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Why manatees are starving in Florida

 

What's up sunshine, happy Friday. I'm Coy Wire, this is CNN 10 where I simply tell you the what.

Letting you decide what to think. We've got you covered from international relations to feeding baby vultures with puppets.

 

Today your 10 minutes of news starts now. We start with a brand new partnership between the US and Ukraine.

Focused on underground goodies, rare-earth minerals. These are some of the ingredients needed for our tech things.

 

goodie [ˋgʊdɪ] n. 吸引人的东西;合意的东西;（常指）好吃的东西

 

Like lithium for batteries and phones and EV cars, strong titanium for airplanes, and elements vital for computers even defense systems.

Turns out Ukraine has lots of them. The US and Ukraine just signed a major agreement.

Creating a special joint investment fund, sort of like a shared high-tech piggy bank.

 

piggy bank ph.（猪形）扑满；存放钱的小对象

 

The fund aims to help Ukraine develop these mineral resources while keeping full ownership and control of everything underground.

While America contributes money to the fund and potentially military aid like air defense systems like the US has done in the past.

Ukraine in exchange will put in some of the money earned from future mining projects.

So why is this deal so significant? First, it's aimed at boosting Ukraine's economy.

 

Second, it helps the US secure access to these important minerals.

Which means the US can rely less on supply chains from other parts of the world.

 

Third, it shows a strong long-term commitment from the US supporting Ukraine's future.

 

One big question: how might this impact Ukraine's ongoing war with Russia?

Here's part of what US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessett had to say today.

 

Today's agreement signals clearly to Russian leadership that the Trump administration is committed to a peace process.

Centered on a free, sovereign, and prosperous Ukraine over the long term.

It's time for this cruel and senseless war to end.

 

senseless [ˋsɛnslɪs] adj. 无知的；愚蠢的，笨的

 

This week, two NASA astronauts conducted the fifth all female spacewalk ever.

Nicole Ayers and Anne McClain suited up in their extravehicular mobility units and spacewalked outside of the International Space Station.

 

extravehicular [͵ɛkstrəviˋhɪkjəlɚ] adj. 宇宙飞船外的；宇宙飞船外之活动的

 

Spending about six and a half hours hard at work.

They relocated a space station communications antenna and installed the first round of gear needed for an additional power generation system.

 

This was the very first spacewalk for astronaut Ayers, an Air Force instructor pilot with more than 200 combat hours.

This was the third spacewalk for Ms. McClain, a colonel in the US Army whose call sign is animal dating back to her rugby career.

 

call sign 无线电台呼号

 

This marked the 275th spacewalk conducted on the ISS for space station assembly, maintenance, and upgrades.

 

Now to an environmental crisis affecting Florida's beloved manatees.

 

manatee [ˋmænəti] n.【動】海牛

 

Around 1,200 of the aquatic mammals have died from starvation.

After their main source of food, seagrass, has been wiped out by pollutants.

 

seagrass [ˈsiɡræs] n. 海草

 

Randi Kayewent to Florida's Indian River Lagoon for an up-close look.

We're heading out on Florida's Indian River Lagoon which stretches from Palm Beach County to Daytona Beach.

 

The lagoon is where Florida manatees come for the warm water.

But in recent years the northern end of the lagoon has been a death trap for them.

All these homes along the lagoon that are on septic tanks are slowly leaking.

 

septic [ˋsɛptɪk] adj. 能使腐败的；因腐败而起的

septic tank 化糞池

 

Literally tons of nitrogen and phosphorus into the system.

 

phosphorus [ˋfɑsfərəs] n. 磷

 

Marine biologist Peter Barilehas studied manatees for decades.

He says those pollutants are being released by septic tanks and water treatment facilities along the lagoon.

And are fueling algae growth in the water which is causing the manatee's main food source, seagrass, to die.

 

alga [ˋældʒi] n.（常用复algae）水藻，海藻

 

So this algae is reducing light down to the seagrasses, essentially smothering them and killing them.

 

smother [ˋsmʌðɚ] v. 使窒息，使透不过气来；把……闷死

 

He says manatees need to eat nearly 100 poundsof vegetation a day.

Between December 2020 and April 2022, more than 1,200 manatees died of starvation.

 

Most of them here in the northern part of the Indian River Lagoon.

Just a couple of decades ago the water in this Indian River Lagoon was crystal clear.

 

You could easily see down to the bottom. Now it's dark and murky and polluted with chemicals and algae.

With their seagrass gone, the manatees had little choice but to eat the algae that killed it.

 

Which is toxic for them. Their normally round bodies became flat as they became more and more emaciated.

 

emaciated [ɪˋmeʃɪ͵etɪd] adj. 消瘦的；憔悴的；衰弱的

 

Katrina Shadix is the executive director of Bear Warriors United.

Which sued Florida's Department of Environmental Protection in 2022 to help protect the manatees.

 

They suffered immensely and for a very long time.

When a manatee starves to death, it's an extremely painful process.

 

These photos from Bear Warriors United show how desperate some of the manatees were.

Attempting to pull themselves out of the water to eat leaves off dry land or grass along the water's edge.

