Richard Pyle: Exploring the reef's Twilight Zone

譯者: Felix Leung 審譯者: Jenny Yang

This is the first of two rather extraordinary photographs

這是我今天要給大家展示的兩張非同尋常的圖片中的第一張

I'm going to show you today.

It was taken 18 years ago.

它是在18年前拍的

I was 19 years old at the time.

當時我19歲

I had just returned

剛剛從那時所參與的最深的一次潛水歸來

from one of the deepest dives I'd ever made at that time --

比200英尺深一點點

a little over 200 feet.

在那裡我抓到了這條小魚

And I had caught this little fish.

它成為了第一條被活捕上來後還能存活下來的魚

It turns out that particular one was the first of its kind

ever taken alive.

我不僅僅是一個魚類學家，我還是一個真正的魚癡

I'm not just an ichthyologist, I'm a bona fide fish nerd.

And to a fish nerd, this is some pretty exciting stuff.

而對於魚癡來說，這是一個非常讓人興奮的工作

而更讓人興奮的是，為我拍這張照片的人

More exciting was the fact that the person who took this photo

名字叫做Jack Randall

is a guy named Jack Randall,

the greatest living ichthyologist on earth --

世界上還健在的最偉大的魚類學家

你也可以稱他是魚癡的頭兒

the Grand Poobah of fish nerds, if you will.

因此，這個時刻的及時到來令我相當興奮

And so, it was really exciting to me to have this moment in time.

我以後的人生路線也由此劃定

It set the course for the rest of my life.

但關於這張圖片最重要，最意義深遠的事情

But really, the most significant, most profound thing about this picture

是在拍完它兩天之後

is it was taken two days before I was completely paralyzed

我的頸部就完全癱瘓了。

from the neck down.

我犯了一個非常愚蠢的錯誤

I made a really stupid kind of mistake

就像大多數19歲的小夥子們，他們認為自己是死不了

that most 19-year-old males do when they think they're immortal,

我得上了嚴重的減壓病

and I got a bad case of the bends and was paralyzed,

全身癱瘓，不得不飛回來進行治療

and had to be flown back for treatment.

那天我明白了兩件非常重要的事情

I learned two really important things that day.

The first thing I learned -- well, I'm mortal. That's a really big one.

第一，我是終有一死的，這確實很重要

第二，我非常肯定地知道

And the second thing I learned was that I knew, with profound certainty,

that this is exactly what I was going to do for the rest of my life.

我在餘生中所要從事的究竟是什麼

I had to focus all my energies

我必須將精力都專注地投入到

towards going to find new species of things

對珊瑚礁深處那些新物種的發現。

down on deep coral reefs.

現在，當你們想到珊瑚礁時，這就是大多數人所想到的

When you think of a coral reef, this is what most people think of:

所有這些巨大、堅硬、精巧的珊瑚，還有大量多姿多彩的魚類以及其他

these big, hard, elaborate corals,

lots of bright, colorful fishes and things.

但，這僅僅是冰山一角

But this is really just the tip of the iceberg.

如果你看一下這張珊瑚礁的圖表

If you look at this diagram of a coral reef,

we know a lot about that part up near the top.

我們對最上方的那部分瞭解很多

之所以如此，是因為

The reason we know so much about it

水肺潛水夫能輕鬆地下潛到那裡

is scuba divers can very easily go down there and access it.

然而水肺（水下呼吸器）有個問題

There is a problem with scuba, though,

它給你的下潛深度設了限制

in that it imposes some limitations on how deep you can go.

大概是200英尺

It turns out that depth is about 200 feet.

等一會我會解釋這是為什麼

I'll get into why that is in just a minute,

but the point is, scuba divers generally stay less than 100 feet deep,

但，關鍵是水肺潛水夫們通常只待在100英尺深度以上

而很少，至少是有意識地潛到這個深度以下

and very rarely go much below this, at least, not with any kind of sanity.

So to go deeper, most biologists have turned to submersibles.

所以，如果要到更深處，多數的生物學家會選擇潛水器

現在，潛水器是很了不起的東西

Now, submersibles are great, wonderful things,

但如果你要每天花3萬美元來利用某個潛水器

but if you're going to spend 30,000 dollars a day to use one of these things

而它能夠下潛的深度是2000英尺

and it's capable of going 2,000 feet,

you're not going to go farting around up here in a couple of hundred feet,

那麼你肯定不會就在這幾百英尺的地方晃來晃去

你會向下，向下，潛到深處去

you're going to go way down deep.

