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For over 500 million years, the jellyfish has survived in our oceans. Today, global warming and pollution may be contributing to a population explosion, as billions of these
sometimes venomous creatures increasingly swarm around our beaches and shorelines. And though they have no bones, blood or brain, some jellyfish are armed with a
deadly arsenal unlike any other on the planet. Explorer dissects the fascinating physiology of this living fossil.
5亿年前，水母已从我们的海洋里存活。今天，全球暖化和人口增长引发的污染，这种有毒的生物成千上万地包围我们的海滩和海岸线。
它们没有骨架、没有血液和脑袋，有些水母还配备了我们这个星球与别不同的致命武器。如何剖析这种迷人的古生物之迷。
Pitting two hands against thousands of stinging tentacles, a diver attaches a tracking device to a giant Nomura's jellyfish off the coast of Japan on October 4, 2005.
2005年10月4日日本海洋研究人员在日本海岸进行对福川水母的研究，他们把声纳探测器装在水母身上，跟踪它们离开日本海岸的活动。
Since last summer, Japanese waters have been inundated with the massive sea creatures, which can grow 6.5 feet (2 meters) wide and weigh up to 450 pounds (220 kilograms).
从当年夏季开始，日本水域已被这些海洋生物重重包围，它们能长到2米宽而重量达220公斤。
Though the jellyfish are more common in Chinese and Korean waters, their numbers have grown a hundredfold in some areas off Japan, causing a crisis in the local
fishing industry.
尽管这些水母与中国、韩国水域的相似，但他们以百倍的速度在日本激增，造成当地捕渔业的危机。
The invertebrates are choking fishing nets and poisoning the catch with their toxic stingers, fishers say. And although reports of serious human injury are rare, there are
records of people dying from the creature's noxious sting.
The invasion has prompted a series of studies by the Japanese government to research the animal, whose mating and migration habits are poorly understood.
Last month, Japanese scientists speculated that the jellyfish are drifting from China's Yangtze River Delta, where unusually heavy rains may have created a flow that is pushing the jellyfish flotilla to Japan.
Another theory suggests that seas heated by global warming are better suited for breeding, turning the Nomura's otherwise modest numbers into an armada.
As the research continues, Japanese fishers continue to grapple with another issue: What to do with all the jellyfish they've caught? So far, resourceful anglers have turned their unwanted catch into crab food, fertilizer, and novelty snacks—served dried and salted.
昨晚香港亚视国际台播放了NGC的Jellyfis Invasion在网上只能找到这个小短片 http://uploadingit.com/files/354 ... fish%20Invasion.mpg
[ 本帖最后由 opm-playboy 于 2007-12-2 20:57 编辑 ] |
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发表于 2007-12-2 00:21:00
发表于 2007-12-2 18:48:41
