听力课堂TED音频栏目主要包括TED演讲的音频MP3及中英双语文稿，供各位英语爱好者学习使用。本文主要内容为演讲MP3+双语文稿:喧嚣海洋的危险——以及我们如何让它平静下来，希望你会喜欢！
【演讲者及介绍】Nicola Jones
在对科学无限好奇的驱使下，Nicola Jones撰写并编辑了从量子物理到气候变化、从动物到人类学的各种故事。
【演讲主题】喧嚣海洋的危险——以及我们如何让它平静下来
The dangers of a noisy ocean—and how we can quiet it down
【中英文字幕】
翻译者Jiasi Hao校对者Yanyan Hong
This is the sound of orcas off the coast of Vancouver.
这是虎鲸的声音，来自温哥华的海岸。
(Whale chirps and squeaks)
（虎鲸发出的声音）
They make these fantastic sounds not just to communicate, but also sometimes to echolocate, to find their way around and to find food. But that can be tricky sometimes, because, well, here is the sound of a ship passing by, recorded underwater.
它们发出这些奇妙的声音不只是为了交流，有时也是为了利用回声定位，帮助它们寻找方向和食物。但这有时候没那么简单，因为，你听，这是在水下记录一艘船驶过的声音。
(Screeching oscillating sound)
（尖锐震动的声音）
You know, when we think about marine pollution, I think we usually think about plastics. Maybe toxic chemicals, or even ocean acidification from climate change. As a science journalist who often writes about environmental issues, those are the things that have passed my desk over the past 10 years or so. But as I recently realized when I was writing a feature for the science journal "Nature," noise is another important kind of pollution. One that often gets ignored.
提到海洋污染时，我们通常想到的是塑料，可能是有毒化学物质，或甚至是由气候变化导致的海洋酸化。作为一名经常撰写有关环境问题的科学记者，这些都是过去10多年间出现在我书桌上的话题。然而最近，我为《自然》科学杂志撰稿时，才了解到噪声其实是另一种非常重要的且经常被忽视的污染种类。
You know, maybe you've heard of the dark-skies movement, which aimed to raise awareness of the issue of light pollution and create pockets of unilluminated night, so that people and animals could enjoy more natural cycles of light and dark, night and day. Well, in much the same way, there are people now raising awareness of the issue of noise pollution and trying to create pockets of quiet in the ocean, so that marine life can enjoy a more natural soundscape.
你可能也听说过“黑夜运动”（Dark-skiesMovement），该运动旨在提高人们对于光污染问题的意识，并且创造出不同范围的无照明之夜，让人类和动物更能享受光与暗、昼与夜的自然周期。现在也有人用差不多的方法提高人们对于噪声污染的意识并且尝试在大海里创造出些许宁静，让那些海洋生物能够享受更自然的声景。
This is important. Noise isn't just an irritation. It can cause chronic stress, or even physical injury. It can affect marine life's ability to find food and mates and to listen out for predators and more. Think of all the sounds we inject into the ocean. Perhaps one of the most dramatic is the seismic surveys used to look for oil and gas. Air guns produce loud blasts, sometimes every 10 to 15 seconds, for months on end. And they use the reflections of these sounds to map the ground beneath. It can sound like this.
这很重要。噪声不仅是一种烦扰，噪声可以造成慢性压力，或甚至实体伤害。噪声也可以影响海洋生物寻找食物和配偶，以及发现掠夺者之类的能力等等。想想我们注入海里的所有声音。可能最具戏剧性之一的是用来寻找石油和天然气的地震勘探。气枪产生的巨大声响有时每隔10-15秒响一次，持续数月才会停止。人们用这些声音的回响来绘制海底下方的地图。声音听起来像这样。
(Explosion sounds)
（爆破声）
Then, there's the sound of the actual drilling for oil and gas, the construction of things like offshore wind farms, sonar and of course, the nearly constant drone from more than 50,000 ships in the global merchant fleet.