歸根結底，幾乎所有利用潛水器的研究

So the bottom line is, almost all research using submersibles

都是在超過500英尺深的水下進行的

has taken place well below 500 feet.

Now, it's pretty obvious at this point

講到這裡，可以很明顯地看到中間的這個區域

there's a zone here in the middle.

而這就是圍繞著我個人幸福追求的那個區域

That's the zone

that centers around my own personal pursuit of happiness.

我想找出在裡面有什麼

I want to find out what's in this zone; we know almost nothing about it.

我們幾乎對這裡一無所知

Scuba divers can't get there, submarines go right on past it.

水肺潛水夫到不了那裡，潛水器又不在那裡停留

It took me a year to learn to walk again after my diving accident in Palau.

自從帛琉群島的潛水事故之後，我花了一年時間才重新學會行走

那一年裡，我花了大量時間學習

During that year,

I spent a lot of time learning about the physics and physiology of diving

學習潛水的物理學和生理學過程

並找出如何克服這些限制的方法

and how to overcome these limitations.

我這就給你們展示一些基本的概念

I'm just going to show you a basic idea.

此時此刻，我們呼吸的空氣其實是氧氣和氮氣的混合物

We're all breathing air right now.

Air is a mixture of oxygen and nitrogen,

其中大約20%是氧氣，80%是氮氣

20 percent oxygen, 80 percent nitrogen.

It's in our lungs.

有一種稱為“亨利定律”的現象

And there's a phenomenon called Henry's law,

指的是氣體在液體中的溶解

that says gases will dissolve into a fluid

與該液面上氣體所受到的分壓成正比

in proportion to the partial pressures you're exposing them to.

所以基本上氣體會溶解到我們的體內

So, basically the gas dissolves into our body.

The oxygen is bound by metabolism, we use it for energy.

氧氣是我們獲取能量所必需的，與新陳代謝息息相關

The nitrogen sort of floats around in our blood and tissues.

而氮氣只是我們血液和組織裡的某種漂浮物而已

這沒什麼關係，我們生來如此

That's fine, it's how we're designed.

問題在於當你開始下潛到水下的時候

The problem happens when you go underwater.

潛得越深，所受到的壓力越大

The deeper you go underwater, the higher the pressure is.

當你到達大約130英尺的深度時

If you were to go down to a depth of about 130 feet,

which is the recommended limit for most scuba divers,

這是大多數水肺潛水者的建議極限

你就會感覺到某種壓力效應

you'd get this pressure effect.

The effect of that pressure is you have an increased density of gas molecules

即在你的每一次呼吸中

氣體的密度是逐漸增加的

in every breath you take.

Over time, those gas molecules dissolve into your blood and tissues

過一會，這些氣體分子就會溶解到你的血液和組織中

and start to fill you up.

並開始充滿你的體內

Now, if you were to go down to, say, 300 feet,

如果你要下潛到300英尺

you don't have five times as many gas molecules in your lungs,

那你的肺裡就不僅僅只充滿相當於平時五倍體積的氣體

而是充滿相當於平時10倍體積的氣體

you've got 10 times as many gas molecules in your lungs.

肯定的是，它們同樣會溶解到你的血液和組織裡

And, sure enough, they dissolve into your blood and tissues as well.

And if you were to go down to where there's 15 times as much --

當然，如果你繼續往下的話還有可能是15倍

the deeper you go, the more exacerbating the problem becomes.

潛得越深，這個問題就會越嚴重

The limitation of diving with air is all those dots in your body,

而這個帶空氣潛水的極限問題

也就是在你體內的所有這些點——所有的氮氣和氧氣

all the nitrogen and all the oxygen.

水肺潛水有三個基本的限制

There are three basic limitations of scuba diving.

第一個限制就是氧氣

The first limitation is the oxygen --

氧中毒

oxygen toxicity.

我們都知道那首歌---“愛情就像氧氣，

Now, we all know the song: "Love is like oxygen.

得到太多，你會太興奮。

You get too much, you get too high. Not enough, and you're gonna die."

得到不夠，你就會死去”

Well, in the context of diving, you get too much, you die also.

在潛水這個問題上，你得到太多也會掛掉

導致死亡的另一個原因是氧中毒引起的急性痙攣

You die because oxygen toxicity can cause a seizure.