 

On this beach in the lagoon, Katrina says she found many manatee carcasses.

 

carcass [ˋkɑrkəs] n.（动物的）尸体；（除脏去头备食用的）畜体

 

She showed us some of their bones that still remain and shared this picture with us of a manatee skull.

Earlier this month a federal judge ruled in favor of Bear Warriors United and against the state.

 

Finding Florida's Department of Environmental Protection was quote in violation of the Endangered Species Act.

There was lacks leadership from the state of Florida.

 

The state of Florida has admitted that it will be 12 to 15 years before seagrasses start to recover.

We reached out to both the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

 

But neither provided a response to our questions.

Are you hopeful the manatee population will come back here?

 

I am hopeful now. I wasn't at first.

I was convinced that this home herd was going to go extinct and that the rest of the state manatees would follow.

 

But now that we won this lawsuit, we think we have a really good chance of working with the state.

To make sure the manatees don't go extinct on our watch.

 

Pop quiz hot shot.

The Michelin Guide for rating restaurants with stars began in 1926 as a way to sell what?

Vacuums, cameras, wristwatches, or tires?

 

vacuum [ˋvækjʊəm] n. 真空吸尘器

 

You're entirely correct if you said tires.

The MichelinTire Company first published the Michelin Guide in 1900.

 

With maps, hotels, gas stations, and mechanics, it promoted travel in France.

Ergo, the need for tires. The first Michelin stars were awarded in 1926.

 

ergo [ˋɝgo] adv.【拉】因此

 

When a restaurant and hospitality section was added.

Now to a trailblazing Michelin chef for our CNN series Visionaries.

 

Our Kyung Lah sat down with San Francisco based chef Dominique Crenn.

The first woman in the US to earn three Michelin stars.

 

We find out how her native France and her time by the sea influence her menu.

Dominique Crenn, nature lover. I love to be alone.

 

I love to walk through landscape. A father's daughter. It’s daddy and Domi.

And hot dog connoisseur, perhaps a surprising choice for the first woman in the United States to earn three Michelin stars.

 

connoisseur [͵kɑnəˋsɝ] n.（尤指艺术品的）鉴赏家，行家

 

Joining a very short list of female chefs worldwide to garner such recognition.

But for Dominique Crenn, the title of chef is just that, a title.

 

My title might be a chef, but I am a human being that is using my craft as a language to be able to dialogue to others.

Born just outside of Paris, Dominique was adopted as a baby to a politician father and a mother who worked in finance.

 

Look at this. So this is my mom, this is my dad, this is my brother, and this is little Dom already touching food. You know look at her.

It was their roots in a Celtic region of France that first inspired Dominique.

 

Celtic [ˋkɛltɪk] adj. 凯尔特族的；凯尔特语的

 

I kind of want to start by asking just about how you grew up.

Because you talk a lot about place where you first remember life beginning for you.

 

Mostof my parents are from Britany. So Britany is a place in France that is on the coast, the Atlantic coast.

It's rough, it's raw, it's untouch. I spend a lot of time by the sea.

 

And this is where I start to become to become me.

 

Today's story getting a 10 out of 10.

Zookeepers at the Bronx Zoo in New York for doing whatever it takes to feed one of their newest additions.

Handlers employing a very special puppet to handfeed a brand new baby vulture.

 

handler [ˋhændlɚ] n. 驯兽师

 

Apparently this species of king vulture has a tendency to neglect their chicks.

So hand feeding can be necessary to ensure these babies survive.

 

But also important that the baby bird doesn't identify too closely with its human handlers.

Now we all know vultures' main source of food is dead animals like roadkill, right?

 

roadkill [ˈrodˌkɪl] n. 在公路上被车撞死的动物

 

But did you know vultures are essential in preventing the spread of disease in wildlife populations?

All 23 species of vultures have stomach acid so strong, so powerful it can sterilize animal bones and its immediate surroundings.

 

sterilize [ˋstɛrə͵laɪz] v. 使无菌，消毒

immediate [ɪˋmidɪɪt] adj. 目前的，当前的; 最接近的，紧接的

 

Killing bacteria that causes botulism, anthrax, and rabies.

 

botulism [ˋbɑtʃə͵lɪzəm] n.【医】腊肠杆菌中毒（罐头肉类食品中毒的一种）

anthrax [ˋænθræks] n.【医】痈；炭疽（病）

rabies [ˋrebiz] n.【医】狂犬病

 

In fact, some researchers in India believe hundreds of thousands of human illnesses could have been prevented.

If it weren't for the decline of the country's vulture population, the cleanup crew you never knew you needed.

 

All right, let's bring this show home.

Big Friday shout out going to Mr. Blair and all our friends the Wildcats at Columbia Falls Junior High in Columbia Falls, Montana.

 

Wildcat strong, rise up. And Annelise, you designed this well done.

Cue that Friday music nadir, you never know when, you never know how.

 

But you may be the light someone needs. You are more powerful than you know so shine bright this weekend y'all.

May the fourth be with you. I'm Coy Wire and we are

 

CNN 10.