綠海龜因把塑料誤當成食物而瀕臨死亡

綠海龜因把塑料誤當成食物而瀕臨死亡

Plastic pollution is having a huge economic impact on society, but for sea creatures, the devastating effects are much worse than a hit to their wallets — it’s a loss of life.

塑料污染正在對社會產生巨大的經濟影響，但是對海洋生物來說，破壞性的影響比對他們錢包的打擊要嚴重得多——這是生命的損失。

Green turtles are at risk of death from the plastic floating in the oceans because they think it is food, according to a new study. The plastics, which are often green, black or clear in color, look like seagrass to the turtles, a staple of their diets.

一項新的研究表明，綠海龜有死于漂浮在海洋中的塑料制品的危險，因為他們認為這是食物。這些塑料，通常是綠色、黑色或透明的，在海龜看來就像海草，海草是它們的主食。

“Sea turtles are primarily visual predators—able to choose foods by size and shape—and in this study we found strong evidence that green turtles favor plastic of certain sizes, shapes and colors,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Emily Duncan, in a statement.

該研究的主要作者艾米麗·鄧肯博士在一份聲明中說：“海龜主要是視覺上的食肉動物，它們能夠根據大小和形狀來選擇食物。在這項研究中，我們發(fā)現了強有力的證據，證明綠海龜喜歡某些大小、形狀和顏色的塑料。”

Duncan added that it was previously known that leatherback turtles eat the plastic bags, likely because they confuse them with jellyfish.

鄧肯補充說，之前人們知道棱皮龜吃塑料袋，可能是因為它們把塑料袋和水母混淆了。

The study came on the back of finding dead green turtles on the beaches in Cyprus. Thirty-four turtles were examined and the gastrointestinal tracts of 19 were looked at. All of them contained plastic, ranging from three pieces to 183 pieces inside one of the turtles.

這項研究是在塞浦路斯海灘上發(fā)現死綠海龜后進行的。對34只海龜進行了檢查，并對19只海龜的胃腸道進行了觀察。所有的海龜體內都含有塑料，其中一只海龜體內的塑料碎片從3塊到183塊不等。

The issue is particularly worrisome for younger or smaller turtles, as they may eat more plastic because of inexperience, the study also found.

該研究還發(fā)現，這個問題對年幼或較小的海龜尤其令人擔憂，因為它們可能會因為缺乏經驗而吃更多的塑料制品。

Professor Brendan Godley, who leads the Exeter Marine research strategy, said that research such as this helps scientists understand what the sea turtles are eating and what types of plastic may be ingested more than others.

?？巳睾Ｑ笱芯繎?zhàn)略負責人布倫丹·戈德利教授說，諸如此類的研究有助于科學家了解海龜吃的是什么，以及哪種塑料可能比其他塑料攝入得更多。

“It’s important to know what kinds of plastic might be a particular problem, as well as highlighting issues that can help motivate people to continue to work on reducing overall plastic consumption and pollution,” Godley added in the statement.

戈德利在聲明中補充說:“了解哪種塑料可能是一個特殊的問題很重要，同時強調可以幫助人們繼續(xù)努力減少塑料消費和污染的問題。”

The research has been published in Scientific Reports.

這項研究已發(fā)表在科學報告上。

According to a 2018 estimate from EarthDay.org, 8 million metric tons of plastic wind up in the ocean every year, including 236,000 tons of microplastics, pieces that break down that are smaller than a human fingernail.

根據EarthDay.org 2018年的一項估計，每年有800萬公噸的塑料流入海洋，其中包括23.6萬噸的微塑料，這些塑料碎片的破裂程度比人的指甲還小。

Some estimates have suggested there may be as many as 5.25 trillion macro and microplastic pieces floating in the ocean, many of which wind up in the digestive tracks of sea animals, such as dolphins, whales and turtles.

據估計，海洋中可能漂浮著多達5.25萬億的宏塑料和微塑料碎片，其中許多最終進入了海豚、鯨魚和海龜等海洋動物的消化系統(tǒng)。