It makes you convulse underwater -- not a good thing to happen underwater.

在水下，這可不是什麼好事情

罪魁禍首就是體內過高的氧氣濃度

It happens because there's too much concentration of oxygen in your body.

The nitrogen has two problems.

氮氣會造成兩個問題

One of them is what Jacques Cousteau called "rapture of the deep."

其中之一就是雅克•庫斯托所說的“深海暈眩”

也就是氮氣麻醉

It's nitrogen narcosis.

它會使你暈頭轉向

It makes you loopy; the deeper you go, the loopier you get.

潛得越深，你就越暈

You don't want to drive drunk, you don't want to dive drunk.

你不會願意醉酒開車，你也不會願意醉酒潛水，所以這確實是個大問題

So that's a real big problem.

當然，第三個問題也就是我在帛琉群島那段艱難旅程所發現的

And of course, the third problem

is the one I found out the hard way in Palau,

減壓症（bends）

which is the bends.

我忘記提到的一點是

One thing I forgot to mention

is that to obviate the problem of nitrogen narcosis --

如何排除氮氣麻醉的問題

也就是我們體內的這些藍色小點

all of those blue dots in our body --

我們可以用氦氣來替換氮氣

you remove the nitrogen and replace it with helium.

氦氣也是種氣體，它有許多好處

Helium's a gas; there're a lot of reasons why helium's good,

它的分子很小，同時是惰性氣體

it's a tiny molecule, it's inert, it doesn't give you narcosis.

它不會導致你的昏迷

So that's the basic concept we use.

這就是我們所用到的基本設想

But the theory's relatively easy.

但這一理論只是相對比較容易而已

The tricky part is the implementation.

最有趣的是如何將之變得可行

So this is how I began about 15 years ago.

這就是我大約15年前著手開始時做的

I'll admit, it wasn't exactly the smartest of starts,

我承認，這肯定不是最聰明的開端

but you've got to start somewhere.

但無論如何，你總是要開始的而且那個時候，

(Laughter)

我還真不是唯一一個不知道自己正在做什麼的人

At the time, I wasn't the only one who didn't know what I was doing.

幾乎沒有人知道

Almost nobody did.

This rig was actually used for a dive of 300 feet.

這個裝置實際上是用於300英尺深處的潛水

But over time we got better at it,

但過了一陣，情況有了一點好轉

and we came up with this really sophisticated-looking rig

我們搞出了這個看起來很是先進的裝置

上面有四個氣罐和五個調節器

with four scuba tanks, five regulators and all the right gas mixtures,

還有合適的混合氣體以及所有要用到的好東西

all that good stuff.

它看上去既漂亮又時髦

It was fine and dandy, it allowed us to go down and find new species.

能讓我們潛水去尋找新的物種

這是在300英尺深處拍的照片，他正在捕捉魚類新種

This picture was taken at 300 feet, catching new species of fish.

但問題在於我們的潛水不能進行太久

The problem was it didn't allow us much time.

儘管它的體積挺大塊

For all its bulk and size, it only gave us about 15 minutes at most

卻只能保證最多在這樣的深度待15分鐘

down at those sorts of depths.

我們需要更多的時間

We needed more time. There had to be a better way.

必須找出更好的方法 而且，

And indeed, there is a better way.

事實上，的確有個更好的方法

In 1994, I was fortunate enough to get access

1994年，我幸運地有機會用到

to these prototype closed-circuit rebreathers.

這些閉路式換氣器的原型

那麼，閉路式換氣器--

Closed-circuit rebreather: what makes it different from scuba,

它與水肺有什麼不同，

and why is it better?

又為什麼說它更好？

Well, there are three main advantages to a rebreather.

換氣器有三個主要的優點

One, they're quiet, they don't make any noise.

第一，它們很安靜，不會產生任何噪音

Two, they allow you to stay underwater longer.

第二，它們能使你在水裡待的更久

第三，它們讓你潛得更深 那麼，

Three, they allow you to go deeper.

它們是怎麼做到的？

How is it that they do that?

In order to really understand how they do that,

想真正瞭解它們是怎麼做到這些的

you have to look underneath the hood and see what's going on.

你必須把外罩拿掉，看看裡面是怎麼工作的

There are three basic systems to a closed-circuit rebreather.

