They may be tiny, look harmless, and sound like a bunch of cartoon characters, but don't be fooled.

雖然它們很小、看起來無害，而且名字聽起來像卡通人物，但別因此被騙了。

These little guys are plotting ocean domination.

這些小小的塑膠粒正密謀征服海洋。

Nurdles are some of the planet's most pervasive pollutants, found in lakes, rivers, and oceans across the globe.

塑膠粒是地球上隨處可見的汙染物之一，全球的湖泊、河川及海洋都有它們的蹤跡。

The tiny factory-made pellets form the raw material for every plastic product we use.

這些工廠製造出的小顆粒是日常塑膠用品的原料。

And each year, billions of pounds of nurdles are produced, melted, and molded into toys, bottles, buttons, bags, pens, shoes, toothbrushes, and beads.

每年都有數十億磅的塑膠粒被製造、熔解，再被製成玩具、寶特瓶、鈕扣、袋子、 筆、鞋子、牙刷和柔珠顆粒。

They are everywhere.

它們無所不在。

And they come in many guises, multi-colored and many-shaped, they range in size from just a few millimeters to mere specks that are only visible through a microscope.

它們有許多造型、多種顏色和形狀，有的幾毫米大，有的卻小到要靠顯微鏡才能看見。

But their real advantage in the quest for ocean domination is their incredible endurance, which allows them to persist in an environment for generations because their artificial makeup makes them unable to biodegrade.

但塑膠粒稱霸海洋的優勢是令人驚奇的「持久力」，它們可以存活好幾個世代，因為人為加工讓它們無法自然分解。

So, just as long as they don't get into the environment, we have nothing to worry about, right?

所以，只要我們不亂丟塑膠，就沒什麼好擔心的對吧？

The problem is nurdles have a crafty way of doing exactly this.

問題是，塑膠粒很會鑽小漏洞。

Produced in several countries and shipped to plastic manufacturing plants the world over, nurdles often escape during the production process, carried by runoff to the coast or during shipping when they're mistakenly tipped into the waves.

塑膠粒在不同的國家製造，並運往世界各地的工廠加工，而它們經常在製造過程中掉落，順著逕流排入海中或是在運送過程中掉進海裡。

Once in the water, nurdles are swiftly carried by currents, ultimately winding up in huge circulating ocean systems called gyres, where they convene to plan their tactics.

一旦進入海洋，塑膠粒會迅速被洋流帶走，最後會變成海洋循環系統——「環流」的一部份，塑膠粒在環流中集合並擬定戰術。

The Earth has five gyres that act as gathering points, but the headquarters of nurdle ocean domination are in the Pacific Ocean, where the comparative enormity of the gyre and the resulting concentration of pollution is so huge that it's known as The Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

地球有五大環流是塑膠粒的聚集地，但它們佔領海洋的總部在太平洋，那裡的環流較強勁，因此會匯聚各種汙染物，污染量大到被稱為「北太平洋垃圾帶」。

Here, nurdles have good company.

塑膠粒會在此處聚集起來。

This gyre draws in all kinds of pollution, but because they don't biodegrade, plastics dominate, and they come from other sources besides nurdles, too.

環流還會帶來各種不同的汙染物，但因為它們不會生物分解，所以塑膠會佔據海洋，而塑膠的來源不僅止於塑膠粒。

You know those tiny beads you see in your face wash or your toothpaste?

你看過那些在牙膏或洗面乳裡的柔珠顆粒嗎？

They're often made of plastic, and after you flush them down the drain, some also end up in this giant garbage patch, much to the delight of the nurdles, building up their plastic army there.

它們通常也是塑膠製成的，在被沖入下水道後，有些最後也會聚集至垃圾堆中，開心地跟塑膠粒一起成立「塑膠大軍」。

And then there are the large pieces of unrecycled plastic litter, like bottles and carrier bags, transported by runoff from land to sea.

也有未被回收的大型塑膠垃圾如寶特瓶或塑膠袋，順著逕流從陸地流入海洋。

Over time, these plastic chunks turn into a kind of nurdle, too, but one that's been worn down by the elements, not made in a factory.

這些垃圾最後也會變成一種塑膠粒，差別只在於：一個是工廠製造的，一個是被磨損變小。

And as if they weren't threatening enough, the rough, pitted surfaces of these microplastics, the name we give to all those collective plastic bits, water-born chemicals stick, or adhere, to them, making them toxic.

更可怕的是，這些我們稱做「塑膠微粒」 的細小塑膠顆粒會被水溶性化學物質吸附在粗糙且充滿坑洞的表面上，並變成有毒物質。

This gathering has grown so immense that the oceanic garbage patch can shift from around the size of Texas to something the size of the United States.

聚集在海上的塑膠堆會越變越龐大，面積可以從德州的大小擴張至跟美國一樣大。

But while this toxic tornado is circulating, the birds, fish, filter feeders, whales, and crustaceans around it are just going about their daily business, which means they're looking for food.

但當這些有毒物質隨著洋流循環時，海鳥、魚、濾食性動物、鯨魚和甲殼類一樣會在附近活動並尋找食物。

Unfortunately for them, tiny bits of floating plastic look a lot like fish eggs and other enticing bits of food.

不幸的是，漂浮在海面上的塊狀塑膠看起來很像魚卵或是其他誘人的美食。

But once ingested, microplastics have a very different and terrible habit of sticking around.

一旦吃下肚，與食物不同且很糟糕的事情是，塑膠微粒會停留在體內。

Inside an animal's stomach, they not only damage its health with a cocktail of toxins they carry but can also lead to starvation.

塑膠粒會停留在動物的胃中，而攜帶的有毒混合物不僅會傷害動物的健康，還會導致他們餓死。

Because although nurdles may be ingested, they're never digested, tricking an animal into feeling like it's continually full and leading to its eventual death.

因為塑膠粒雖然可以被「吃下肚」，但不會被「消化」，這讓動物誤以為自己處在吃飽的狀態，最終卻導致死亡。

When one organism consumes another, microplastics and their toxins are then passed up through the food chain.

當生物體吃下另一個生物時，塑膠微粒和毒素就會順著食物鏈向上傳遞。

And that's how, bit by bit, nurdles accomplish their goal, growing ever more pervasive as they wipe out marine life and reshape the ocean's ecosystems.

這就是塑膠粒漸漸佔領海洋的方式，在徹底消滅海洋生物和重塑海洋生態系統的同時，開始變得無所不在。

So, how to break this cycle?

所以，該如何停止這項惡性循環呢？

The best solution would be to take plastics out of the equation altogether.

最好的方法就是讓塑膠製品徹底消失。

That'll take a lot of time but requires only small collective changes, like more recycling, replacing plastics with paper and glass, and ditching that toothpaste with the microbeads.

這會花很多時間才能達成，但其實只是積少成多的改變而已，像是做回收、用紙和玻璃替代塑膠、不要使用含有柔珠的牙膏。

If we accomplish these things, perhaps over time fewer and fewer nurdles will turn up at that giant garbage patch, their army of plastics will grow weaker, and they'll surrender the ocean to its true keepers once more.

如果我們能做到這些，或許長時間下來，會有越來越少的塑膠粒出現在巨大的垃圾堆中，塑膠軍團就會越變越弱，最終他們會將海洋再次交還給大自然。