Well first, let’s talk about what it’s not. It’s not a floating island of trash,

讓我們從它不是什麼開始。它不是一個漂浮的垃圾島嶼

like a garbage dump or a landfill. It’s also not the only patch. They exist all throughout the ocean,

像是垃圾堆或者掩埋場，它也不是唯一的垃圾帶，各大洋都有垃圾帶存在

and the Pacific Garbage Patch just happens to be the most famous.

而太平洋垃圾帶只是剛好是最有名的一個

Garbage patches are large areas of marine debris concentration that are formed by rotating

垃圾帶是一個相當廣闊的區域，由各種海洋廢棄物受旋轉的海流牽引匯集而成

ocean currents called gyres - kind of like big whirlpools that suck things in.

這些海流又被稱為環流(或者渦旋)，有點像是超大旋轉水流，會吸進各種東西

A garbage patch is made up of tiny plastic pieces called “microplastics” that are less than 5 millimeters long.

一個垃圾帶由許多小塑膠碎片組成，稱為微塑膠，其長度小於五毫米

It’s more like pepper flakes swirling in a soup than something you can skim off the surface.

垃圾帶比較像是一碗湯裡面混雜著辣椒粉，它不是有辦法直接從表面刮除的東西

You might come across some larger items, like plastic bottles, but it’s possible

你可能會碰上一些比較大的東西，像是塑膠瓶，但也有可能

to sail through a garbage patch and not see anything.

你航行經過垃圾帶卻沒看見任何東西

And they’re a big problem, for the ocean - and us.

這是對海洋而言是一個很嚴重的問題，對我們也是

People often ask why we can’t just scoop up all the marine debris in the ocean,

人們常問為什麼我們不能直接把所有的海洋廢棄物直接撈起來就好了

and the answer is: unfortunately, it’s just not that simple.

這問題的答案是，不幸地，事情沒這麼簡單

The first challenge is the sheer size of these garbage patches. They’re huuuuuge!

第一個困難在於這些垃圾帶龐大的規模，他們超超超超級大!

They’re constantly moving with ocean currents. And there’s debris from the ocean’s surface

他們隨著海流持續地在移動著。而且從海洋的表面一直到底層的海床

all the way down to the sea floor. Not to mention all the marine life we would disrupt

都有這些廢棄物存在。更不用說我們會影響到各種海洋生物

if we tried to just scoop up debris.

假設我們直接去撈的話

So what can we do? Well, the ultimate solution is prevention and we need to keep that as

那麼我們該怎麼辦? 最有效的辦法永遠是預防，我們應該將預防放在第一優先

our highest priority. We can reduce, reuse, and recycle to keep trash out of the ocean in the first place.

我們可以做好垃圾減量、重複使用以及回收，避免更多垃圾落在海洋中

And we can participate in things like shoreline cleanups.

我們也可以參加一些像是淨灘之類的活動

It's a lot easier to deal with debris before it gets to the ocean.

垃圾只要還沒進入海洋就會好處理很多

Because until we stop marine debris at the source, we’ll just be cleaning it up forever.

因為當我們從源頭根除海洋廢棄物時，我們就等於持續地在清潔海洋