閉路式換氣器裡有三個基本的系統

其中最重要的稱為呼吸環路（breathing loop）

The most fundamental is called the breathing loop.

顧名思義，你利用它來呼吸

It's a breathing loop because you breathe off of it;

這是個閉合的環路，所以你會一圈又一圈地呼吸同樣的氣體

it's a closed loop, and you breathe the same gas around and around.

這裡有個你要放在嘴裡的介面管

There's a mouthpiece that you put in your mouth,

（counterlung）

and there's a counter lung, or in this case, two counter lungs.

或者像這裡這個，兩個氣囊

這些氣囊並不是什麼高科技，它們就是簡單而又柔韌的袋子

The counter lungs aren't high tech, they're simply flexible bags.

它們是你能機動地呼吸，或機動地換氣

They allow you to mechanically breathe, mechanically ventilate.

當你呼氣的時候，氣體進入呼出氣囊

When you exhale, it goes in the exhale counter lung;

當你吸氣的時候，氣體從吸氣氣囊出來

when you inhale, it comes from the inhale counter lung.

這只是純粹的機械過程，使氣體能在呼吸環裡進行迴圈

It's just pure mechanics, allowing you to cycle air through this breathing loop.

在呼吸環上的另外一個部件

The other component on a breathing loop is the carbon-dioxide-absorbent canister.

是二氧化碳吸收罐

Now, as we breathe, we produce carbon dioxide,

我們呼吸的時候會產生二氧化碳

這些二氧化碳需要從系統中除去

and that carbon dioxide needs to be scrubbed out of the system.

所以在那裡面就有個化學篩檢程式

There's a chemical filter in there

that pulls the carbon dioxide out of the breathing gas,

將二氧化碳從呼吸的氣體中去除

so that when it comes back to us, it's safe to breathe again.

這就使我們再次呼吸的時候，能安全地呼吸

That's the breathing loop in a nutshell.

以上介紹的就是外殼下面的呼吸環

The second main component of a closed-circuit rebreather

閉路式換氣器的第二個主要部件是氣體系統

is the gas system.

氣體系統最重要的目的 是提供氧氣，

The primary purpose of the gas system is to provide oxygen,

補充你身體所消耗的氧氣

to replenish the oxygen that your body consumes.

So the main tank, the main critical thing,

所以主要的容器，最關鍵的東西

is this oxygen gas supply cylinder we have here.

就是這邊這個氧氣供應罐

But if we only had an oxygen gas supply cylinder,

但是，如果我們只有這麼一個氧氣供應罐

我們就不能潛得太深

we wouldn't be able to go very deep,

because we'd run into oxygen toxicity very quickly.

因為我們很快就會產生氧中毒，非常快

所以我們需要另一種氣體來稀釋氧氣

So we need another gas, something to dilute the oxygen with.

足夠合適之後，我們稱之為“稀釋氣體供應”

And that, fittingly enough, is called the diluent gas supply.

In our applications, we generally put air inside this diluent gas supply,

現在，在這個裝置裡，我們就可以將空氣輸入稀釋氣體供應罐中

因為這是一種非常便宜和易得的氮氣來源

because it's a very cheap and easy source of nitrogen.

So that's where we get our nitrogen from.

我們的氮氣就是從這裡來的

But if we want to go deeper, of course, we need another gas supply,

當然，如果想潛得更深，我們還需要補充另一種氣體

我們需要氦氣，它是我們深潛時所真正需要的

and helium is what we really need to go deep.

通常我們用的是這個稍微大一點的罐子

Usually we'll have a slightly larger cylinder,

它就像這樣掛在換氣器的外面

mounted exterior on the rebreather, like this.

That's what we use to inject, as we start to do our deep dives.

當開始向深處潛水的時候，注入的氦氣就來自這裡

We also have a second oxygen cylinder, solely as a backup;

另外我們還有第二個氧氣罐，僅僅作為後備

一旦第一個氧氣供應出現問題，我們還能繼續呼吸

if there's a problem with our first oxygen supply,

we can continue to breathe.

The way you manage all these different gases and different gas supplies

如何操縱所有這些氣體及其供應

就在於前面這個先進的高科技氣體控制器

is this really high-tech, sophisticated gas block up on the front here,

where it's easy to reach.

很容易摸到

It's got the valves and knobs and things you need

它上面的閥門和旋鈕等可以讓你

to inject the right gases at the right time.