之后，还有实际动工开采石油和天然气的声音，离岸建造风力发电场的声音，声纳，当然还有来自全球超过五万商业船队派出的几乎不断的嗡嗡的声音。
Now the natural ocean itself isn't exactly quiet. If you put your head under the water, you can hear cracking ice, wind, rain, singing whales, grunting fish, even snapping shrimp. Altogether, that can create a soundscape of maybe 50 to 100 decibels, depending on where and when you are.
自然界的海洋本身并不安静，如果你把头埋入水中，你可以听到冰裂声、风声、雨声、鲸鱼歌唱、鱼儿咕噜吐泡，甚至是蟹虾夹钳的声音。根据你所在的时间和地点而不同，所有这些声音加起来，可以产生大概50-100分贝的声景。
But mankind's addition to that has been dramatic. It's estimated that shipping has added three decibels of noise to the ocean every 10 years in recent decades. That might not sound like a lot, but decibels are on a logarithmic scale, like the Richter scale for earthquakes. So a small number can actually represent a large change. Three decibels means a doubling of noise intensity in the ocean. A doubling.
但是人类对此声景造成的额外影响十分巨大。据估计，在最近几十年中，船舶运输业每10年为海洋增加了3分贝的噪音。这听起来可能不多，但是分贝是一个经过对数处理的单位，类似于地震单位里氏。所以一个小数字实际意味着巨大改变。3分贝意味着海洋中噪声强度的加倍。加倍。
And that's only an estimate, because no one is actually keeping track of how noisy the ocean is all around the world. There is a body called the International Quiet Ocean Experiment, and one of their missions is to try and plug the hole in that data. So for example, last year, they managed to convince the Global Ocean Observation System to start including noise as one of their essential variables for monitoring, alongside things like temperature and salinity.
而这还只是一个估测，因为没人能实时追踪世界范围海洋的噪音到底有多大。有一个组织叫国际安静海洋实验项目，他们其中的一项任务就是尝试并填补数据漏洞。比如去年，他们设法说服全球海洋观测系统开始把噪音指标，与其他被检测的变量，如温度和盐度等，纳入监控的重要指标之一。
We do know some things. We know that sonar can be as loud, or nearly as loud, as an underwater volcano. A supertanker can be as loud as the call of a blue whale. The noises we add to the ocean come in all different frequencies and can travel great distances. Seismic surveys off the East Coast of the United States can be heard in the middle of the Atlantic. In the 1960s, they did an experiment where they set off a loud noise off the coast of Perth, Australia, and they detected it as far away as Bermuda, 20,000 kilometers away.
我们确实知道一些东西。我们知道声纳近乎可以堪比海底火山的声音。一艘超级油轮可以与蓝鲸的叫声相提并论。我们向海洋中增加的噪音来自不同的频率，也能传播很远的距离。美国东海岸的地震勘探在大西洋中部依旧可以被听见。在1960年代，有人做了一项实验：他们在澳大利亚珀斯海湾外制造一声巨响，远至百慕大他们依旧可以检测到该巨响，那是两万公里外的地方。
So what does all this sound like to marine life, what do they hear? It's kind of difficult to describe. Sound travels further, faster in water than it does in air, and it also packs a different punch. So sound of the same pressure will have a different intensity whether you measure it in the air or underwater. Then there's the fact that whales don't have ears exactly like human ears. Creatures like zooplankton don't even have what you would consider to be ears. So what does this mean, what is the impact on all this marine life?
那么这声响对于海洋生物来说如何？它们会听到什么？这很难形容。相比空气，声音在水中传播得更快、更远，而且它们所蕴含的能量也不同。不论你在空气中还是在水下测量噪声，同样压力下的噪声有着不同的强度。有那么一个事实——鲸鱼没有类似人类的耳朵，如浮游生物等生物，甚至没有所谓你认为是耳朵的结构。所以这意味着什么？噪音对所有这些海洋生物的影响又如何？
Perhaps the easiest thing for scientists to assess is the effect of acute noise, really loud sudden blasts that might cause physical injury or hearing loss. Beaked whales, for example, can go into panicked dives when exposed to loud noises, which may even give them a condition similar to the bends. In the 1960s, after the introduction of more powerful sonar technologies, the number of incidents of mass whale strandings of beaked whales went up dramatically. And it's not just marine mammals, fish, if they stray too close to the source of a loud sound, their fish bladders may actually explode. The airgun blasts from seismic surveys can mow down a swath of zooplankton, the tiny creatures near the base of the food chain, or can deform scallop larvae while they're developing.
