In this photo released by National Oceanic and At-mospheric Administration, divers swim around a mass of derelict net on Sept. 25, 2004, in the waters around the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Large masses of derelict net, sometimes weighing hundreds of pounds, wash ashore and snag on reefs across the Hawaiian Islands.

在這張美國「國家海洋大氣總署」所發布的照片中，潛水人員2004年9月25日正游近夏威夷西北部島群附近海域被網住的一大堆廢棄物旁。被網住的龐大垃圾堆有時重達數百磅，或沖上夏威夷群島海灘，及擱淺在暗礁上。

When President Bush announced the formation of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands National Marine Mon-ument June 15, 2006, it was hailed by ocean advocates as a landmark action by an administration not known for its environmental deeds. Yet a trash problem that has plagued the area since before its monument status has only gotten worse since Bush signed the proclamation prohibiting discharging or depositing any material or other matter into the monument, federal data shows.

當美國總統布希2006年6月15日宣布，成立夏威夷西北島群國家海洋保護區時，海洋保育人士還譽之為布希政府少之又少環保措施中具指標意義的行動。但聯邦資料顯示，在保護區成立前就困擾這個地區的垃圾問題，自從布希簽署文件，禁止排放或傾倒任何物資或其他東西到海洋保護區後反而更嚴重。

His proclamation featured some of the strictest mea-sures ever placed on a marine environment, including a prohibition on any material that might injure its sensi-tive coral reefs and 7,000 rare species--a fourth of them found nowhere else in the world. Ocean currents each year still bring an estimated 57 tons of garbage and dis-carded fishing gear to the 10 islands and waters sur-rounding them, where the refuse snares endangered monk seals, smothers coral reefs and fills the guts of al-batrosses and their young with indigestible plastic.

他這次公告列出一些對海洋環境所曾祭出最嚴厲的措施，包括禁止任何可能傷害其敏感的珊瑚礁和七千種稀有物種的東西，這7000種稀有物種中，有四分之一在世界其他地方找不到。洋流每年仍帶來約57噸垃圾和廢棄的漁具到十個島嶼及附近海域，那裡的廢棄物困住瀕臨絕種的僧海豹，扼殺珊瑚礁，同時使信天翁及其幼鳥內臟塞滿無法消化的塑膠製品。

The Bush administration slashed the debris cleanup budget by 80 percent from the $2.1 million spent in 2005 and requested only $400,000 a year for it through 2008. Bush now wants an extra $100,000 for removing the smorgasbord of lighters, plastic bottles, refrigerators and fishing nets that litter its beaches. But the total amount he would spend in 2009 is still only 25 percent of what was being spent four years ago.

布希政府從2005年的210萬美元經費中，大砍垃圾清理預算達80%，到2008年為止，每年只編列40萬美元預算。布希現在另外編列10萬美元，要清除海灘上形形色色的廢棄物，像打火機、保特瓶、電冰箱和漁網，但他2009年總支出仍只占四年前的25%。

The administration's lack of follow-through in the northwestern Hawaiian chain hasn't stopped environ-mentalists from lobbying the president to designate more monuments elsewhere before leaving office, a move the White House is considering.

儘管布希政府在夏威夷西北島群為德不卒，環保人士並未因而卻步，他們仍遊說總統下台前再指定更多其他保護區；白宮也認真考慮。