在合適的時間注入合適的氣體

Normally, you don't have to do that,

一般來說這些都是已經為你自動做好的

because all of it's done automatically

with the electronics, the third system of a rebreather.

因為我們有電子設備，換氣器的第三個系統

換氣器上最重要的部件是氧氣感測器

The most critical part of a rebreather are the oxygen sensors.

你需要三個，這樣如果其中一個壞了，你就知道是哪一個

You need three, so if one goes bad, you know which one it is.

你需要表決邏輯（voting logic）

You need voting logic.

You also have three microprocessors.

你還有三個微處理器

Any one of those computers can run the entire system,

這些電腦中的任意一個都能控制整個系統

so if you have to lose two of them,

所以就算你失去了其中兩個

there's back-up power supplies.

還有後備的能量供應

And there are multiple displays, to get the information to the diver.

當然，少不了為潛水者提供資訊的顯示器

This is the high-tech gadgetry that allows us to do what we do

這就是那個能讓我們在這種深度潛水中

on these deep dives.

能隨心所欲的高科技小部件

I can talk about it all day -- just ask my wife --

我能一整天都談論這些，問問我老婆就知道了

but I want to move on to something much more interesting.

但，我想講另一些更有趣的東西

我將帶你們深潛下去

I'm going to take you on a deep dive,

我將向你們展示我們是怎麼進行這類潛水的

and show you what it's like to do one.

我們從船上開始，儘管這是部昂貴的高科技裝備

We start up on the boat,

For all this high-tech, expensive equipment,

這仍然是最好的入水方式---噗！

this is still the best way to get in the water,

怦然從船舷處落下

just flop over the side of the boat.

就像我之前給你們展示的那張圖表

Now, as I showed you in the earlier diagram,

these reefs that we dive on start out near the surface

這些礁石就在我們開始潛水的水面附近

and they go almost vertically, completely straight down.

它們幾乎是垂直地、完全直直地向下

So we drop in the water and go over the edge of this cliff,

所以我們在水裡往下掉，好像要越過這個懸崖邊緣一般

and then we start dropping, dropping, dropping.

然後我們就開始往下掉，往下掉，往下掉

People ask if it takes a long time to get there.

有人問我，“到那兒一定花了不少時間吧？”

不，只花了幾分鐘

No; it only takes a couple minutes to get down to three or four hundred feet,

我們就直落到三四百英尺處，我們的目的地

which is what we're aiming for.

有點像慢動作的跳傘

It's like skydiving in slow motion. It's really very interesting.

這真的非常有趣

You ever see "The Abyss,"

你們看過電影《深淵》（“The Abyss”）裡面的Ed Harris©

where Ed Harris is sinking down along the side of the wall?

沿著絕壁往下墜落的情景吧？

That's what it feels like. Amazing.

這有點像那種感覺，美妙絕倫

And down there, you find that the water is very clear, extremely clear,

還有，下到那裡，你會發現水非常非常的清澈

極度清澈的水，因為那裡幾乎沒有什麼浮游生物

because there's hardly any plankton.

但是，當你打開燈，環視這些洞穴時

When you turn on your light and look around the caves,

你就會突然間面對巨大數量的生物多樣性

you're confronted with a tremendous amount of diversity,

遠遠超過人們過去所認為的

much more than anyone used to believe.

並非所有這些都是新種

Now, not all of it is new species --

that fish you see with the white stripe, that's a known species.

比如你看到的這條有白道的魚

就是個已知種

But if you look carefully into the cracks and crevices,

如果你仔細觀察這些裂縫和罅隙

你會看到無數的小玩意正來去匆匆

you'll see little things scurrying all over the place.

There's a just unbelievable diversity.

這裡的多樣性令人難以置信

It's not just fish, either.

而且，並不僅僅是魚類的多樣性

These are crinoids, sponges, black corals. There're some more fishes.

那裡有海百合，海綿，黑珊瑚——再來一些魚類

Those fishes that you see now are new species.

現在你看到的這些魚類都是新種

它們仍然是新種，因為我只裝了攝像機，而沒有帶網

They're still new species,

because I had a video camera instead of my net,

so they're still waiting down there for someone to go find them.

所以它們仍然在等待著人們去再把它們找出來

But this is what it looks like.

這裡的環境就是如此

And this kind of habitat just goes on and on and on for miles.

而且這樣的生境連綿數英里

This is Papua, New Guinea.