对科学家来说，可能最容易评估的指标就是尖锐噪音的影响，即可能造成物理伤害或听力损伤的非常响亮且突然的巨响。比如喙鲸，暴露于巨响的噪音时，会惊慌失措地猛然下潜，因此它们甚至要承受一种类似于浅水减压病的身体状况。在1960年代，在更加强劲的声纳技术问世后，大规模鲸鱼搁浅事件发生的数量急剧上升。这不仅仅是海洋哺乳动物，还有鱼类，如果它们距离高分贝声源太近，它们的鱼囊可能会爆炸。地震勘探的气枪爆破可以杀死一片浮游生物，它们是接近于食物链底端的微生物，或是导致发育中的扇贝幼虫畸形。
Well, what about chronic noise, the more pervasive issue of raising background noise from things like shipping? That can mask or drown out the natural soundscape. Some whales have responded to this by literally changing their tune, a little bit like people shouting to be heard in a noisy nightclub. And some fish will spend more time patrolling their borders and less time caring for their young, as if they're on high alert.
那么，长期的噪音又如何呢？例如，运输等发出的背景噪音越来越大所引起的更普遍的问题。长期噪音有可能会把大自然的声景覆盖或淹没。有些鲸鱼也因此改变了它们的声调，有点像人们在吵闹的夜店为了别人能听到自己，相互喊叫。有些鱼会花更长的时间在边境巡逻，而更少的时间照顾它们的孩子，好像它们正处于高度戒备状态。
Chronic noise can affect people too, of course. Studies have shown that people living near busy airports or really busy highways may have elevated levels of cardiovascular disease. And students living under busy flight paths may do worse on some educational tests. And even while I was researching this subject, they were actually blasting out about three meters of solid granite from the lot across from my home office to make room for a new house, and the constant jittering of the rock hammer was driving me completely insane. And whenever the workers stopped for a moment, I could feel my shoulders relax.
长期噪音当然也可以对人类造成影响。研究表明，居住在繁忙机场或是高速公路周边的人们，可能有更高的可能性患有心血管疾病。居住在飞行航道下方的学生可能有着较差的教育学术表现。甚至在我针对这个课题进行研究时，在我家庭办公室对面的工地，有人为了腾出空间盖新房子，正爆破三米厚的实心花岗岩，不停晃动下砸的石锤把我搞得完全抓狂。只要工人停下施工一小会儿，我就会觉得如释重负。
This effect has been seen in whales, too. After the terrorist attacks of 9/11, international shipping largely ground to a halt for a little while in the waters off the East Coast of the United States. And in that lull, researchers noticed that endangered right whales in that region had fewer chemical markers of stress in their feces samples. As one researcher I spoke to likes to say, "We were stressed, but the whales weren't."
这一影响也被发现于鲸鱼中。在911恐怖袭击发生后，美国东海岸大部分的国际运输停滞了一段时间。在那段时间，研究人员发现那片海域濒危灭绝的露脊鲸粪便样本中的压力化学指标有所降低。就像我曾交流过的一位研究人员喜欢说的那样：“我们紧张得不行，但鲸鱼们却压力释放了。”
Now you have to remember, we have evolved to be a visual species. We really rely on our eyes. But marine life relies on sound the way that we rely on sight. For them, a noisy ocean may be as befuddling and even dangerous as a dense fog is for us. And maybe sometimes that just means being a little more stressed, maybe sometimes it means spending a little less time with the kids. Maybe some species can adapt. But some researchers worry that for endangered species already on the brink, noise may be enough to push them over the edge.
