called "ivory handicrafts" in China.
然后将它们雕刻，再售卖到中国所谓的象牙手工品市场。
Giant clams, dead or alive, are not safe from us. It's a "clamity!"
巨蚌，不论是死是活，都逃不出我们的手掌。这是一个“蚌灾难！”
With the spotlight on more charismatic marine animals such as the whales and coral reefs,
随着对那些更吸引人的海洋生物的关注，比如鲸鱼和珊瑚礁，
it is easy to forget that other marine life needs our help, too.
人们很容易忘记其它海洋生物也需要帮助。
My fascination with giant clams got me started on conservation research to fill in the knowledge gaps on their ecology and behavior.
我对巨蚌的着迷，让我开始研究如何保护它们，以此来填补它们的生态学和行为学之间的空白。

One of the discoveries that we made was that giant clams could walk across the seafloor.
其中的一个发现是，这些巨蚌可以横穿于海底。
Yes, you heard me right: they can walk.
是的，你们没听错，它们可以行走！
To find out, we placed numerous baby clams on a grid. Now watch what happens over 24 hours.
为了这个发现，我们将很多婴儿蚌放在一个网格上。来看看24小时内发生了什么。
We think that walking is important for getting away from predators and finding mates for breeding.
我们认为行走对于逃离捕猎者的追捕以及寻找繁衍下一代的伴侣都是很重要的。
While it can hard to imagine any movement in these enormous animals,
尽管很难想象这些巨大的生物可以移动，
giant clams up to 400 pounds can still walk, they just move slower.
但重达400磅的巨蚌仍然是可以行走的，它们仅仅是移动得慢一些罢了。
During my PhD, I discovered more secrets about the giant clams.
在我读博士的时候，我发现了更多关于巨蚌的秘密。
But there was something missing in my work. I found myself asking,
但我的研究里也缺失了一些东西。我开始思考，
"Why should people care about conserving giant clams?" -- other than myself, of course.
“人们为什么应该去关心保护巨蚌？”除我之外，当然。
It turns out that giant clams have a giant impact on coral reefs.
结果我发现这些巨蚌对海洋珊瑚礁有着巨大的影响。
These multitasking clams are reef builders, food factories, shelters for shrimps and crabs and water filters, all rolled into one.
这些巨蚌同时做着很多工作，它们是珊瑚礁建造者，食品工厂，虾和蟹的临时保护所以及水过滤器，集于一身。
In a nutshell, giant clams play a major contributing role as residents of their own reef home,
简而言之，作为它们所在珊瑚礁的居民。巨蚌起到了重要的作用，
and just having them around keeps the reef healthy.
巨蚌的存在使珊瑚礁健康生长。
And because they can live up to 100 years old, giant clams make vital indicators of coral reef health.
因为它们可以活长达100年，巨蚌是珊瑚礁健康状况的重要信号。
So when giant clams start to disappear from coral reefs,
当巨蚌开始从珊瑚礁消失的时候，
their absence can serve as an alarm bell for scientists to start paying attention, similar to the canary in a coal mine.
它们的缺失可以被看作一个警铃，从而引起科学家们的关注，就像在煤矿里的金丝雀。
But giant clams are endangered.
但是巨蚌已经濒临灭绝。
The largest clam in the world is facing the threat of extinction, with more than 50 percent of the wild population severely depleted.
世上最大的蚌正在面临灭绝的威胁，野生的数量下降了超过百分之五十。
And the ecological benefits of having giant clams on coral reefs are likely to continue only if populations are healthy,
由于巨蚌在珊瑚礁的存在而带来的生态利益，只有在巨蚌数量健康的情况下才能得以延续，
making their conservation paramount.
这使得对巨蚌的保护显得至关重要。
So I stand here today to give a voice to the giant clams,
所以今天我站在这里为巨蚌发声，
because I care a whole lot for these amazing animals, and they deserve to be cared for.
因为我很关心这些神奇的生物，并且它们值得被关注。
It is time for the giant clams to step out of their shells,
是时候让那些巨蚌从它们的贝壳里钻出来，
and show the world that they, too, can be the heroes of the oceans. Thank you very much.
向全世界展示它们也可以成为海洋英雄。非常感谢。