French Oyster Shortage 法国牡蛎短缺

By Hugh Schofield, Paris

媒体英语会带大家一起学习BBC撰稿人在报道世界大事时常用到的单词和短语。

Background: 法国的一些牡蛎养殖农在巴黎举行抗议。游行队伍堵塞了塞纳河上的一座桥梁并将大批的牡蛎壳倾倒在路面上。他们要求政府帮助他们度过目前这场因牡蛎死亡率过高而引起的经济危机。

For the third year in a row French oyster farms are being hit by a variety of herpes virus that wipes out literally millions of the infant form of the mollusc known as spats.

The phenomenon first appeared in 2008, with researchers blaming the warm spring weather which provided perfect conditions for the disease to spread.

Last year the virus returned, in some farms destroying the entire production, and now this spring too there are signs of trouble.

Oyster farms in Corsica and on the Mediterranean coast are already seeing high mortality rates, and the fear is that as the seas warm once again the virus will spread to the big oyster-producing areas on the Atlantic coast.

No-one really understands the science of what is happening. It could be linked to global warming, but it's certainly not proven.

In the meantime as many as one in four French oyster farms risk going out of business, and the industry wants instant and large-scale government aid to stave off financial disaster.