 |
The first-ever video footage of a giant squid swimming in the ocean depths is "an enormous breakthrough," according to a prominent marine conservationist who wrote a book about the quest to find the mysterious creatures. |
| |
首度拍下一隻巨烏賊在海底深處游水的影片，是「一項巨大突破」，一位著名的海洋保育學家指出，他寫了一本書，述說找尋這種神秘生物的探索之旅。 |
|
"People have been searching for them for hundreds of years, literally," said Richard Ellis, author of The Search for the Giant Squid: The Biology and Mythology of the World's Most Elusive Sea Creature. |
| |
「人類找尋這種生物已經有幾百年了，真的是這樣，」理查．艾利斯說，他著有《找尋巨烏賊：全世界最難尋的海洋生物之生物構造與傳說》。 |
|
Scientists and television broadcasters released images this week of the 10-foot-long giant squid they had filmed deep in the Pacific Ocean, far off the coast of the Japanese mainland, during hundreds of hours of underwater research. |
| |
科學家與電視台在本週發布了這隻十英尺長的巨烏賊的影像，是在太平洋深處拍到的，他們當初在日本本島外海遠洋進行數百小時的水下研究。 |
|
The mission that finally tracked down the creature involved 55 dives in two special submersible vehicles that spent a total of more than 285 hours far beneath the waves. |
|
Some of the dives went deeper than 3,000 feet. |
| |
這項終於追蹤到巨烏賊的任務，以兩艘特製潛水載具下潛五十五次，在水底下總共待了超過兩百八十五個小時。其中有幾次更下潛至三千英尺以下。 |
|
The discovery is significant for both science and mythology, in which giant squids have long played a notable role, Ellis said in an interview on CNN. |
| |
這項發現對於科學與傳說而言都非常重要，因為巨烏賊長久以來在這兩個領域中所扮演的角色都很重要，艾利斯在與 CNN 的一場訪談中表示。 |
| |
"We're going to learn how this thing moves," he said. "How it swims, what it does with its arms when it swims." |
| |
「我們將瞭解這種生物的動作，」他說：「牠怎麼游泳，游泳的時候怎麼活動牠的腕臂。」 |
| |
He described the squid as having eight arms and "two very, very long tentacles which it uses to grasp its prey." |
| |
Its limbs have suckers lined with sharp teeth. |
| |
他說那隻烏賊擁有八條腕臂，還有「兩根非常、非常長的腕足，用來捕捉獵物」。其肢體都具有周圍排列著利齒的吸盤。 |
| |
The carcasses of dead giant squid that washed ashore eventually proved that the creatures were real, but finding live ones in the wild has proved extremely challenging. |
| |
被沖上岸的巨烏賊遺骸終究證明了這種生物真實存在，但在野地裡找尋活生生的巨烏賊卻極不容易。 |
|
The first still photographs of one of the huge creatures were captured in 2004, and footage was taken of one floating on the surface of the water in 2006. |
| |
But researchers and cameramen had never before managed to catch a glimpse of them in the ocean abyss where they live. |
| |
這種巨型生物在二００四年首度被人拍到靜態照片，後來在二００六年又有人拍到一隻巨烏賊漂浮在水面上的影片。不過，研究人員與攝影人員在以前從來不曾成功窺見這種生物在海底深處棲地的生活模樣。 |
| |
The team of scientists and filmmakers on the mission came from a variety of institutions, including the National Science Museum of Japan, the Discovery Channel and the Japanese broadcaster NHK. |
| |
參與這項任務的科學家與拍攝人員來自多個不同機構，包括日本國立科學博物館、探索頻道以及日本 NHK 電視台。 |
.gif)
