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The Great Barrier Reef is dying. And tourists from all over the world are rushing to see it while there's still time.
大堡礁正在死亡。趁来得及，世界各地的游客都急忙跑来观看。
Nearly 70 percent of people who visited the reef in 2015 said they made the trip to Australia to witness its beauty before it's gone.
2015年，近百分之70参观大堡礁的游客称，他们前往澳大利亚，赶在大堡礁消亡前见证它的美丽。
Almost half of the reef's coral has vanished over the past three decades, thanks to warming ocean temperatures, invasive species and coastal development.
由于海洋温度的升高，入侵物种和沿海地区的开发，过去三十年近一半的珊瑚礁消失了。
And this year, it suffered the worst coral bleaching in recorded history. One study estimated over 90 percent of the reef has been affected.
而今年，它遭受了历史上最严重的珊瑚白化。一项研究估计称，超过百分之90的珊瑚礁受到影响。
The Australian government thought the reef's dire state would drive tourists away, but it's done the exact opposite. That's great news for the multi-billion-dollar tourism industry but it could be bad news for the reef itself.
澳大利亚政府认为礁的可怕状态会吓走游客，然后事实完全相反。这对几十亿美元的旅游业来说是好消息，但对礁本身是个坏的消息。
This phenomenon is called last-chance tourism, and it happens all the time at vanishing destinations, like the Maldives and Galapagos Islands.
这种现象被称为最后机会的旅游，对于消失地是常有的事，像马尔代夫和加拉帕戈斯群岛。
Researchers fear it could make the reef's plight even worse.
研究人员担心它会使珊瑚礁的境况更糟糕。
One of the study's authors wrote in The Conversation, There's a vicious cycle at play here: tourists travel to see a destination before it disappears, but in so doing they contribute to its demise, either directly through on-site pressures or through greenhouse gas emissions.
该研究的作者之一写道，这里有一个恶性循环，在某地消失前游客前往旅游，但这有助于其消亡，要么直接施加现场压力，要么通过温室气体排放。
But a reef scientist told Motherboard the impacts of tourism are actually "overwhelmingly positive."
但一位珊瑚礁科学家告诉Motherboard，旅游业的影响实际上“绝大多数是积极的。”
The greater the value of Great Barrier Reef tourism, the easier it is to justify government investment in reef management.
大堡礁的旅游价值越大，就越容易让政府进行珊瑚礁管理投资。
It looks like the reef might already be seeing those positive effects. A new video from early September showed at least part of the reef has almost fully recovered from coral bleaching.
看起来珊瑚礁可能已获得这些积极的影响。九月初的一个新的视频显示，至少一部分的珊瑚礁几乎从珊瑚白化中完全恢复。
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