Trying to Protect a Reef With an Otherworldly Diversion
“人造珊瑚礁”：大海深處的藝術(shù)與環(huán)保
CANCÚN, Mexico — Most people head off to an art exhibit with comfortable shoes and a deep appreciation for creativity. Jason deCaires Taylor’s work requires flippers and, to really appreciate it, a depth of at least 12 feet.
墨西哥，坎昆——大多數(shù)人穿著舒適的鞋子，帶著對創(chuàng)作的深深欣賞去看藝術(shù)展。但是，要實地欣賞杰森·德凱爾·泰勒的作品(Jason deCaires Taylor’s work)，則要穿著腳蹼，深入至少12英尺的海底才行。
Mr. Taylor labors over his sculptures for weeks, five-ton concrete figures of men, women and children, many of them modeled after people in the fishing village near here where he lives and works. The little boy Carlito sitting on a rock. The proud Joaquín glancing skyward. The old man everyone knows as Charlie Brown clasping his chin in contemplation.
Mr. Taylor 為他的雕塑辛苦工作了數(shù)周。這些雕塑重達(dá)5噸，是用混凝土塑造的男人、女人和孩子，其中很多都是根據(jù)離他生活和工作的地點不遠(yuǎn)的漁村里的人塑造的。小男孩卡里托坐在巖石上。驕傲的祖昆仰望天空。被大家稱為 Charlie Brown 的老男人托著下巴沉思。
墨西哥坎昆海底博物館的大約500座雕塑中的一部分。
In a stifling warehouse filled with bodies — ceramic replicas and false starts — he fusses over their lips and noses. Gets the hair just right. Adjusts their clothing.
悶熱的倉庫里放滿了身體——陶制的復(fù)制品和一些失敗的嘗試品——Mr. Taylor 對嘴唇和鼻子十分挑剔，頭發(fā)做得一絲不茍，衣服也反復(fù)修改。
Then he sinks them in the sea.
然后，他把它們沉入海底。
There, they rest in ghostly repose in the Museo Subacuático de Arte here, serving at once as a tourist attraction and as a conservation effort by drawing divers and snorkelers away from the Mesoamerican Reef, the second-largest barrier reef system in the world, and toward this somewhat macabre, artificial one.
它們像幽靈一樣棲息在海底博物館(Museo Subacuático de Arte)，既吸引游客，又保護(hù)環(huán)境，因為它們可以吸引深潛者和浮潛者來看這些有點陰森的人工珊瑚礁，從而遠(yuǎn)離世界第二大珊瑚礁群——中美洲珊瑚礁。
The nearly 500 statues, the first ones placed in 2009 and 60 added this year, have acquired enough coral, seaweed and algae to give them the look of zombies with a particularly nightmarish skin condition. Eventually, in six years or so, the coral will completely overtake them, leaving only suggestive shapes.
第一批雕像是2009年沉下去的，今年添了60個�，F(xiàn)在共有大約500個雕像，上面已經(jīng)長滿了珊瑚、海草和海藻，看起來像僵尸，皮膚的樣子很可怕。到最后，也就是大約6年以后，它們會被珊瑚完全覆蓋，只能看出大致的輪廓。
“Foremost, it’s an opportunity to view this other world,” Mr. Taylor said. “We are surrounded by water, but people have no understanding what their planet is. It helps see ourselves as part of the world.”
“最重要的是，這讓我們有機會從另一個角度看問題，”Mr. Taylor 說：“我們被水環(huán)繞，但是卻完全不理解我們的星球。它能讓我們把自己當(dāng)作世界的一部分來看待�！�
Mr. Taylor places the works, anchored with special sand bolts, in water shallow enough for snorkelers to get a view, the sunlight filtering through the blue water casting odd shadows and drawing out unexpected pinks and oranges from the coral.
