太平洋上漂浮巨大垃圾岛

Miriam Goldstein: People like to say the ocean is downhill from everywhere. Everything ends up in the ocean eventually, if it, you know, doesn’t wash up or go someplace else. So people in Iowa who are throwing things into the rivers, that’s gonna end up in the ocean.

米里亚姆．戈尔茨坦：人们常说海纳百川，但与此同时也将海洋当做藏污纳垢的地方。所有未经处理的垃圾废弃物最终都排放进大海。因此，当爱荷华州的居民往河里倒垃圾时，这些垃圾最终流向大海。

You’re listening to Miriam Goldstein, of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego. She is studying the now infamous garbage patch in the North Pacific gyre in the Pacific Ocean.

您正在收听的是圣迭戈斯克里普斯海洋研究所米里亚姆．戈尔茨坦的讲话。戈尔茨坦研究了漂浮在北太平洋环流系统的臭名昭著的垃圾岛。

Miriam Goldstein: In the case of the North Pacific gyre, everything that falls off the west coast of North America and the east coast of Asia will probably end up stuck in there if it doesn’t sink or decompose.

米利亚姆．戈尔茨坦：就北太平洋环流系统而言，所有来自北美西海岸和亚洲东海岸的废弃物如未经沉降或分解，最终都会聚集到这里。

Goldstein’s team has towed nets across the ocean to collect and analyze the tiny bits of plastic accumulating there. She said the plastic is impacting ocean ecosystems, though she doesn’t yet know to what extent.

戈尔茨坦的研究小组已横跨洋面进行了拖网作业，以收集和分析聚集此处的塑料碎片。戈尔茨坦表示这些塑料垃圾已经影响到海洋生态系统，尽管其危害程度尚不得而知。

Miriam Goldstein: This plastic is providing a surface for animals that would not naturally live in the middle of the ocean and it might be transporting them across where they would not normally go.

米里亚姆．戈尔茨坦：塑料漂浮物为原本无法栖息在远海的动物提供了落脚之所，并将它们带到通常不会驻留的地方。

In other words, creatures like barnacles and anemones are hitching rides from the shore to the middle of the ocean. As these creatures continue to arrive in great numbers, said Goldstein, they might be altering the ocean’s food web. Goldstein said all of us can help prevent this – even those who live in the middle of a continent – by properly disposing of plastic.

换句话说，像藤壶、海葵这类动物都可搭乘垃圾漂浮物这台“顺风车”从近海出发抵达远海。戈尔茨坦表示，随着越来越多的生物迁居远海，海洋食物网将发生改变。她指出，每个人都能对此做些什么，即使生活在内陆的人也能通过合理处理塑料垃圾来帮助改善环境，防止海洋食物网受到破坏。