What Lies Beneath: Unexplored

What lies beneath 海底下有什么？
Oceanography ： What lies beneath

Much of Earth is unexplored. An ocean census hopes to change
that
海洋学：海底下有什么？
地球大部分地区仍未开发。一项海洋普查计划希望一改以
往。
【 1 】“ Earth” has always been an odd choice of name for

the third planet from the Sun. After all, an alien examining it
through a telescope would note that two-thirds of its surface is
covered not by earth at all, but by oceans of water.
“ 地球”一直被称为太阳的第三颗行星，这一称谓或许让
人摸不着头脑。但毕竟，如果外星人用望远镜观察它则会
发现，地球表面的三分之二不是陆地所覆盖，而是海洋。
【 2 】 Because humans are land-lubbing animals, most of the

Earth remains under-explored. marine biologists think the
oceans might host more than 2m species of marine animals, of
which they have so far catalogued perhaps a tenth.
Oceanographers are fond of pointing out that scientists have
mapped nearly all of the Martian surface, but less than a
quarter of the seabed.
由于人类是陆生动物，地球上的其他大部分地区仍未完全
得到开发。海洋生物学家认为，海洋可能拥有超过 200 万
种海洋动物，截至目前为止，仅有十分之一编入类目。海
洋学欣喜指出，科学家几乎已经把火星表面都绘制出来
了，但海床的则不达四分之一。
【 3 】 A new initiative hopes to change this. Launched in
London on April 27th, Ocean Census aims to discover 100,000
new species of marine animal over the coming decade. It is
backed by Nekton, a British marine-research institute, and the
Nippon foundation, Japan’s biggest charitable foundation. Its
first ship, the Norwegian icebreaker Kronprins Haakon, set sail
on April 29th, bound for the Barents Sea.
一项新的项目希望改变这种状况。海洋普查计划（ Ocean
Census ）于 4 月 27 日在伦敦启动，旨在在未来十年内发现
10 万种新的海洋动物。它得到了英国海洋研究机构 Nekton
和日本最大的慈善基金会 Nippon 基金会的支持。它的第一
艘船挪威破冰船 Kronprins Haakon 于 4 月 29 日启航，前往
巴伦支海。
【 4 】 The initiative is happening now for two reasons. One is

that, the longer scientists wait, the less there will be to
catalogue. Climate change is heating the oceans, as well as
making them more acidic as carbon dioxide dissolves into the
water. Already around half the world’s coral reefs—thought to
be home to around 25% of all ocean species—have been lost.
该项目的发起出于两个原因。一个是，科学家等待的时间
越长，可以编入类目海洋生物种类就越少。气候变化正使
海洋升温，同时随着二氧化碳的溶解，海水酸性增加。世
界上大约一半的珊瑚礁因此消失，而珊瑚礁被视为是 25%
海洋物种的的家园。
Oliver Steeds, Nekton’s founder and chief executive, says that

one of Ocean Census’s priorities will be cataloguing species
thought to be in the greatest danger from climate change.
Otherwise, he says, the risk is of “the forest burning down and
not knowing what was there before [it] was lost”.
Nekton 的创始人兼首席执行官奥利弗 · 斯蒂兹（ Oliver

Steeds ）表示，海洋普查的优先事项之一是对被认为受气
候变化威胁最大的物种进行编目。否则，他称，风险是
“森林被烧毁，而人们对烧毁之前居住的物种一无所
知”。
【 5 】 The second reason is technological. marine biologists
find about 2,000 new species a year, a rate hardly changed
since Darwin’s day. Ocean Census is betting it can go faster.
“Cyber taxonomy”, for instance, involves feeding DNA
sequences from animals into computers, which can quickly
decide whether it is a new species. The ability to describe new
creatures, as well as simply cataloguing them,
has also improved.
第二个原因是技术上的。海洋生物学家每年发现大约 2000
个新物种，自达尔文时代以来，这一速度几乎没有变化。
但海洋普查计划认为这一速度可以更快。例如，“网络分
类法”将动物的 DNA 序列输入计算机，计算机可以快速确
定它是否是新物种。同时，仅仅编目新生物以及对其进行
描述的能力也有所提
高。
Fancy cameras on remote-operated vehicles, for instance, allow

