百年來第三起
In August, a Sydney-based photographer named Sean K photographed a rarely seen blue whale off the coast of the city and shared a picture on Instagram.
8月，常駐雪梨的攝影師Sean K在雪梨外海目睹罕見的藍鯨，並拍下照片放上IG。
rarely(adv.)很少地、難得地photograph(v.)拍照=take picture ofoff the coast of…在…的外海
In the Instagram post, Sean wrote, “I’m speechless but could blurt out a million things at the same time. Yesterday watching a lot of humpbacks travel south in my usual spot at Maroubra, one of the great wonders of the magical ocean appeared in front of me — a blue whale, the largest living animal on planet earth. Although so large, they are incredibly hard to ever be seen especially on the east coast of Australia.”
Sean在IG的發文中寫道：「我震撼到一句話也說不出來，但又雀躍不已想跟大家分享我所看到的一切。當我昨天在馬魯布拉的老位置觀察座頭鯨往南游時，一隻海中神奇巨獸——藍鯨，也就是世界上現存最大的動物，就出現在我眼前。藍鯨儘管身形龐大，卻非常罕見，尤其是在澳洲東部海岸。」
speechless(adj.)說不出話的、啞口無言的blurt out sth.脫口而出某事、不假思索說出某事humpback(n.)座頭鯨spot(n.)位置、場所appear(v.)現身、出現=show up=turn upincredibly(adv.)難以置信地
The post has received at least 11,000 likes and more than 500 comments.
他的貼文吸引了超過1萬1千個讚數及超過500則留言。
The New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) confirmed the sighting and said that it was “extremely rare and possibly only the third off Sydney in nearly 100 years.”
新南威爾斯的國家公園及野生動物單位（NPWS）證實這起目擊事件，並表示這「極端罕見，而且可能是雪梨近100年來第三起目睹事件。」
New South Wales澳洲新南威爾斯National Parks and Wildlife Service國家公園及野生動物單位confirm sth.確認某事sighting(n.)目擊、目睹sight(v.)目擊、發現(n.)景觀、景色
Previously, the NPWS had unofficial records of blue whales near Sydney from observers in 2002 and 2013, but this recent sighting by Sean was the first verified record of this species off the Maroubra coast.
NPWS先前曾有藍鯨現身雪梨附近的非正式紀錄，分別是2002年及2013年由觀察者所回報。不過這次由攝影師Sean所觀察到的藍鯨，則是馬魯布拉海域的第一次正式紀錄。
unofficial(adj.)非正式的、非官方的official(adj.)官方的、正式的observer(n.)觀察者verify(v.)驗證、認證verification(n.)驗證species(n.)物種、種類
NPWS said the blue whale that Sean saw could be over 25 meters in length and weigh over 100 tons. In spite of its large size, blue whales are often “invisible” even to seasoned whale-watchers.
藍鯨儘管體型巨大，卻常常「神隱」，即使是經驗老到的賞鯨人士也未必看得道。
in spite of + N or Ving儘管…=despite + N or Vingin spite of the fact that…儘管某事=despite the fact that…invisible(adj.)看不見的、隱形的visible(adj.)看得到的be invisible to…讓…看不到的seasoned(adj.)經驗老到的=experiencedwhale-watcher(n.)賞鯨人士
“They are not often seen because they tend to live very far out to sea, their populations are widely dispersed and we have very limited data on its migration and critical habitat,” wrote the NPWS in a press release.
NPWS在新聞稿中寫道：「藍鯨因為住在深海中且數量很分散，所以很難看得到。我們手中關於藍鯨遷徙及關鍵棲地的資料非常少」。
tend to往往、經常disperse(v.)分散limited(adj.)有限的、不多的migration(n.)遷徙、移民migrate(v.)遷徙、移民habitat(n.)(動植物)棲息地press release新聞稿