◎英文片名：Beagle：On The Future Of Species
◎中文篇名：追寻达尔文的航程（央视命名）
◎导演: Hans Fels
◎主演: Redmond O'Hanlon / Sarah Darwin
◎类型: 纪录片
◎集数：8集
◎地区: 荷兰
◎片长: 403分钟
◎发行: 2011年

达尔文考察船复制品将启动科学发现新航程
网易探索11月13日报道

       据国外媒体报道，180年前搭乘查尔斯·达尔文到加拉帕哥斯群岛的考察船－－小猎犬号(HMS Beagle),从1831-1836年，他在此船上航行了五年。此行使他在进化论方面取得了重大突破，为其自然选择的理论找到了关键证据。如今，另一艘小猎犬号将启动科学发现新航程，不过这次有卫星导航、发动机和太空指导加以协助。

       小猎犬信用组织计划花500万英镑打造一艘小猎犬号复制品，用它来研究全世界海洋浮游生物的作用。它将在国际空间站上的美国宇航局的宇航员的帮助下，深入全球的海藻暴发区域进入仔细考察。此慈善组织已经决定了这一计划，目前正在筹集资金，计划在数月内动工。此慈善组织主席彼得·麦格拉斯估计明年会开工，2010年会完工。

       此新小猎犬号将在英国威尔士的米尔福德港口建造。它的样子将和达尔文的小猎犬号一样，只是加装有雷达、GPS、二台辅助柴油机和实验设备。麦格拉斯表示：“外观上惟一不同的是桅杆上装有GPS。然而，新船的里面将非常现代化，显然我们需要最新的科学装备，实现舒适的航行。”它将沿着达尔文的航行路线出征，经过南北大西洋、太平洋和印度洋，绕合恩角和好望角。之后，它将跟踪大规模的海藻暴发进行调查，由宇航员提供指导，在太空中指导此船到达这些海藻区。

       宇航员米歇尔·巴拉特将负责此项指导工作，他说：“空间站，方形索具装配人和海洋生物学，再没有比这更令人激动的科学了。”

       小猎犬号是英国海军的考察船，是一艘90英尺长的单桅船。1831年12月，22岁的达尔文以博物学家的身份，随“小猎犬号”开始了为期五年的环球旅行。途中，达尔文考察过火山，经历过地震，并采集了大量动、植物标本和化石。在南美洲西海岸的加拉帕戈哥斯群岛，各个岛屿的自然条件相似，但各岛所产的鸟和龟却大不相同。这种现象让达尔文逐渐萌生了生物进化的思想，最终写出了《物种起源》。（尼特）

The voyage of the HMS Beagle has been described as the most important journey ever made. During his travels, Charles Darwin gathered information and knowledge that would drastically change the way we look at the world.
  
With his book “On the Origin of Species” (1859) Darwin would be the first to explain that life on earth is not created by God, but rather developed by evolution.
  
To celebrate Charles Darwin’s 200th birth year and the 150th anniversary of his publication of “On the Origin of Species”, Dutch broadcasting company VPRO in association with Belgian broadcasting company CANVAS has produced a unique television series plus feature film called Beagle, on the future of species. Life on earth is under continual change. Is there reason to worry about the future? Can science offer us sufficient answers to some of our most compelling questions? Are we leaving behind an inhabitable world for future generations?
  
1. One small step for man…

In September 2009 the clipper ‘Stad Amsterdam’ set sail to circumnavigate the earth, repeating the most important journey ever made. Far more important than man’s voyage to the moon. It is a voyage that took the young naturalist Charles Darwin five years 179 years ago, and the passengers of the clipper eight months. Darwin’s travels changed our ideas of time, space, chance, sex and nature. What a privilege to be able to do them all over again! All the beauty and profusion in a world full of wondrous forms.
Darwin’s granddaughter, Sarah Darwin, and British author Redmond O’Hanlon will be repeating this journey. To them, it is a chance of several lifetimes.
  
And now? Now we will look at the state the world is in – and what possible consequences this could have for our future. With this in mind different scientists and artists have been invited aboard at different stages of the journey.

2. Low life on the ladder of God
  
The first leg of the journey goes from England to Tenerife and Cape Verde, and takes us to Salvador de Bahia in Brazil. A spectacular beginning to the voyage of a lifetime.
  