這就是巴布亞新磯內亞

Now little fishes and invertebrates aren't the only things we see down there.

小魚和無脊椎動物並非我們看到的全部

我們還能看到鯊魚

We also see sharks,

它們比我原先預計的更加常見

much more regularly than I would have expected to.

We're not quite sure why.

我們並不很確定為什麼

What I want you to do now is imagine yourself 400 feet underwater,

現在，我要你們想像一下自己正身處400英尺水深

背著高科技的設備

with all this high-tech gear on your back,

地點是新幾內亞的帛琉群島附近

you're in a remote reef off Papua, New Guinea,

距離最近的減壓艙有數千英里

thousands of miles from the nearest recompression chamber,

而你正完全被鯊魚所包圍

and you're completely surrounded by sharks.

(Video) Diver 1: (In squeaky voice) Look at those ...

視頻：看這些……

Diver 2: Uh, oh ...

啊噢……啊噢！

Uh, oh!

我想我引起它們注意了

Audience: (Laughter)

(Video) Diver 1: I think we have their attention ...

Richard Pyle:當你開始像唐老鴨一樣說話

Richard Pyle: When you start talking like Donald Duck,

there's no situation in the world that can seem tense.

世界上就沒有什麼叫做“緊張”的東西

（笑）

(Laughter)

So we're down there -- this is at 400 feet.

好，我們下到這了，400英尺深

That's looking straight up, by the way, to give a sense of how far the surface is.

這是垂直向上看的情景

你可以瞭解距離睡眠有多遠

如果你是個生物學家，並瞭解鯊魚

And if you're a biologist and know about sharks,

你就想評估一下自己的處境到底有多危險

and you want to assess, how much jeopardy am I really in here,

there's one question that sort of jumps to the forefront of your mind immediately,

所以就有個問題馬上跳進你的大腦裡

就是——

which is --

視頻：哪種鯊魚？

(Video) Diver 1: What kind of sharks?

啊，白邊真鯊（silvertip shark）

Diver 2: Silvertip sharks.

Diver 1: Oh.

噢

白邊真鯊——這裡其實有三種鯊魚

RP: There are actually three species of sharks here.

白邊真鯊是一種鰭上有白邊的鯊魚

The silvertips are the ones with the white edges on the fins,

不遠之處，幾條灰礁鯊 (grey reef shark)和雙髻鯊在遊弋

and there're also gray reef sharks and hammerheads off in the distance.

是的，這確實有點傷腦筋

And yes, it's a little nerve-racking.

視頻：呼！

(Video) Diver 2: Hoo!

那小傢夥真活潑！

That little guy is frisky!

Audience: (Laughter)

現在，你們在電視上經常看到這樣的畫面

Now, you've seen video like this on TV a lot, and it's very intimidating.

令人望而生畏，我想，這給出的對鯊魚錯誤的印象

I think it gives the wrong impression about sharks;

鯊魚實際上不是非常危險的動物

they're actually not very dangerous animals.

這也是為什麼我們不是很擔心，而在下面開著玩笑的原因

That's why we weren't worried much and were joking around.

被豬殺死的人，因閃電而死的人

More people are killed by pigs, by lightning strikes,

甚至因英格蘭的足球賽而死的人都比因鯊魚而死的人多

more people are killed at soccer games in England.

There's a lot of other ways you can die.

死法有很多種

And I'm not making that stuff up.

我也不是在這裡瞎編椰子！

Coconuts! You can get killed by a coconut more likely than killed by a shark.

你被椰子砸死的概率都必被鯊魚咬死的概率高

所以鯊魚並非像多數人聲稱的那麼危險

So sharks aren't quite as dangerous as most people make them out to be.

我不知道你們中有沒有人看《美國新聞和世界報導》雜誌

Now, I don't know if any of you get US News and World Report --

我有最近的一期

I got the recent issue.

There's a cover story about the great explorers of our time.

上面的封面故事是關於我們這個時代那些偉大的探險者

最後一篇文章的標題是“沒有新領域了”（No New Frontiers）

The last article is entitled, "No New Frontiers."

它質疑是否還存在什麼真正的新的領域

It questions whether or not there really are any new frontiers out there,

whether there are any true, hardcore discoveries that can still be made.

是否還能做出真實的，絕對的新發現

這就是裡面我最喜歡的一句臺詞

My favorite line from the article:

[... 'discovery' can mean finding a guppy with an extra spine in its dorsal fin."]

