2022年11月06日 VOA慢速英語：藍鯨每天吞下 1000 萬件微塑料

 

Researchers have estimated that blue whales take in about 10 million pieces of microplastics each day.
研究人員估計，藍鯨每天攝入約 1000 萬片微塑料。
 
Microplastics are particles of plastic debris that are less than 5 millimeters long. They come from the breakdown of many kinds of plastic products and industrial waste. Particle levels have been building up in the world's oceans for many years. The possible health effects on whales from eating microplastics are still not well understood.
微塑料是長度小于 5 毫米的塑料碎片顆粒。它們來自多種塑料制品和工業(yè)廢料的分解。多年來，世界海洋中的粒子水平一直在增加。食用微塑料對鯨魚可能產(chǎn)生的健康影響仍不清楚。
 
Scientists studied three species of baleen whales – blue, fin and humpback. Baleen whales are born without teeth. But they have special plates in their mouths that filter food. They feed on very small animals, mainly the shrimp-like creatures called krill.
科學家們研究了三種須鯨——藍鯨、長須鯨和座頭鯨。須鯨出生時沒有牙齒。但它們的嘴里有特殊的盤子，可以過濾食物。它們以非常小的動物為食，主要是一種叫做磷蝦的類似蝦的生物。
 
A study by the researchers says the estimated 10 million pieces of microplastics blue whales eat daily weigh about 44 kilograms.
研究人員的一項研究稱，估計藍鯨每天吃下的 1000 萬片微塑料重約 44 公斤。
 
The whales were studied off America's Pacific coast. Research results were recently reported in the publication Nature Communications.
這些鯨魚在美國太平洋沿岸進行了研究。研究結果最近發(fā)表在《自然通訊》雜志上。
 
The study found that fin whales may take in up to 6 million microplastic pieces a day. Humpbacks that mostly feed on krill likely eat about 4 million microplastic pieces daily, the researchers said. Humpbacks that favor fish may take in a much smaller amount, about 200,000 pieces a day.
研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，長須鯨每天可能攝入多達 600 萬個微塑料碎片。研究人員說，主要以磷蝦為食的座頭鯨每天可能吃掉大約 400 萬塊微塑料。喜歡吃魚的座頭鯨可能會少得多，每天大約 200,000 只。
 
Matthew Savoca was a co-writer of the study. He told the Reuters news agency that about 99 percent of the plastic material came from other animals the whales eat -- not from the water they filter.
馬修·薩沃卡是該研究的合著者。他告訴路透社，大約 99% 的塑料材料來自鯨魚吃的其他動物，而不是它們過濾的水。
 
The study demonstrates the different reasons baleen whales may be at a heightened risk for taking in microplastics. These include the way they feed, the amount of food they eat and the fact that their environment is close to polluted areas.
該研究證明了須鯨攝入微塑料的風險增加的不同原因。這些包括他們的喂養(yǎng)方式、他們吃的食物量以及他們的環(huán)境靠近污染地區(qū)的事實。
 
Blue whales can grow up to 30 meters long. Fin whales can reach 24 meters, while humpbacks are generally about 15 meters.
藍鯨可以長到30米長。長須鯨可以達到24米，而座頭鯨一般在15米左右。
 
The researchers estimated the daily microplastic intake by examining the food search behavior of 126 blue whales, 65 humpbacks and 29 fins. They used measurements from electronic tag devices that they attached to the animals' backs. The device was equipped with a camera, microphone and a GPS tracker. They then considered levels of microplastics that exist in the travel path of the whales.
研究人員通過檢查 126 只藍鯨、65 只座頭鯨和 29 條鰭的食物搜索行為來估計每日微塑料攝入量。他們使用貼在動物背上的電子標簽設備進行測量。該設備配備了攝像頭、麥克風和GPS 跟蹤器。然后，他們考慮了鯨魚行進路徑中存在的微塑料水平。
 
A study published last year suggested that blue whales off the U.S. Pacific coast eat about 10 to 20 tons of krill daily. Fin whales eat an estimated 6 to 12 tons of krill a day, while humpbacks take in about 5 to 10 tons of krill or 2 to 3 tons of fish daily.
去年發(fā)表的一項研究表明，美國太平洋沿岸的藍鯨每天吃掉大約 10 到 20 噸磷蝦。長須鯨估計每天吃 6 到 12 噸磷蝦，而座頭鯨每天吃大約 5 到 10 噸磷蝦或 2 到 3 噸魚。
 
The new study found that the whales mainly feed at ocean depths of 50 to 250 meters. This is within the area with the highest measured microplastic levels in the open-ocean environment.
新研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，鯨魚主要在 50 至 250 米的海洋深處覓食。這是在公海環(huán)境中測量到的微塑料水平最高的區(qū)域內(nèi)。