2020年09月六级第1套仔细阅读 Passage 2 原文翻译及答案解析

Home to virgin reefs, rare sharks and vast numbers of exotic fish, the Coral Sea is a unique haven of biodiversity off the northeastern coast of Australia. If a proposal by the Australian government goes ahead, the region will also become the world's largest marine protected area, with restrictions or bans on fishing, mining and marine farming.

珊瑚海是原始珊瑚礁、稀有鲨鱼和大量珍奇鱼类的家园，是澳大利亚东北海岸外独特的生物多样性避风港。如果澳大利亚政府的提案得以实施，该地区还将成为世界上最大的海洋保护区，对捕鱼、采矿和海洋养殖实施限制或禁令。

The Coral Sea reserve would cover almost 990 000 square kilometres and stretch as far as 1 100 kilometres from the coast. Unveiled recently by environment minister Tony Burke, the proposal would be the last in a series of proposed marine reserves around Australia's coast.

珊瑚海保护区将覆盖近99万平方公里，从海岸延伸至1100公里。环境部长托尼·伯克最近公布的这一提案，将是澳大利亚沿海一系列拟议海洋保护区中的最后一个。

But the scheme is attracting criticism from scientists and conservation groups, who argue that the government hasn't gone far enough in protecting the Coral Sea, or in other marine reserves in the coastal network.

但这一计划正受到科学家和环保组织的批评，他们认为政府在保护珊瑚海或其他沿海网络海洋保护区方面做得还不够。

Hugh Possingham, director of the Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions at the University of Queensland, points out that little more than half of the Coral Sea reserve is proposed as "no take" area, in which all fishing would be banned. The world's largest existing marine reserve, established last year by the British government in the Indian Ocean, spans 654 000 km2 and is a no-take zone throughout. An alliance of campaigning conversation groups argues that more of the Coral Sea should receive this level of protection.

昆士兰大学环境决策卓越中心主任休·波辛汉指出，珊瑚海保护区中只有略多于一半的区域被提议为“禁捕区”，所有捕鱼活动将被禁止。英国政府去年在印度洋建立的全球现有最大海洋保护区覆盖65.4万平方公里，全部为禁捕区。一个由环保倡导组织组成的联盟认为，珊瑚海应有更多区域获得这一级别的保护。

"I would like to have seen more protection for coral reefs," says Terry Hughes, director of the Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University in Queensland. "More than 20 of them would be outside the no-take area and vulnerable to catch-and-release fishing".

昆士兰詹姆斯·库克大学珊瑚礁卓越研究中心主任特里·休斯说：“我希望对珊瑚礁有更多的保护。超过20个珊瑚礁将位于禁捕区之外，容易受到捕捞后释放捕鱼活动的影响。”

As Nature went to press, the Australian government had not responded to specific criticisms of the plan. But Robin Beaman, a marine geologist at James Cook University, says that the reserve does "broadly protect the range of habitats" in the sea. "I can testify to the huge effort that government agencies and other organisations have put into trying to understand the ecological values of this vast area," he says.

在《自然》杂志付印时，澳大利亚政府尚未对该计划的具体批评作出回应。但詹姆斯·库克大学海洋地质学家罗宾·比曼表示，该保护区确实“广泛保护了海洋中的栖息地范围”。他说：“我可以证明，政府机构和其他组织为理解这一广阔区域的生态价值付出了巨大努力。”

Reserves proposed earlier this year for Australia's southwestern and northwestern coastal regions have also been criticised for failing to give habitats adequate protection. In August, 173 marine scientists signed an open letter to the government saying they were "greatly concerned" that the proposals for the southwestern region had not been based on the "core science principles" of reserves--the protected regions were not, for instance, representative of all the habitats in the region, they said.

今年早些时候为澳大利亚西南部和西北部沿海地区提出的保护区也因未能为栖息地提供充分保护而受到批评。8月，173名海洋科学家签署了一封致政府的公开信，表示他们“非常担忧”西南部地区的提案没有基于保护区的“核心科学原则”——例如，保护区并不代表该地区的所有栖息地。

Critics say that the southwestern reserve offers the greatest protection to the offshore areas where commercial opportunities are fewest and where there is little threat to the environment, a contention also levelled at the Coral Sea plan.

批评者称，西南部保护区为商业机会最少、对环境威胁最小的近海区域提供了最大保护，珊瑚海计划也面临同样的指责。