作為一名魚癡，我應該高興，因為他們不會無緣無故地這樣叫

我們確實會因為在孔雀魚的背鰭上發現一根新刺而興奮異常

I have to laugh; they don't call us fish nerds for nothing.

We actually do get excited about finding a new dorsal spine in a guppy.

但，還不止這些

But it's much more than that.

我想向你們展示我們幾年來發現的幾種孔雀魚

I want to show you a few of the guppies we've found over the years.

這一隻，你可以看出長得有多醜

This one -- you can see how ugly it is.

(Laughter)

如果忽略它的科學價值

Even if you ignore the scientific value of this thing,

單看它的經濟價值

look at the monetary value of this thing.

通過水族館的交易，有一對魚被賣到日本

A couple of these were sold through the aquarium trade to Japan,

每一條就值15000美元

where they sold for 15,000 dollars apiece.

接近50萬美元一磅

That's half a million dollars a pound.

這是我們發現的一種新的天使魚（angelfish）

Here's another new angelfish we discovered.

這實際上是我們在以前的空氣潛水歲月裡發現的，空氣潛水差勁的歲月

This one we first discovered back in the air days -- the bad old air days,

也就是過去所說的當我們使用空氣來作這類潛水的時候

when we were doing these kind of dives with air.

我們在360英尺深處

We were at 360 feet.

I remember coming up from one of these deep dives and I had this fog,

我還記得結束深潛遊上來之後，我像這樣迷糊不清

and the narcosis takes a little while to fade away, sort of like sobering up.

迷糊的狀態持續了一小會才逐漸褪去

有點像酒後清醒過來

I had this vague recollection of seeing this yellow fish with a black spot,

而我有個模糊的回憶，似乎看到了這些有個黑點的黃色小魚

我就想：“啊，可惡，我應該抓一條，

and thought, "Damn, I should have caught one --

看起來那是個新種。”

I think that's a new species."

Eventually, I looked in my bucket.

最後，我終於有時間來看看我的桶

Sure enough, I had caught one, I just completely forgot.

當然，我抓到了一條----我只是完全忘了自己抓過一條

所以我們決定叫這條魚為Centropyge narcosis（深海珊瑚神仙，narcosis意為昏迷）

So this one, we decided to give the name Centropyge narcosis to.

這就成了它的學名

That's its official scientific name,

與它居於深海的習性有關

in reference to its deep-dwelling habits.

這是另外一條光彩照人的魚

This is another neat one.

When we first found it,

第一次發現它時，我們甚至不敢肯定它屬於什麼科

we weren't even sure what family it belonged to,

所以我們就叫它蘇斯教授魚（Dr. Seuss，美國少兒圖書作家）

so we just called it the Dr. Seuss fish,

因為它看起來就像從他某本書裡出來的

since it looked like something from one of those books.

這一條非常酷

Now, this one's pretty cool.

If you go to Papua, New Guinea and go down 300 feet,

如果你去巴布亞新磯內亞，潛到300英尺

你就會看到這樣的大石堆

you'll see these big mounds.

This may be hard to see, but they're a couple meters in diameter.

這麼看也許很吃力，但它們

噢，直徑可達數米

If you look closely, you'll see there's a little white and gray fish

拉近來看，你會看到那有條白色小魚

一條灰白的小魚在它們附近晃悠

that hangs out near them.

It turns out this little white fish builds these giant mounds,

沒錯，其實就是這種小白魚建起了這些巨大的石堆

一次一塊石頭建起來的

one pebble at a time.

能有這樣的發現真的太不尋常了

It's extraordinary to find something like this.

不僅僅是新種，還是新的行為，新的生態學，全都是新的東西

It's not just new species, it's new behaviors, new ecology,

好，接下來我將很快向你們展示的

all kind of new things.

What I'm going to show you now, quickly,

就是我們發現的一些新種

is a sampling of the new species we've discovered.

What's extraordinary is not just the number of species we're finding --

真正不尋常的不是這些新種的驚人數目——

儘管你會覺得這很了不起，但這只是我們發現的一半——

though as you can see, that's pretty amazing;

this is only half of what we've found --

真正不尋常的是我們發現它們的速度有多快

what's extraordinary is how quickly we find them.

在那個深度，最多時我們每小時可以發現7個新種

We're up to seven new species per hour of time we spend at that depth.

