Why I still have hope for coral reefs | Kristen Marhaver

譯者: Marssi Draw 審譯者: Regina Chu

The first time I cried underwater

我第一次在水底哭

was in 2008,

是 2008 年的時候，

the island of Curaçao,

我在古拉索島，

way down in the southern Caribbean.

在遙遠的加勒比海南端。

It's beautiful there.

那邊很美。

I was studying these corals for my PhD,

當時我在攻讀博士研究珊瑚，

and after days and days of diving on the same reef,

日復一日潛水到同一塊礁上，

I had gotten to know them as individuals.

讓我對它們都瞭若指掌。

I had made friends with coral colonies --

我和珊瑚群交朋友──

totally a normal thing to do.

這可一點也不奇怪。

Then, Hurricane Omar smashed them apart and ripped off their skin,

後來奧馬爾颶風讓牠們 四分五裂、體無完膚，

leaving little bits of wounded tissue that would have a hard time healing,

留下一丁點受了傷的組織， 得花時間辛苦療養，

and big patches of dead skeleton that would get overgrown by algae.

大片死亡的骨架上會長滿水藻。

When I saw this damage for the first time,

第一次看到災情

stretching all the way down the reef,

遍及珊瑚礁深處的時候，

I sunk onto the sand in my scuba gear

穿著潛水肺裝站在沙上的我

and I cried.

哭了。

If a coral could die that fast,

如果珊瑚死的速度這麼快，

how could a reef ever survive?

礁怎麼能撐得過來？

And why was I making it my job to try to fight for them?

而我又為什麼要試圖為它們奮戰？

I never heard another scientist tell that kind of story

直到去年我才聽到其他科學家說

until last year.

這類的故事。

A scientist in Guam wrote,

一位在關島的科學家寫信給我：

"I cried right into my mask,"

「我在面罩裡哭了，」

seeing the damage on the reefs.

因為我看到了那些珊瑚礁的傷痕。

Then a scientist in Australia wrote,

另一位澳洲科學家寫：

"I showed my students the results of our coral surveys,

「我讓學生看我們研究珊瑚的結果，

and we wept."

大家都落淚了。」

Crying about corals is having a moment, guys.

各位，為珊瑚哭泣現在正是時候。

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

And that's because reefs in the Pacific

那是因為太平洋的礁

are losing corals faster than we've ever seen before.

以前所未有的速度流失珊瑚。

Because of climate change,

因為氣候變遷，

the water is so hot for so long in the summers,

海水在夏天太熱太久，

that these animals can't function normally.

以致於這些動物無法正常運作。

They're spitting out the colored algae that lives in their skin,

牠們吐出住在牠們身上的有色海藻，

and the clear bleached tissue that's left usually starves to death

而留下的白化組織通常會餓死，

and then rots away.

然後腐爛。

Then the skeletons are overgrown by algae.

接著骨架上就會長滿海藻。

This is happening over an unbelievable scale.

這種情況以不可思議的程度 一直在發生。

The Northern Great Barrier Reef lost two-thirds of its corals last year

北大堡礁去年失去三分之二的珊瑚，

over a distance of hundreds of miles,

總長好幾百哩，

then bleached again this year,

今年又再度發生白化，

and the bleaching stretched further south.

而且蔓延到南部了。

Reefs in the Pacific are in a nosedive right now,

太平洋珊瑚礁的情況一落千丈，

and no one knows how bad it's going to get,

沒人知道之後會多慘，

except ...

除了……

over in the Caribbean where I work,

我工作的地方加勒比海，

we've already been through the nosedive.

我們已經撐過谷底。

Reefs there have suffered through centuries of intense human abuse.

那裡的珊瑚礁百年來 飽受人類摧殘。

We kind of already know how the story goes.

我們大概知道 故事會怎麼發展下去。

And we might be able to help predict what happens next.

我們也許可以協助預測 下一步會發生什麼事。

Let's consult a graph.

我們來看個圖表。

Since the invention of scuba,

自從潛水肺發明之後，

scientists have measured the amount of coral on the seafloor,

科學家測量海底珊瑚數量，

and how it's changed through time.

以及日後的變化。

And after centuries of ratcheting human pressure,

經過幾個世紀 日益加遽的人類壓力，

Caribbean reefs met one of three fates.

加勒比海珊瑚礁面臨了三種命運：

Some reefs lost their corals very quickly.

有些礁快速失去珊瑚；

Some reefs lost their corals more slowly,

有些礁失去珊瑚的速度慢一點，

but kind of ended up in the same place.

但結局差不多一樣。

OK, so far this is not going very well.

到目前為止不太樂觀。

But some reefs in the Caribbean --

但有些加勒比海珊瑚礁──

the ones best protected

被保護得最好的那一些，

and the ones a little further from humans --

還有離人類比較遠的那一些，

they managed to hold onto their corals.

它們順利保住珊瑚。

Give us a challenge.

這帶給了我們挑戰。

And, we almost never saw a reef hit zero.

而且我們幾乎沒見過 一塊珊瑚礁片甲不留。

The second time I cried underwater

第二次我在水底哭，

was on the north shore of Curaçao, 2011.

是 2011 年在古拉索島北岸。

It was the calmest day of the year,

那是一年之中最平靜的一天，

but it's always pretty sketchy diving there.

但在那邊潛水總是很危險。

My boyfriend and I swam against the waves.

我男友和我游向海浪。

I watched my compass so we could find our way back out,

我確認指南針， 之後才能找得到回頭路，

and he watched for sharks,

他在觀察看有沒有鯊魚，

and after 20 minutes of swimming that felt like an hour,

游了二十分鐘之後， 感覺就像游了一小時，

we finally dropped down to the reef,

我們終於落在珊瑚礁上，

and I was so shocked,

我超驚訝，

and I was so happy

而且超開心，

that my eyes filled with tears.