现在你要记住，我们已经进化为拥有视觉的物种。我们非常依赖我们的眼睛。但是海洋生物对于声音的依赖如同我们对视觉的依赖。对它们来说，喧闹的海洋可能就如同浓雾之于我们一样，令人迷惑，且甚至危险。可能有时候这只是意味着多一些的压力，也许有时候这意味着少花一点时间陪伴孩子。或者一些物种能够适应环境。但一些研究人员担心那些濒危物种已经处于危险边缘，光光噪音，可能已足够将它们推向悬崖边缘。
So take, for example, the southern resident killer whales that live in the waters off my hometown of Vancouver. There are only 75, maybe 76, animals left in this population. And they're facing a lot of challenges. There are chemical pollutants in these waters, and they are running low on the salmon that they really rely on for food. And then there's noise. When researchers studied these and similar killer whales, they found that they spend between 18 and 25 percent less time feeding in the presence of loud boat noise. And that's a lot for a species that's already struggling to find enough food to thrive.
比如在我家乡温哥华附近海域生活的南方虎鲸。现在它们的种群数量大概只剩下75，可能76头。而且它们正面临很多挑战。它们生活的水域充斥着化学污染，它们赖以生存的食物，鲑鱼，也数量不足，再加上现在的噪音。当研究人员研究这些以及其它类似的虎鲸时，他们发现在船声很大的情况下，虎鲸进食时间缩短了18-25%。这对于已经难以找到足够食物的虎鲸来说，更是雪上加霜。
The good news, as I heard from all the researchers I spoke to, is that you can do something relatively easily about ocean noise. Unlike the wicked problems of climate change and ocean acidification, you can just dial down the knob on ocean noise and see almost immediate impacts. So for example, in 2017, the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority started asking ships to simply slow down when going through the Haro Strait, where the southern resident killer whales are feeding in late summer. Slower ships are quieter ships. And because it's Canada, you can just ask, it can be voluntary.
好消息是，所有我交谈过的研究人员都说，针对海洋噪音你可以实行一些相对简单的举措。不像是气候变化和海洋酸化这些灾害性的话题，你只要把海洋噪音降低，几乎可以立杆见影。例如在2017年，温哥华菲沙港口局开始建议即将要通过哈罗海峡的船只减速行驶。那里是南方虎鲸在夏末捕食进食的地方。船只减速之后，噪音也会降低，而且因为那是加拿大，用告知的方式即可，告知也属于自愿性质。
(Laughter)
（笑声）
(Applause)
（掌声）
In that 2017 trial, most of the ships complied, adding about half an hour to their travel time, and reducing noise by about 1.2 decibels or 24 percent of noise intensity. This year, they decided to extend the length of time and the area over which they're asking ships to slow down. So hopefully that has a positive impact for these whales.
在2017年的政策试点下，大部分船只都采纳了这一建议，旅行时间增加了半小时，噪音降低了1.2分贝，或是24%噪声强度。今年，他们决定增加船只减速行驶的时间和扩大船只减速行驶的海域范围。所以希望这一举措对那些鲸鱼们有积极的影响。
In 2017, the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority also introduced discounts in docking fees for ships that are physically designed to be quieter. You know, weirdly, a lot of the noise from a ship like this comes from the popping of tiny bubbles off the back of its propeller. And you can simply design a ship to do less of that and to be quieter. The International Maritime Organization has published a huge list of ways that boats can be made quieter. And they also have a target of reducing carbon dioxide emissions from global shipping by 50 percent by 2050. And the great news is that these two things go hand in hand. On the whole, a more efficient ship is a quieter ship.
在2017年，温哥华菲沙港口局为物理设计能让航行更加安静的船只给予折扣码头停泊费。奇怪的是，这种船发出的很多噪音都是从螺旋桨后打出的气泡造成的。而且你能很轻而易举地设计出一艘螺旋桨不会制造如此多气泡的相较安静的船。国际海事组织发布了一张大表，上面列举了各种可以让船只减少制造噪音的方式。他们也有另一个目标：在2050年，全球运输业的二氧化碳排放量能减少50%。很棒的一个消息是这两件事情可以并肩同行。整体上来说，更高效的船只也是更安静的船只。
People have also invented quieter ways of hammering in the giant posts needed for giant wind turbines, like this one, and gentler ways of doing seismic surveys. And there are some incentives for using quieter technologies. The European Union, for example, has a healthy marine system directive for 2020. And one of the ways that they define a healthy marine system is by how much noise is going in those waters. But on the whole, most waters remain completely unregulated when it comes to ocean noise.