This episode describes the journey from Rio to the southeast of South America, Puerto Madryn. In Rio the travelers are confronted with Brazil’s horrifying history of slavery, a history that has left its traces in the country even today.
  
But the ship sails on – to relive Darwin’s discovery of the gigantic fossil mammals of South America. The end of this journey brings us to a unique place; one of the oceans delivery rooms.
  
3. The last frontier
  
We all love fish – but we are running the risk of seeing them go extinct. Could extending the fishing limits to the center of every ocean solve the problem?
  
The Yagan Indians were killed off by good intentions: with the missionaries came lethal diseases from the civilized world. And then the genocidal European settlers arrived. We visit the last full-blooded Yagan Indian in Tierra del Fuego, before sailing on through the notorious waters of Cape Horn, where the Beagle was very nearly shipwrecked.
  
4. The final countdown
  
We say goodbye to one of the few remaining glaciers on earth to sail north. On board are two environmental activists: Douglas Tompkins and his wife Kristine McDivitt. Having sold their clothing companies and become multimillionaires, they have dedicated themselves entirely to environmental activism and land conservation. Their love for the Chilean landscape led them to buy a large piece of land and sustain it as a nature reserve: the Pumalin National Park. Humans create their own problems – but is humanity smart enough to avert its self-inflicted disasters…

The Andes produce deep thought about deep time and deep space. The snow and the glaciers of the Andes also provide the source of all the waters in the lowlands. The glaciers are melting, and the water supplies are dwindling. What does a city like Lima have to do to protect itself from these effects of climate change?

5. The paradise of competition
  
We’re off again, sailing for months along the coasts of South America. Now we’re on our way to The Galapagos. A Mecca for every naturalist. An island of dreams made of reason. Darwin’s reason – where the foundations for his greatest discovery were laid. A teenage dream come true for Redmond O’Hanlon.
  
Next, O’Hanlon leaves the clipper briefly to fly to Indonesia – in search of the story of Darwin’s greatest rival – the man who technically takes priority for the theory of evolution by natural selection – Alfred Russell Wallace. The journey is made in order to find the most desirable of all the birds of paradise – because it is the only one that Wallace discovered: the Standard Wing.
  
On the island of Tahiti the clipper is rejoined, in time for the great crossing of the Pacific Ocean. Astonishingly, our planet is composed of 70% water. This water is more important to us than anyone could imagine. We humans have much more in common with other life forms than Wallace or Darwin could have thought… if we take care of the oceans, we take care of ourselves…

6. Do It Yourself survival
  
Australia – the dry continent where Charles Darwin found nothing and where he stayed only briefly. How could he have foreseen that the population there would start to experiment with new ways of agriculture, unhindered by traditions left behind in England?
  
The Red Continent is beautiful, but shows no mercy. Drought, heat, isolation and disease put extreme demands on the survival strategies of man and animal. How does man cope with the harsh environment? Can geo-engineering prevent his extinction? Is his Do It Yourself survival kit good enough to save him?
  
7. Adapt or Die!
  
The Clipper is still anchored in Australia – the plagued and exhausted continent. We take a close look at the solutions that science has to offer to prevent mass extinctions. Australia is the country of the future – especially when it comes to genetic modification.
  
But who are we to try to manage evolution? Are we adapting or are we just delaying our imminent extinction?
  
8. The ruins of progress
  
After two-and-a-half weeks at sea the clipper arrives in Mauritius, a small island in the Indian Ocean, a few hundred kilometers east of Madagascar. Mauritius remained uninhabited until Dutch seafarers settled there in 1589.
  
Mauritius and the Dodo – that strange flightless bird, the first animal to become extinct due to the actions of modern humans – are inextricably linked. Since Darwin’s time many animals have disappeared from the face of the earth because of us, but the Dodo became the symbol of the often destructive presence of mankind.
  
70% percent of the waste in the oceans consists of plastic. Together with restoring the fish stocks, cleaning up our oceans will be the greatest challenge.
  
We end our journey who may have a direct ancestry that stretches back 150 000 years. Today their culture is artificially kept alive. Is it right to preserve them in a state of so-called primitiveness purely for our pleasure?