Mr. Taylor 把這些作品用特殊的砂質(zhì)螺栓固定在淺海底部，這樣浮潛者也能看到。陽光透過藍(lán)色的海水，投射出怪異的陰影，使珊瑚放射出意想不到的粉色和橙色。
But divers get the most out of it, with close-ups of the rainbow swirl of coral and algae. Fish dart in and around and — in an ecological twist — feed off the “people.” At night, Mr. Taylor said, a family of sea turtles has been known to go sightseeing.
但還是深潛者看得最清楚，他們可以近距離觀察珊瑚和海藻彩虹般的卷曲。魚兒在珊瑚叢中或者四周飛快地游弋，還能以這些“人類”為食——這是生物鏈的大逆轉(zhuǎn)。泰勒先生說，某天晚上曾有海龜一家前去參觀他的作品。
Purists may shudder at the idea of altering the sea in any way. But Mr. Taylor, who uses marine-grade concrete specially prepared to entice coral and be close to neutral pH, notes that the exhibit inhabits but a fraction of the sea.
“純化論者”可能為任何形式改造大海的行為感到不寒而栗。但是Mr. Taylor 使用的是為吸引珊瑚特制的海工混凝土，pH值接近中性。他特別強調(diào)，這些展覽品只占用了海洋極小的一點地方。
“It’s like putting a sculpture in the Sahara,” he said, contending that the works contribute to the greater good of preserving the natural reef by diverting divers away from it.
“就像在撒哈拉沙漠里放了一個雕塑，”他說，并辯解道，這些作品有助于實現(xiàn)更重要的利益——通過把潛水者吸引開，來保護(hù)天然珊瑚。
Some scientists agree, as long as the artificial reefs are placed in a way that is minimally disruptive to the sea floor and to natural reefs.
有些科學(xué)家對此表示同意，說只要這些人造珊瑚的放置方式能把其對海底和天然珊瑚造成的破壞降到最低就沒問題。
“I have seen the pictures, and it looks intriguing,” Richard E. Dodge, executive director of the National Coral Reef Institute in Florida, said of the museum. “If it is not so extensive that it impinges hugely on the natural reef, it does help by providing an alternative dive site.”
“我看過那些照片了，看起來還挺有趣的，”佛羅里達(dá)州天然珊瑚礁研究院的執(zhí)行總監(jiān)理這樣看待這個海底博物館：“如果它范圍不廣，不至于極大地侵害天然珊瑚礁，那么它對保護(hù)天然珊瑚礁就是是有幫助的，因為它提供了另一個潛水地點�！�
Others are more skeptical, saying that the museum serves more as a tourist attraction and that the reef is harmed more by pollution from the resorts and by climate change than by visitors to it.
其他一些科學(xué)家則對此持懷疑態(tài)度，說這個博物館的主要用途還是吸引游客，因為對珊瑚礁傷害最大的是度假地的污染和氣候變化(climate change)，而不是參觀者。
“It is neither a benefit nor a harm to the reef, but I do not see it as a conservation project,” said Roberto Iglesias Prieto, a scientist in Cancún who studies the reef.
“它對珊瑚礁既沒益處，也沒害處，但是我不認(rèn)為它是一個自然保護(hù)項目，”坎昆的一位研究珊瑚礁的科學(xué)家說。
Mr. Taylor, a 37-year-old Briton, was drawn to Mexico after an earlier project of 65 works off the Caribbean island of Grenada got a lot of attention.
Mr. Taylor37歲，是個英國人，他之前在加勒比海格林納達(dá)島附近放置的65件作品引起了很多關(guān)注，所以被請到了墨西哥。
He grew up in England, Spain and Malaysia, where he developed a passion for diving and coral reefs, and he was trained at the Camberwell College of Arts in London.
他在英國、西班牙和馬來西亞長大，在馬來西亞迷上了潛水和珊瑚礁，曾在倫敦的坎貝威爾藝術(shù)學(xué)院(Camberwell College of Arts)接受培訓(xùn)。
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