寄居蟹將殼換成塑料殼后，數(shù)以百萬計的寄居蟹正在死亡

寄居蟹將殼換成塑料殼后，數(shù)以百萬計的寄居蟹正在死亡

If turtles with straws in their nostrils or seabirds with stomachs full of garbage weren't enough to rouse your concern about plastic pollution, perhaps this will: hermit crabs are now the latest victims of the endless barrage of plastic waste washing upon our shores, reports The Washington Post.

據(jù)《華盛頓郵報》報道，如果鼻孔里插著稻草的海龜或胃里塞滿垃圾的海鳥還不足以引起你對塑料污染的擔(dān)憂，或許這還能引起你的擔(dān)憂:寄居蟹現(xiàn)在是塑料垃圾源源不斷沖刷我們海岸的最新受害者。

Hermit crabs look pretty vulnerable outside of their shells - and plastics are no replacement. (Photo: Arnstein Rønning/Wikimedia Commons [CC license 3.0])

Hermit crabs, of course, are those adorable little beach bugs that occasionally peek out from underneath sea shells. Part of what makes them so cute is their vulnerability; hermit crabs are not born with shells of their own. Instead, they take residence in the shells of other critters — often, sea snails — after those shells have been vacated by their original inhabitants. As hermit crabs mature, they outgrow their shells and must swap them out for newer, larger ones.

寄居蟹，當(dāng)然，是那些可愛的小沙灘蟲子，偶爾會從海底的貝殼中探出頭來。她們?nèi)绱丝蓯鄣牟糠衷蚴撬齻兊拇嗳?寄居蟹不是天生就有殼的。相反，它們會在其他動物的殼里定居——通常是海螺——在這些殼被原來的居住者清空之后。當(dāng)寄居蟹成熟時，它們的殼就會脫落，必須換新的、更大的殼。

But as plastic trash accumulates in our oceans and increasingly collects along our shorelines, we're now seeing a disturbing new trend in hermit crab shell-swapping behavior: they're trading in their shells for plastics, and with dire consequences.

但隨著塑料垃圾在海洋中堆積，并越來越多地沿著海岸線聚集，我們現(xiàn)在看到了寄居蟹換殼行為中一個令人不安的新趨勢:它們用自己的殼換塑料，并帶來了可怕的后果。

This was just one of the findings of a shocking new study about plastic waste in the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, a remote chain of islands in the Indian Ocean. Despite their isolated location, researchers found that these islands were "literally drowning in plastic": 414 million pieces of the synthetic stuff, to be exact.

這只是一項令人震驚的關(guān)于Cocos (Keeling)群島塑料垃圾的新研究的發(fā)現(xiàn)之一，Cocos (Keeling)群島是印度洋上一個偏遠的群島鏈。盡管這些島嶼位置偏僻，但研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)它們“完全淹沒在塑料中”:準確地說，是4.14億個塑料制品。

As they scoured through the heaps of trash, the team began noticing another morbid tendency. Scoops of dead hermit crabs kept pouring out of overturned plastic containers.

當(dāng)他們在成堆的垃圾中搜尋時，隊員們開始注意到另一種病態(tài)的傾向。一桶桶的死寄居蟹不斷地從傾覆的塑料容器中涌出。

It was easy to figure out what had happened. Hermit crabs are instinctually drawn into small crevices and holes during their near-constant search for new homes. Unable to distinguish between artificial containers and shells, they crawled inside the plastic tombs only to become trapped, unable to climb back out of the slippery, unnatural environment.

很容易弄清楚發(fā)生了什么事。寄居蟹在不斷尋找新家的過程中，會本能地被吸引到小裂縫和洞里。由于無法分辨出人造容器和貝殼，他們爬進塑料墳?zāi)梗Y(jié)果卻被困住了，無法爬出光滑、不自然的環(huán)境。

To make matters worse, hermit crabs emit a chemical signal when they die to alert others that their shell has become vacant. So the plastic containers only become more alluring as they entomb growing numbers of crabs.

更糟糕的是，寄居蟹在死后會發(fā)出一種化學(xué)信號，提醒別人它們的殼已經(jīng)空了。因此，塑料容器只會在埋葬越來越多的螃蟹時變得更有吸引力。

"It's not quite a domino effect. It’s almost like an avalanche," explained Alex Bond, a curator of London’s Natural History Museum, which assisted in the study. "Hermit after hermit going into these bottles thinking they'll get their next home, when in reality, it's their last home."

“這不是多米諾骨牌效應(yīng)。倫敦自然歷史博物館館長亞歷克斯·邦德解釋說。“寄居蟹一個接一個地鉆進瓶子里，想著他們會有下一個家，但實際上，這是他們最后一個家。”

In total, researchers estimate that 570,000 crabs were killed in this fashion in Cocos alone, which is composed of 27 islands. These are very small islands, however. Imagine how this might be harming hermit crabs around the world.

研究人員估計，僅在由27個島嶼組成的科科斯島上，就有57萬只螃蟹被這樣殺死。然而，這些都是很小的島嶼。想象一下，這會對世界各地的寄居蟹造成怎樣的傷害。

Right now it's too early to say exactly how steeply hermit crab populations might be declining, but if the relatively small sample size of this study is a clue, the numbers will be significant. "This is a perfect opportunity for those who were thinking about getting involved” in beach cleanups, said Jennifer Lavers, who headed the research team. "It's not just removing plastic from the beach because it's unsightly, but it's potentially doing a lot for hermit crab populations."

現(xiàn)在說寄居蟹的數(shù)量會急劇下降還為時過早，但如果這項研究中相對較小的樣本量是一個線索，那么數(shù)量將會很可觀。該研究小組的負責(zé)人珍妮弗·萊弗斯表示，對于那些想要參與海灘清理工作的人來說，這是一個絕佳的機會。“這不僅僅是將塑料從海灘上移除，因為它很難看，而且可能會對寄居蟹種群產(chǎn)生很大影響。”