VOA慢速英语--在希腊的爱琴海,潜水员发现“塑料珊瑚湾”

In Greece's Aegean Sea, Divers¹ Find 'Gulf² of Plastic Corals'

Like colorful corals, they rocked gently in the ocean current.

Only these were not beautiful natural reefs grown over centuries. They were plastic bags, stuck to the Aegean Sea floor since a waste site slid into the water eight years ago.

A team of divers and environmentalists pulled thousands of plastic bags from the water near Greece’s Andros island this month. The workers described what they found as a “gulf full of plastic corals.”

Seas polluted with plastic have become one of the most shocking signs of human damage to the planet.

“It was a very scary thing to see,” said Arabella Ross, a volunteer diver with Aegean Rebreath. The group carries out underwater and coastal³ clean-ups.

“It really shook me and I think it really shook everyone who saw it,” she added.

The Mediterranean⁴ is among the seas with the highest levels of plastic pollution in the world, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) said in a report in June.

Greece produces about 700,000 tons of plastic waste a year, or about 68 kilos per person, the WWF said. About 11,500 tons enter its seas every year. Almost 70% of that returns to the Greek coast, one of the longest in the world.

The sea pollution off Andros is thought to date back to 2011, when heavy rain caused a waste site to collapse⁵. Most of the waste fell into the sea.

Aegean Rebreath divers removed blue, black and yellow plastic bags caught between reefs and among fish.

It was “like the paradise of the Caribbean Sea, where you find coral reefs everywhere of every color. It was the exact same thing, but instead of corals it was bags,” diver Arabella Ross said.

The team managed to remove only a small part of the plastic waste they found, she said.

They also pulled up 300 kilograms of old fishing traps – known as “ghost nets” – from Andros. In a separate operation in June off Salamina, a small island near Athens, they removed two tons.

“If people are wondering where their rubbish ends up, we see it each time we go into the water,” Ross said.

I’m Caty Weaver⁶.

Words in This Story

coral? -n. a tiny soft-bodied animal that typically lives within a stony⁷ skeleton grouped in large colonies and that is related to the jellyfish. Also, a piece of stony material consisting of the skeletons of corals.

reef – n. a long line of rocks or coral or a high area of sand near the surface of the water in the ocean

gulf -n. a large area of ocean that is partly surrounded by land — often used in proper name

scary -adj. causing fear

paradise -n. a very beautiful, pleasant, or peaceful place that seems to be perfect?

rubbish -n. things that are no longer useful or wanted and that have been thrown out

1 divers   

adj.不同的；种种的

参考例句：

• He chose divers of them,who were asked to accompany him.他选择他们当中的几个人，要他们和他作伴。
• Two divers work together while a standby diver remains on the surface.两名潜水员协同工作，同时有一名候补潜水员留在水面上。

2 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

3 coastal   

adj.海岸的，沿海的，沿岸的

参考例句：

• The ocean waves are slowly eating away the coastal rocks.大海的波浪慢慢地侵蚀着岸边的岩石。
• This country will fortify the coastal areas.该国将加强沿海地区的防御。

4 Mediterranean   

adj.地中海的；地中海沿岸的

参考例句：

• The houses are Mediterranean in character.这些房子都属地中海风格。
• Gibraltar is the key to the Mediterranean.直布罗陀是地中海的要冲。

5 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

6 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。

7 stony   

adj.石头的，多石头的，冷酷的，无情的

参考例句：

• The ground is too dry and stony.这块地太干，而且布满了石头。
• He listened to her story with a stony expression.他带着冷漠的表情听她讲经历。