觸目!浮游生物首次被拍到攝入塑料

A scientist has filmed the moment plastic microfibre is ingested by plankton, illustrating how the material is affecting life beneath the waves.

一位科學家拍到了浮游生物吞食塑料微細纖維的畫面，說明塑料如何影響海洋裏的生物。

The footage shows one way that waste plastic could be entering the marine and global food chain.

這則錄像顯示了塑料廢物進入海洋和全球食物鏈的一種方式。

An estimated 150 million tonnes of plastic "disappears" from the world's waste stream each year.

據估計，每年有1.5億噸塑料從被污染的流域“消失”。

Waste plastic in the world's seas has been recognised by the United Nations as a major environmental problem.

聯合國將海洋廢棄塑料看作是一個重大的環境問題。

"When I saw it, I thought that here was something, visually, to convey to the public the problem of plastic in the sea," said Richard Kirby, who recorded the footage.

視頻的錄製者理查德?科比稱，“當我看到這段時，我認爲它從視覺上讓公衆瞭解了海洋塑料的問題。”

"What intrigues me is that because the fibre has made a loop inside the animal's gut, you can actually see the consequences of something as small as the arrow worm consuming microplastic.

“讓我感興趣的是，塑料纖維在箭蟲的腹中結成環狀，你可以看到和箭蟲一樣大小的生物攝入了微細塑料後的結果。”

Dr Kirby said that people were familiar with the idea of large marine animals - such as whales, seals and birds - swallowing plastic bags.

科比說，人們對鯨、海豹和海鳥等海洋生物吞食塑料袋的情況比較熟悉。

"But here we have something where we actually see that at a tiny fibre has caused a blockage in something as small as a Sagitta setosa, a member of the plankton, stopping food progressing down.

“但我們在視頻中看到細微的塑料纖維堵在浮游生物體內，使食物無法通過消化道。”

The United Nations has estimated that there are 46,000 pieces of waste plastic per square mile of sea.

據聯合國估計，每平方英里海域有46000塊塑料碎片。

The issue of plastic waste in the marine environment has been rising up the political and policy agenda.

海洋環境的塑料污染問題已經提上政治和政策議程。

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The international body's environment agency, UNEP, has launched a #CleanSeas campaign.

聯合國環境機構聯合國環境規劃署已經發起一場#清潔海洋運動。

The organisation's head, Erik Solheim, said: "We've stood by too long as the problem has gotten worse. It must stop. "

聯合國環境規劃署負責人埃裏克?索爾海姆說，“問題越來越嚴重，而我們已經等待太久。這種情況必須停止。”

The UN estimated that as many as 51 trillion (500 times as many stars estimated to be in our galaxy) particles of microplastic are in the world's seas and oceans.

據聯合國估計，全球海洋中大約有51萬億個塑料微粒，是銀河系中恆星數量的500倍。

The widespread presence of plastic in our waters meant that it was a problem for arrow worms, said Emily Baxter, senior marine conservation officer for the North West Wildlife Trusts.

英國西北野生動物基金會的資深水生動物保護負責人艾米麗?巴克斯特說，海水中存在的大量塑料對箭蟲是個大麻煩。

"They play a really important ecological role in the marine food web. They are voracious predators of other planktonic animals and also represent an important food source for fish, squid and other things that eat plankton."

“箭蟲在海洋食物鏈中起着非常重要的生態作用，它們吃其他的浮游生物，同時也是魚類、烏賊和其他生物的重要食物來源。”

"Even if we stopped producing plastic today this problem is going to continue for a long time. We see it now coming into the bottom of the food chain and potentially affecting the food chain all the way up," she said.

“即使我們現在就停止生產塑料，問題仍然會持續很久。我們看到，塑料已經進入生物鏈底層，可能將影響其上的整條食物鏈。”