后来我反复看了原文,A major chemical spill occurred five years ago at Baker’s Beach
也就是说尽管spill的影响是延续的,但是发生在beach上,而现在来下蛋的龟龟从5年前产生spill起到现在都一直生活在海里,不在beach上,它们是10年被它们的妈妈在beach上产下的,那时beach还没有spill,所以它们没有受到影响。从而直接驳斥了Environmentalists’ prediction (that the world’s Merrick population would decline as a result of the spill) has proven unfounded. 的说法,达到undermines the argument offered in refutation of the environmentalists’ prediction的目的。