如果你去亞馬遜叢林，朝棵樹噴噴煙霧，你或許能得到許多蟲子

If you go to an Amazon jungle and fog a tree, you may get a lot of bugs,

but for fishes, there's nowhere in the world

但對於魚類，世界上還沒有其他地方

you can get seven new species per hour of time.

能讓你每小時發現7個新種

Now, we've done some back-of-the-envelope calculations,

作了大概的計算後

我們預計單單在印度洋-太平洋地區

and we're predicting there are probably about 2,000 to 2,500 new species

in the Indo-Pacific alone.

就有大概2000到2500個新種

There are only five to six thousand known species,

已知的物種大約是五千到六千種

so a very large percentage of what is out there isn't really known.

所以那裡的一切還有相當大部分是未知的

We thought we had a handle on all the reef fish diversity -- evidently not.

我們以為自己已經搞清楚了岩礁魚類的多樣性，顯然不是

最後我以一張非常陰鬱的片子作為結束

I'm going to just close on a very somber note.

一開始的時候我說過將給你們展示兩張非同尋常的圖片

At the beginning, I said I'd show you two extraordinary photographs.

This is the second extraordinary photograph I'm going to show you.

這就是其中的第二張

那時我正在那裡拍攝那些鯊魚

This one was taken at the exact moment I was down there filming those sharks.

This was taken exactly 300 feet above my head.

圖片就是在我頭上300英尺的地方拍的

之所以說這張圖片非同尋常

The reason this photograph is extraordinary

是因為它捕捉到了一個人生命的最後一刻

is because it captures a moment

in the very last minute of a person's life.

圖片拍完後不到一分鐘，這個人死了

Less than 60 seconds after this picture was taken, this guy was dead.

我們找回他的屍體，發現了悲劇發生的原因

When we recovered his body, we figured out what had gone wrong.

He had made a very simple mistake;

他只犯了一個很簡單的錯誤

he turned the wrong valve when he filled his cylinder.

在給氣罐充氣時他旋錯了閥門

在他的氣罐裡有80%的氧氣，而不是應該有的40%

he had 80 percent oxygen in his tank when he should have had 40.

氧中毒的突然發作使他不幸溺死

He had an oxygen toxicity seizure and he drowned.

我展示這個的原因——絕不是要讓大家沮喪

The reason I show this -- not to put a downer on everything --

而只是要用它來引出我總的人生哲學

but I just want to use it to key off my philosophy of life in general,

which is that we all have two goals.

也就是，我們都有兩個目標

The first goal we share with every other living thing on this planet,

我們與這個星球上其他生物分享了第一個目標

即生存——我稱這為“不朽”（perpetuation）

which is to survive.

I call it perpetuation: the survival of the species and survival of ourselves,

因為無論是物種的生存還是我們的生存

And those are both about perpetuating the genome.

都是為了基因組的不朽

The second goal, for those of us who have mastered the first goal --

第二個目標是，對我們之中已經實現第一個目標的人來說

就是，你可以說是精神的滿足，或者經濟上的成功

call it spiritual fulfillment, call it financial success,

你把它叫作什麼都可以

you can call it any number of different things.

我稱之為尋找快樂——

I call it seeking joy, this pursuit of happiness.

對幸福的追求

So, I guess my theme on this is this guy lived his life to the fullest,

所以，我想這也是這位朋友這輩子生活的主旨

he absolutely did.

他確實做到了

You have to balance those two goals.

你必須保持這兩個目標的平衡

If you live your whole life in fear --

如果你整個人生都是在恐懼中——

I mean, life is a sexually transmitted disease with 100 percent mortality.

我說，生命是一種死亡率100%的性傳播疾病

所以，你不能在恐懼中生活

So you can't live your life in fear.

(Laughter)

（笑）

I thought that was an old one!

我想那是個老笑話了

(Applause)

（掌聲）

But at the same time, you don't want to get so focused on rule number two,

但與此同時，你不會願意因為太專注於第二個目標

而忽略了第一個目標

goal number two,

that you neglect goal number one.

因為一旦死去，你就什麼也享受不了了

Because once you're dead, you really can't enjoy anything after that.

祝你們好運，希望你們能努力保持這樣的平衡

So I wish you all the best of luck in maintaining that balance

in your future endeavors.

謝謝

Thanks.

（掌聲）