scientists to make laser scans of deep-sea creatures such as
jellyfish without removing them from their habitat.
Just as the immense pressures of the deep sea are fatal for
humans, taking such a jellyfish to the surface for examination
reduces it to gooey slime.
例如，远程操作车辆上的高级摄像头，能让科学家在水母
等深海生物不移出栖息地的情况下，对其进行激光扫描。
正如深海的巨大压力对人类来说是致命的，将这种水母带
到水面进行检查会减少它的粘液。
【 6 】 Ocean Census is not the first attempt to conduct a
systematic survey of life in the oceans. The Census of marine
Life was a ten-year effort, begun in 2000, to seek out new
species. The Global Ocean sampling Expedition, which ran from
2004 to 2006, aimed to catalogue microbial life in the sea by
sampling waters from across the world. (It was funded by Craig
Venter, a biologist-cum-entrepreneur, and carried out on his
personal yacht.)
海洋普查计划并非首次海洋生物的系统调查。海洋生物普
查是一项为期十年的努力，始于 2000 年，旨在寻找新物
种。全球海洋采样考察（ The Global Ocean sampling
Expedition ）从 2004 年持续到 2006 年，旨在通过对来自世
界各地的水域进行采样来对海洋中的微生物生命进行编
目。（它由生物学家兼企业家克雷格 · 文特尔（ Craig
Venter ）资助，项目在其私人游艇上进行。）
【 7 】 Exactly what the new effort might turn up, of course, is

impossible to predict. But history suggests it will be fruitful.
Half a century ago scientists discovered hot vents on the sea
bed that were home to organisms living happily in conditions
that, until then, had been thought inimical to life. These days,
such vents are one plausible candidate for the origin of all life
on Earth.
当然，此次新努力究竟会有什么样的结果是无法预测的。
但根据历史经验，这将是富有成效的。半个世纪前，科学
家们在海床上发现了热喷口，这些喷口是生物的幸福家
园。在此之前，人们一直认为这种环境对生命有害。但如
今，这种喷口被认为很可能是地球上所有生命的起源地。
【 8 】 There are more practical benefits, too. Many drugs, for

example, come originally from biological compounds. An ocean
full of uncatalogued life will almost certainly prove a rich seam
from which to mine more. One type of marine snail, Conus
magus, was recently discovered to produce a painkilling
compound 1,000 times more potent than morphine.
海洋普查还有更多实际的好处。例如，许多药物的原材料
来自生物化合物。一个充满仍未归类物种的海洋一定是一
个丰富的矿藏，可以从中发现更多物种。最近发现一种海
洋蜗牛，芋螺（ Conus magus ），可以产生比吗啡强 1000
倍的止痛化合物。
【 9 】 To help make use of its data, Ocean Census plans to

make it freely available to scientists and the public, who will be
able to scour it for anything useful or surprising. The point of
exploration, after all, is that you never know what you might
find.
为了更好利用这些数据，海洋普查计划将研究数据免费提
供给科学家和公众，让人们能够搜索任何有用或令人惊讶
的东西。毕竟，探索的意义在于你永远不知道会发现什
么。
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What lies beneath 海底下有什么？

Oceanography ： What lies beneath

【 1 】“ Earth” has always been an odd choice of name for

【 2 】 Because humans are land-lubbing animals, most of the

【 4 】 The initiative is happening now for two reasons. One is

Oliver Steeds, Nekton’s founder and chief executive, says that

Nekton 的创始人兼首席执行官奥利弗 · 斯蒂兹（ Oliver

Fancy cameras on remote-operated vehicles, for instance, allow

【 7 】 Exactly what the new effort might turn up, of course, is

【 8 】 There are more practical benefits, too. Many drugs, for

【 9 】 To help make use of its data, Ocean Census plans to

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