人们也已经发明了更加安静的方式来敲击巨型风力涡轮机所需的巨型支柱，像这样的，而且更加温和的方式进行地震勘探。也有很多奖励机制，鼓励使用较为安静的技术。比如欧盟，出台了2020年健康海洋系统战略指令。他们对一个健康海洋系统其中一个定义是有多少噪音进入到那些水域中。但总体来说，大多数水域还依旧没有受到海洋噪音的管控。
But again, most of the scientists I spoke to said that there's real momentum right now in policy circles to pay attention to this issue and maybe do something about this issue. We already know enough to say that quieter seas are healthier seas. But now scientists are really scrambling to come up with the details. Just how quiet do we need to be? And where are the best places to make quiet or preserve quiet? And how best can we hush our noise?
可再次，我交谈过的大部分科学家说，政策制定者们现在已经行动起来开始关心这个问题了，甚至可能为此进行一些努力。我们已经足够了解可以说，更安静的也是更健康的海洋。但现在科学家们正在钻研细节。我们到底需要有多安静？哪些水域是最佳的降低噪音或是保持安静的地点？我们应该用什么最佳方式来压低噪音？
And you know, I'm not trying to tell you that noise is the biggest environmental problem on the planet or even in the ocean. But the point is that humankind has a lot of impacts on our environmental system. And these impacts don't act in isolation. They act together, and they multiply. So even for the ones that are not so obvious, we really need to pay attention to them.
你知道，我不是尝试在告诉你噪音是我们地球或甚至是海洋中最大的环境问题。但重点是，人类对我们的生态环境系统有着巨大的影响。这些影响并非单独作用，而是共同作用，它们会有成倍效应。所以即使是不怎么明显的影响，我们也需要注意。
I'll tell you about one last experiment, just because it's so beautiful. So Rob Williams, one of the researchers who works on southern resident killer whales, also does some work in Bali. And there, they celebrate a Hindu tradition called nyepi, or a day of silence. And this day, apparently, is very strictly observed. No planes take off from the airport, no boats go out fishing, the tourists are gently led off the beach back into their hotel rooms. And Rob Williams put some hydrophones in the water there to see what the impact was, and it was dramatic. Sound levels dropped by six to nine decibels, about the same as in the waters after 9/11. For an "acoustic prospector" like Williams, which is what he calls himself, this silence is golden. Now he and other researchers can go back to this place and see what the fish choose to do with all this additional acoustic real estate.
我会再给你们讲最后一个实验，因为它真的太美好了。罗伯·威廉姆斯（RobWilliams），研究南方虎鲸的其中一名研究人员，他也在巴厘岛做了一些工作。在那里，他们庆祝一个印度教的节日叫安宁日（Nyepi)，或是宁静日。这天，显然，一切都被非常严格的遵守。没有飞机从机场起飞，没有渔船出海打鱼，沙滩上的游客们被缓慢地带回自己的酒店房间。之后罗伯·威廉姆斯把水听器放进海里看其影响如何，结果发现影响巨大。海洋声音水平降低了6-9分贝，和911事件后的海洋声音水平差不多。威廉姆斯自称为“声音勘探者”，对他来说，这种寂静如金子般珍贵。现在，他和其他的研究人员可以回到这个地方看看鱼类们会在这额外的安宁日选择做些什么。
(Soft bubbling)
（轻轻吐泡声）
I like to think of them having their own holiday, feasting and finding mates. Celebrating their own spot of calm in an otherwise noisy world.
我会想象鱼儿有了自己的假期，可以大吃大喝并寻找伴侣。庆祝着在喧闹世界中，属于自己的一方宁静天地。
Thank you.
谢谢。
(Applause)
（掌声）