觸目驚心! 加勒比海被塑料垃圾'活埋'

A photographer has captured the damage being done to the planet's oceans with a shocking "sea of plastic and styrofoam" image taken near a tranquil Caribbean island.

近日，一名攝影師在一座寧靜的加勒比海島嶼附近，拍下了一張令人震驚的、“被塑料和泡沫聚苯乙烯覆蓋的海洋”照片，記錄了地球上的海洋所遭受的破壞。

Caroline Power, the photographer, said witnessing the plastic forks, bottles and rubbish between the islands Roatan and Cayos Cochinos, off the coast of Honduras, was "devastating".

這位名叫卡洛琳·鮑爾的攝影師表示，在洪都拉斯海岸附近的羅阿坦島和科奇諾斯羣島之間，親眼目睹塑料叉子、瓶罐以及垃圾，真的讓人很“崩潰”。

"To see something that I care so deeply for being killed, slowly choked to death by human waste was devastating," she told The Telegraph.

她向《電訊報》透露：“看見我如此在意的海洋被毀滅，在人類垃圾的掩埋下漸漸窒息，真的很崩潰。”

"Once the trash is in the ocean, it is incredibly difficult and costly to remove. The key is to stop the trash before it enters the ocean."

“一旦垃圾到了海洋中，要移除它們就變得很困難、代價也很高。解決問題的關鍵就是阻止垃圾進入海洋。”

The worst of the rubbish the dive team found was about 15 miles off the coast of Roatan heading towards the Cayos Cochinos Marine Reserve.

潛水隊發現的垃圾最多的地方在科奇諾斯羣島海洋保護區方向，距離羅阿坦島海灘15英里處。

"We were on a dive trip to a set of islands that don't quite break the ocean surface. They are one of the most pristine dive sites in this part of the Caribbean," Ms Power recalled.

鮑爾女士回憶說：“當時我們正要到海底相連的幾個島嶼去潛水。那塊區域是加勒比海這一帶最原生態的潛水區。”

"The photo of the diver in the water was actually over one of these seamounts. To see an area that is supposed to be pristine covered in garbage and trash was disheartening."

“潛水員在水下的這張照片，實際上是在其中一座海底山上拍的。看到原本應該十分純潔的海水錶面鋪滿了垃圾，真讓人沮喪。”

Conservationists Oceana Europe said the photos had left them "shocked, sad and angry, but not surprised".

歐洲海洋保護組織表示，這些照片讓他們“震撼、悲傷和生氣，但並不驚訝。”

They added: "If we don't change our behaviour now, we're going to have more plastic than fish in the ocean."

他們還表示：“如果我們不從現在開始改變我們的行爲，海洋裏的塑料將會比魚還多。”

Ms Power says she hopes her photos will encourage others to "make changes to their habits and daily lives to help protect and conserve this planet".

鮑爾女士稱，她希望她的照片能鼓勵他人“改變習慣和日常生活，幫助保護這個星球。”