讓我熱淚盈眶。

There were corals 1,000 years old lined up one after another.

上千年的珊瑚在那裡 一個挨著一個。

They had survived the entire history of European colonialism in the Caribbean,

牠們從加勒比海

整個歐洲殖民主義的 歷史中倖存下來，

and for centuries before that.

而且在那之前也活了幾個世紀。

I never knew what a coral could do when it was given a chance to thrive.

我從來不知道珊瑚有機會 成長茁壯時，牠能做什麼。

The truth is that even as we lose so many corals,

事實是即使我們失去這麼多珊瑚，

even as we go through this massive coral die-off,

即使我們經歷了大量珊瑚相繼死去，

some reefs will survive.

有些珊瑚還是會活下來。

Some will be ragged on the edge,

有些邊緣會不平整，

some will be beautiful.

有些會很美。

And by protecting shorelines and giving us food to eat

珊瑚透過保護海岸線、 供給我們食物

and supporting tourism,

和協助觀光業，

they will still be worth billions and billions of dollars a year.

未來每年都還是會 提供千百億的價值。

The best time to protect a reef was 50 years ago,

保護珊瑚礁最好的時機點 是在五十年前，

but the second-best time is right now.

第二次則是現在。

Even as we go through bleaching events,

即使我們經歷的白化事件

more frequent and in more places,

越來越頻繁也出現在更多地方，

some corals will be able to recover.

有些珊瑚還是能復原。

We had a bleaching event in 2010 in the Caribbean

加勒比海在 2010 年 發生過白化事件，

that took off big patches of skin on boulder corals like these.

造成巨礫珊瑚的表層 像這樣大面積剝落。

This coral lost half of its skin.

這個珊瑚的表面掉了一半。

But if you look at the side of this coral a few years later,

但幾年後，如果你看牠的側邊，

this coral is actually healthy again.

牠又變健康了。

It's doing what a healthy coral does.

牠會跟健康珊瑚做一樣的事。

It's making copies of its polyps,

牠會複製珊瑚蟲、

it's fighting back the algae

擊退海藻、

and it's reclaiming its territory.

收復牠的領土。

If a few polyps survive,

如果有些珊瑚蟲活下來，

a coral can regrow;

珊瑚可以重生；

it just needs time and protection and a reasonable temperature.

牠要的只是時間、 保護和合理的溫度。

Some corals can regrow in 10 years --

有些珊瑚可以在十年內復活，

others take a lot longer.

有些要很久。

But the more stresses we take off them locally --

只要我們在當地減輕牠們越多壓力，

things like overfishing, sewage pollution, fertilizer pollution,

像是過度捕撈、 污水污染、肥料污染、

dredging, coastal construction --

拖撈網、海岸工程等，

the better they can hang on as we stabilize the climate,

牠們就能在我們穩定氣候時撐下來，

and the faster they can regrow.

也就能更快重生。

And as we go through the long, tough and necessary process

我們在採取漫長、艱辛和必要的程序

of stabilizing the climate of planet Earth,

來穩定地球氣候的同時，

some new corals will still be born.

部分新珊瑚還會繼續誕生。

This is what I study in my research.

這是我的研究。

We try to understand how corals make babies,

我們試著了解珊瑚怎麼生小孩，

and how those babies find their way to the reef,

還有這些小孩怎麼找到珊瑚礁，

and we invent new methods to help them survive

我們發明了一種方法，

協助牠們在生命 早期脆弱的階段中存活下來。

those early, fragile life stages.

One of my favorite coral babies of all time

我一直以來最愛的珊瑚寶寶

showed up right after Hurricane Omar.

在奧馬爾颶風來襲後出現。

It's the same species I was studying before the storm,

那和我在風暴前研究的是同一種，

but you almost never see babies of this species --

但一般幾乎看不到這一種的寶寶，

it's really rare.

因為牠們真的非常稀有。

This is actually an endangered species.

牠們真的是瀕危物種。

In this photo, this little baby coral, this little circle of polyps,

在這張照片裡，這個小珊瑚寶寶，

這一小團珊瑚蟲，

is a few years old.

有幾歲大。

Like its cousins that bleach,

牠們像白化的表親一樣

it's fighting back the algae.

擊退海藻。

And like its cousins on the north shore,

像牠們的在北岸的表親，

it's aiming to live for 1,000 years.

打算要活一千年。

What's happening in the world and in the ocean

世界上和海裡發生的事，

has changed our time horizon.

會改變我們時程。

We can be incredibly pessimistic on the short term,

短期內我們可能會非常悲觀，

and mourn what we lost

哀悼我們失去的

and what we really took for granted.

和我們過去視為理所當然的一切。

But we can still be optimistic on the long term,

但長期來看我們還是能保持樂觀，

and we can still be ambitious about what we fight for

我們還是可以對我們要爭取的，

and what we expect from our governments,

以及對政府和地球的期望

from our planet.

懷有雄心壯志。

Corals have been living on planet Earth for hundreds of millions of years.

珊瑚已經在地球上生存數十億年。

They survived the extinction of the dinosaurs.

牠們在恐龍絕跡的時候活了下來。

They're badasses.

牠們是壞蛋。

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

An individual coral can go through tremendous trauma and fully recover

一個珊瑚能在經歷 重大創傷後完全復原，

if it's given a chance and it's given protection.

只要牠有機會並且得到保護。

Corals have always been playing the long game,

珊瑚一直都打長久戰，

and now so are we.

現在我們也是。

Thanks very much.

非常感謝。

(Applause)

（掌聲）