评论
打印
With no natural predators — and no human beings to worry about — Grassholm should be a paradise for Britain's greatest seabird, the gannet.
没有自然天敌，也没有可以担忧的人类，格拉斯霍姆岛本应是英国最大海鸟塘鹅的天堂。
After all, this bleak slab of rock eight miles off Pembrokeshire is run by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) as a sanctuary.
毕竟，离英国彭布罗克郡海岸8英里远的这座岛屿是被英国皇家鸟类保护协会（RSPB）认定为天然的庇护所。
Instead, for many of these creatures, it has become a graveyard, as they are trapped or strangled by tons of discarded plastic chucked into the North Atlantic.
然而这里现在成了塘鹅的墓地，很多塘鹅被扔入北大西洋的无数塑料垃圾缠住或勒死。
And now a rescue mission has captured the extent of the problem with this powerful but disturbing set of photographs. They show how old nets, waste and packaging thrown overboard by fishing boats and cargo ships is carried ashore by the gannets. They mistake the rubbish for seaweed and use it to line their nests — with disastrous and tragic results.
一个救援团队日前抓拍到许多惊人的有令人厌恶的照片。在这些照片中，展示了塘鹅将渔船或货船抛下的旧渔网、垃圾以及包装袋搬上海岸。之后，这些生物将这些垃圾误认为是海藻，并利用它们筑巢，却引发灾难性且悲剧的后果。
Birds have even torn off their own feet just to escape from the tangle. It is estimated that there are 18 tons of plastic detritus on Grassholm.
为了逃脱这些垃圾的纠缠，很多鸟类甚至扯断了自己的腿。据估计，格拉斯霍姆岛上大约有18吨塑料垃圾。
The gannet is an extraordinary bird. With a 6ft wingspan, it weighs around 7lb and can dive-bombing the ocean at up to 60mph in search of mackerel and herring.
塘鹅是一种非常独特的鸟类。拥有6英尺的翼展，重达约71磅，可以时速96公里的速度冲入海中搜捕鲭鱼和鲱鱼。
The RSPB typically saves the lives of 50 birds each year. Greg Morgan, the RSPB's warden of Grassholm and neighbouring Ramsey Island, says: 'Some are too badly injured to help and some have died. People ask why we don't clear the rubbish. But you'd have to wipe out the nests and start again, which would cause major disruption to the birds.
每年，皇家鸟类保护协会大约可挽救50只塘鹅的生命。该组织负责格拉斯霍姆岛和附近的拉姆齐岛的守护人格雷戈·摩根表示：“有些塘鹅受伤太过严重以至于无法挽救，还有一些已经死亡。人们问我们为何不清理这些垃圾，但那样做必然要将塘鹅从巢中驱逐，会严重影响到它们。”
'It is not going to solve the problem. They only way to do that is to raise awareness and to stop the plastic ending up in the sea.'
“我们无法解决这个问题，我们能做的就是希望唤更多人的意识，不要向海洋中扔塑料垃圾。”
