I want to tell you a love story. But it doesn't have a happy ending.
我想和你们分享一个爱情故事。但这个爱情故事没有快乐的结局。
Once upon a time, I was a stubborn five-year-old who decided to become a marine biologist.
从前，我曾是一个倔强的五岁小女孩，立志成为一名海洋生物学家。
Thirty-four years, 400 scuba dives and one PhD later, I'm still completely enamored with the ocean.
34年、400次潜水、和1个博士学位后，我仍旧深深地着迷于浩瀚的海洋。
I spent a decade working with fishing communities in the Caribbean,
我在加勒比海地区和当地的渔业共事了十年时间，
counting fish, interviewing fishermen, redesigning fishing gear and developing policy.
我们计算鱼量、采访渔夫、重新设计渔具、以及制定政策。
I've been helping to figure out what sustainable management can look like for places where food security, jobs and cultures all depend on the sea.
我一直在帮助那些在食品安全、就业、文化方面，都仰赖于海洋的地区寻找可持续性的管理方式。
In the midst of all this, I fell in love. With a fish.
在探索的过程中，我爱上了一种鱼。
There are over 500 fish species that live on Caribbean reefs,
加勒比海珊瑚礁群地区栖息着500多种鱼类，
but the ones I just can't get out of my head are parrotfish.
唯独一种让我情有独钟，那就是鹦嘴鱼。
Parrotfish live on coral reefs all over the world, there are 100 species,
鹦嘴鱼分布于世界各地的珊瑚礁群里，共100种不同品类，
they can grow well over a meter long and weigh over 20 kilograms, but that's the boring stuff.
能长到一米多长，二十多公斤重，但这些都不重要。
I want to tell you five incredible things about these fish.
我想和你们说说鹦嘴鱼拥有的五个超凡绝伦、与众不同之处。
First, they have a mouth like a parrot's beak, which is strong enough to bite coral, although mostly they're after algae.
首先，它们有着鹦鹉喙一般的嘴巴，强劲的咬合力能嚼碎珊瑚，但以吃藻类为主。
They are the lawn mowers of the reef.
它们可谓是珊瑚礁里的割草机。
This is key, because many reefs are overgrown with algae due to nutrient pollution from sewage and fertilizer that runs off of land.
这就很妙了，因为地面上的污水和肥料流入海中会导致水体的富营养化，藻类的过量生长，从而引起珊瑚礁的退化。
And there just aren't enough herbivores like parrotfish left out on the reefs to mow it all down.
像鹦嘴鱼这样能减少藻类富集的食草动物在珊瑚礁里少之又少。
OK, second amazing thing. After all that eating, they poop fine white sand.
妙处之二：食物消化后，它们会拉出白色细沙样的粪便。
A single parrotfish can produce over 380 kilograms of this pulverized coral each year.
一只鹦嘴鱼每年能产出超过380公斤的这种细碎珊瑚粒。
Sometimes, when scuba diving, I would look up from my clipboard and just see contrails of parrotfish poop raining down.
有时，我会在潜水的中途，把目光从书写板上移开，看见一束束鹦嘴鱼粪便如雨丝般落下。
So next time you're lounging on a tropical white-sand beach, maybe thank of parrotfish.
下次，当你享受热带雨林洁白细腻的沙滩时，也许要感谢鹦嘴鱼。
Third, they have so much style. Mottled and striped, teal, magenta, yellow, orange, polka-dotted,
第三点，它们变幻多端，风采各异。斑点、条纹、青绿、桃红、明黄、橙红、波点...
parrotfish are a big part of what makes coral reefs so colorful.
鹦嘴鱼让珊瑚礁更加美轮美奂、色彩纷呈。
Plus, in true diva style, they have multiple wardrobe changes throughout their life.
此外，作为百变天后，整个生命周期，它们要换好几个行头。
A juvenile outfit, an intermediate getup, and a terminal look.
从青涩纯真，到明艳风情，再到成熟韵味。
Fourth, with this last wardrobe change comes a sex change from female to male, termed sequential hermaphroditism.
第四点，伴随着最后一次变装，鹦嘴鱼的性别也将由雌转雄，专业术语为顺序性雌雄同体。
These large males then gather harems of females to spawn.
成熟雄鱼的身边聚集起众多雌鱼，产下鱼卵。
Heterosexual monogamy is certainly not nature's status quo.
异性一夫一妻制显然不是自然界的常态。
And parrotfish exemplify some of the beauty of diverse reproductive strategies.
而鹦嘴鱼为这种多样化的繁殖策略代言。
Fifth, and the most incredible, sometimes when parrotfish cozy up into a nook in the reef at night,
第五点，也是最神奇的，有时在夜里，鹦嘴鱼围拢在礁石的一隅，
they secrete a mucus bubble from a gland in their head that envelops their entire body.
