VOA常速英语2019--收集曼利湾遍布的塑料垃圾（在线收听）

These volunteer divers are snorkel fishing in Manly Cove in Sydney, Australia. But they’re not looking for fish. They’re diving for plastic, all kinds of plastic, but mainly straws. It’s part of a volunteer effort to clean the cove, called Operation Straw. So when we started these projects, we actually just genuinely wanted to count how many straws and other plastic items we’re finding in the ocean. So I was really surprised at how many people wanted to join in, and I think it’s because it’s such a feel-good activity to be able to get in and do something about the problems facing the world. Harriet Spark founded Operation Straw when she came across this octopus in the Cove clutching plastic straws. We actually once found an octopus. So there’s lots of octopus in this Bay. It’s full of beautiful marine life.

这些志愿者潜水员正在澳大利亚悉尼的曼利湾潜泳。但他们并不是在寻找鱼雷，而是寻找塑料——各种塑料，主要是吸管。这是志愿者清理曼利湾的部分工作内容，这项工作也称“吸管行动”。我们开始这些项目的时候，我们只是单纯地想看看海洋里有多少吸管等塑料。我很吃惊，竟然有这么多人想加入这项工作。我觉得是因为这项活动体验良好，能够为全球面临的问题做一些事情。哈丽特·斯帕克发起了这项行动，起因是她在曼利湾看到章鱼身体里缠着塑料吸管。我们之前见过一只章鱼。曼利湾里有很多章鱼，有各种漂亮的海洋生物。

And we found an octopus holding plastic straws in its tentacles, and we actually had to pull them out. So that was a bit of a depressing tug-of-war. The group volunteers their Saturdays to dive in the cove and pick up trash. I found 23 today, which is not my record. My record is up in the 60s. But it was a pretty good hit. The effort has inspired 40 local businesses to do their part by ending their use of plastic straws. Hugo’s situated down here on the water, and Operation Straw is in effect, and they’re collecting straws all the time down here. And we know that we’re one of the restaurants not supplying those straws. During Operation Straws initial summer of work in 2018, the team pulled over 2000 straws out of Manly Cove.

我们发现一只触须里缠着塑料吸管的章鱼，我们只能通过拉扯的方式拽出来。这场拉锯战令人感到有些沮丧。这群志愿者牺牲周六的时间在海湾里潜泳，收集塑料。我今天找到了20个塑料，但这并不是我的历史最高纪录，我的最高纪录是60多个。这项活动引起了轩然大波：激发了当地的40家企业尽自己所能不再使用塑料吸管。雨果餐厅就在水边上，“吸管行动”正在进行中，一直在这里收集吸管。我们餐厅和其他几家餐厅都不再供应这些吸管。在“吸管行动”2018年开启的第一个夏天里，志愿者团队在曼利湾收集了2000多只吸管。

To put that in perspective, Australians use 2.9 billion straws a year. Oh, you can see the change this far. Fewer plastic straws there, you know, bait bags, plastic food packaging, everything else, just as bad. But it shows that you can make a difference by implementing change. Every little bit helps.

认真审视这件事情会发现，澳大利亚人每年会使用29亿只吸管。所以现在就能看到目前为止的变化了。曼利湾的塑料吸管变少了，诱饵袋、塑料食品包装等所有塑料制品依然会产生危害。但我们可以看到通过发起改变，确实能让情况转变。每一份力量都很重要。