造孽啊人類!英國昔日海鳥天堂變"墳場"
With no natural predators — and no human beings to worry about — Grassholm should be a paradise for Britain's greatest seabird, the gannet.
沒有自然天敵，也沒有可以擔憂的人類，格拉斯霍姆島本應是英國最大海鳥塘鵝的天堂。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.
畢竟，離英國彭布羅克郡海岸8英里遠的這座島嶼是被英國皇家鳥類保護協會（RSPB）認定爲天然的庇護所。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.
然而這裏現在成了塘鵝的墓地，很多塘鵝被扔入北大西洋的無數塑料垃圾纏住或勒死。
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.
一個救援團隊日前抓拍到許多驚人的有令人厭惡的照片。在這些照片中，展示了塘鵝將漁船或貨船拋下的舊漁網、垃圾以及包裝袋搬上海岸。之後，這些生物將這些垃圾誤認爲是海藻，並利用它們築巢，卻引發災難性且悲劇的後果。
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.
爲了逃脫這些垃圾的糾纏，很多鳥類甚至扯斷了自己的腿。據估計，格拉斯霍姆島上大約有18噸塑料垃圾。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.
塘鵝是一種非常獨特的鳥類。擁有6英尺的翼展，重達約71磅，可以時速96公里的速度衝入海中搜捕鯖魚和鯡魚。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，皇家鳥類保護協會大約可挽救50只塘鵝的生命。該組織負責格拉斯霍姆島和附近的拉姆齊島的守護人格雷戈·摩根表示：“有些塘鵝受傷太過嚴重以至於無法挽救，還有一些已經死亡。人們問我們爲何不清理這些垃圾，但那樣做必然要將塘鵝從巢中驅逐，會嚴重影響到它們。”'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.'
“我們無法解決這個問題，我們能做的就是希望喚更多人的意識，不要向海洋中扔塑料垃圾。”