它们的头部腺体分泌出的粘液形成了一个气泡，包裹住整个鱼身。

This masks their scent from predators and protects them from parasites, so they can sleep soundly.
这样，捕食者们就闻不到它们的气味，还能隔绝寄生虫，它们就在泡泡里睡大觉。
I mean, how cool is this?
也太酷了吧！
So this is a confession of my love for parrotfish in all their flamboyant, algae-eating, sand-pooping, sex-changing glory.
这就是我对鹦嘴鱼爱的表白，为这条纷华靡丽、酷爱藻类、能拉出白沙粪便的变性鱼。
But with this love comes heartache.
然而，爱之深，伤之切。
Now that groupers and snappers are woefully overfished, fishermen are targeting parrotfish.
随着石斑鱼和红鱼被过度捕捞而数量骤减，渔夫们把目光转向了鹦嘴鱼。
Spearfishing took out the large species, midnight blue and rainbow parrotfish are now exceedingly rare,
以往常见的品种被人们用鱼枪射杀，濒临灭绝，紫鹦嘴鱼和虹彩鹦嘴鱼几乎已经消失了踪迹，
and nets and traps are scooping up the smaller species.
渔夫们的网叉正扫荡着更稀有的品种。
As both a marine biologist and a single person, I can tell you, there aren't that many fish in the sea.
作为一名单身的海洋生物学家，我可以很负责任地告诉大家，海里的鱼真的没那么多。
And then, there's my love for their home, the coral reef,
接下来我要说说鹦嘴鱼赖以生存的家园，珊瑚礁，
which was once as vibrant as Caribbean cultures, as colorful as the architecture, and as bustling as carnival.
曾几何时，它们就如加勒比海域的文化般生机蓬勃，如建筑般缤纷，如嘉年华般热闹。
Because of climate change, on top of overfishing and pollution, coral reefs may be gone within 30 years.
然而由于气候变化、过度捕捞、环境污染诸多问题的侵扰，珊瑚礁可能会在未来30年内彻底消失。
An entire ecosystem erased.
整个生态系统将毁于一旦。
This is devastating, because hundreds of millions of people around the world depend on reefs for their nutrition and income.
这种打击是毁灭性的，因为全世界数以亿计的人口靠珊瑚礁填饱肚子和谋生。
Let that sink in. A little bit of good news is that places like Belize,
大家认真想想。好消息是，在伯利兹、
Barbuda and Bonaire are protecting these VIPs -- Very Important Parrotfish.
巴布达、博内亚等地区，人们已经采取了积极行动，保护这至关重要的鹦嘴鱼。
Also, more and more places are establishing protected areas that protect the entire ecosystem.
同时，越来越多的地方正在建立保护区，保护整个生态系统。
These are critical efforts, but it's not enough.
这些努力意义非凡，但还不够。
As I stand here today, only 2.2 percent of the ocean is protected.
就拿现在来说吧，全球受保护的海洋面积仅占2.2%。
Meanwhile, 90 percent of the large fish, and 80 percent of the coral on Caribbean reefs, is already gone.
与此同时，加勒比珊瑚礁群区域的90%的大鱼和80%的珊瑚已经消失了。
We're in the midst of the sixth mass extinction.
我们正处在第六次生物大灭绝。
And we, humans, are causing it. We also have the solutions.
而我们人类，就是始作俑者，我们也不是没有办法。
Reverse climate change and overfishing, protect half the ocean and stop pollution running from land.
对抗气候变化，禁止过度捕捞，保护海洋生态，禁止地面污染流入海洋。
But these are massive undertakings requiring systemic changes,
但这些长期而深远的行动亟需系统性的改革，
and we're really taking our sweet time getting around to it.
而我们竟然还在慢腾腾地浪费时间。
Each of us can contribute, though. With our votes, our voices, our food choices, our skills and our dollars.
在座的每一个人，都可以有所贡献。通过投票、呼吁、食物选择、专业技能和捐款。
We must overhaul both corporate practices and government policies. We must transform culture.
我们必须改革公司规范和官方政策。我们必须转变文化。
Building community around solutions is the most important thing.
建立以解决问题为核心的组织是最重要的一环。
I am never going to give up working to protect and restore this magnificent planet.
我永远不会放弃保护并重建我们美丽的地球。
Every bit of habitat we preserve, every tenth of a degree of warming we prevent, really does matter.
我们所保护的每一寸土地，所防止的每0.1度气温的上升，都是努力的意义。
Thankfully, I'm not motivated by hope, but rather a desire to be useful.
我庆幸，支撑着我的不是毁灭后希望的微光，而是阻止毁灭发生的信念。
Because I don't know how to give an honest talk about my beloved parrotfish and coral reefs that has a happy ending. Thank you.
因为我真的不知道，该如何诚实地对你们讲述关于鹦嘴鱼和珊瑚礁的快乐结局。谢谢。