The ocean, long a source of inspiration for exploration and discovery as well as a place to test the limits of humans, is no longer the wild frontier it once was. An international study published in the journal Current Biology demonstrates that only 13 percent of the ocean can still be classified as wilderness.

长久以来，海洋一直是有关人们探索和发现的灵感源泉，也是检验人类极限的地方，它已不再是曾经的荒野之地。发表在《当代生物学》杂志上的一项国际研究表明，目前只有13%的海洋仍可归类为荒野。

“The idea of wilderness is powerful for people, as well as for nature,” said UC Santa Barbara professor Ben Halpern,director of the UCSB National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis and a contributing author on the study. “Just knowing wilderness exists provides a sense of existential value to many people, that nature still exists somewhere in a relatively untouched form, even if they never actually visit the wilderness.” However, thanks to human activity, the vast majority of the world’s oceans can no longer be considered untouched.

加州大学圣塔芭芭拉分校(UC Santa Barbara)国家生态分析和综合中心主任和研究荣誉作者，UCSB教授本·哈伯恩(Ben Halpern)说：“荒野的概念对人和自然都有强大的影响。仅荒野存在的说法就给许多人提供了存在价值感，即使他们从未真正探访过荒野，大自然仍然以一种相对不受影响的形式存在于某个地方。”然而，由于人类的活动，世界上绝大多数海洋已不能再被认为是不受影响的。

“Those marine areas that can be considered ‘pristine’ are becoming increasingly rare, as fishing and shipping fleets expand their reach across almost all of the world’s oceans, and sediment runoff smothers many coastal areas,” said Kendall Jones, a researcher at the University of Queensland, and lead author of the paper.

昆士兰大学（the University of Queensland）研究员、该论文的主作者肯德尔·琼斯(Kendall Jones)说，“因为捕鱼和航运船队几乎入侵了世界上所有的海洋，泥沙径流也使得使许多沿海地区透不过气，所以那些可以被认为是‘原始’的海洋区域正变得越来越罕见。”

According to the study, “The location and protection status of the Earth’s diminishing marine wilderness,” most remaining marine wilderness is unprotected, leaving it vulnerable to being lost.“Improvements in shipping technology mean that even the most remote wilderness areas may come under threat in the future, including once ice-covered places that are now accessible because of climate change,” Jones said.

该研究表明，“地球上日益减少的荒海的位置和保护状况”，大部分幸存的荒海都没有受到保护，因而它们很容易被丢失。“航运技术的改进意味着，即使是最偏远的荒野地区也可能在未来受到威胁，包括因为气候改变被影响的冰雪覆盖的地方，”琼斯说。

The authors used fine-scale global data on 19 human stressors to the ocean, including commercial shipping, sediment runoff and several types of fishing, to identify Earth’s remaining marine wilderness — areas devoid of intense human impacts.

作者使用了19个人类海洋应激源的全球精细化数据，包括商业航运、沉积物径流和不同类型的捕鱼方式，以确定地球幸存荒海-没有被人类严重影响的区域。

They found that most wilderness is located in the Arctic and Antarctic or around remote Pacific island nations such as French Polynesia. Because human activities are concentrated near land, very little wilderness remains in coastal habitats such as coral reefs, salt marshes and kelp forests.

他们发现，大部分的荒野位于北极和南极，或者在遥远的太平洋岛国附近，如法属波利尼西亚。由于人类活动集中在陆地附近，因而在珊瑚礁、盐沼和海带林等沿海生境中很少有荒海留下。

James Watson, a professor at the University of Queensland, director of science at the Wildlife Conservation Society and senior author of the research paper, said the findings highlight an immediate need for conservation policies to recognize and protect the unique values of marine wilderness. 

昆士兰大学教授、野生动物保护协会科学主任及该研究报告的高级作者詹姆斯·沃森(James Watson)表示，研究结果突显出当前迫切需要制定保护政策，以承认和保护荒海的独特价值。

“Marine wilderness areas are home to unparalleled levels of life — holding massive abundances of species and high genetic diversity, giving them resilience to threats like climate change,” he said.

Watson argues that the need to focus attention and resources on preserving the ocean’s remaining wilderness is more urgent than ever.

他说：“荒海地区拥有无与伦比的生命水平-拥有丰富的物种和遗传的高度多样性，这使得它们能够抵御气候变化等威胁。”沃森认为，将注意力和资源集中在保护幸存荒海上的必要性比以往任何时候都更加迫切。

“We know these marine wilderness areas are declining catastrophically, and protecting them must become a focus of multilateral environmental agreements,” he said. “If not, they will likely disappear within 50 years.”

他说：“我们知道这些荒海地区正在经历灾难性地减少，必须将保护它们做为多边环境协定的一个重点。否则，它们很可能在未来50年内消失。”

The authors said that preserving marine wilderness also requires regulating the high seas, which has historically proven difficult since no country has jurisdiction of these areas. However, Jones noted that a recent United Nations resolution could change this.

作者说，保护荒海也需要规范公海，但是没有一个国家对这些地区拥有管辖权，因而这在历史上被证明要实现是困难的。然而，琼斯指出，联合国最近的一项决议可以改变这种情况。

“Late last year the United Nations began developing a legally binding high seas conservation treaty — essentially a Paris Agreement for the ocean,” Jones said. “This agreement would have the power to protect large areas of the high seas and might be our best shot at saving some of Earth’s last remaining marine wilderness.”

琼斯说：“去年年底，联合国开始制定一项具有法律约束力的公海保护条约-实质上是一项巴黎海洋协定。这项协议将具有保护公海大片地区的权力，它可能是我们拯救地球最后一片荒海的最佳机会。”