When We Explore the DeepSea, We Are Exploring for Our Own Survival

By Dr. Greg Stone

 

1 In 1953, on theheels of a discovery of a second coelacanth specimen in the Comoros Islands offMadagascar’s coast, J.L.B. Smith, the man who described the species, wrote inThe Times of London: “We have in the past assumed that we have mastery not onlyof the land but of the sea… We have not. Life goes on there just as it did fromthe beginning. Man’s influence is as yet but a passing shadow. This discoverymeans that we may find other fishlike creatures, supposedly extinct but stillliving in the sea.”

 

2 Unlike thecoelacanth, which was thought to have gone extinct, we have known for centuriesthat giant squid have existed in our oceans’ depths. But unable to observe themalive in their deep sea home, we have understood very little about how theylive, where they live and how they behave. 

 

3 That is, until2012, when Drs. Edith Widder, Steve O’Shea and Tsunemi Kobodera filmed theelusive and mysterious giant in its natural deep-sea habitat for the first time— a landmark moment in ocean exploration and an example of how technology andingenuity can overcome the monumental challenges we face in exploring the deep.But it is a drop in the vast ocean-sized bucket of amazing discoveries waitingto be made.

 

4 As a scientist,I want to explore the great wonders our ocean has to offer. As aconservationist, I need to explore the vital human-ocean connection: how theocean can provide for people and how our impacts affect the health of ouroceans. This is critically important for us this century. Our population israpidly growing toward 9 billion people and our demand for food, fresh waterand energy is predicted to double.

 

5 Healthy oceanscan help ease the increasing burden our population is placing on this planet,but we need to be able to explore, observe and learn about the oceans in theirentirety in order to protect and conserve them effectively.

 

6 I am no strangerto deep-sea exploration. In fact, I was on the same research vessel, justbefore the filming of the squid, making a documentary that would later becomethe Shark Week program Alien Sharks of the Deep . We sank a whale, which haddied from apparently natural causes and washed up on shore, 2,000 feet belowthe Sea of Japan and then descended in submersibles to observe the ensuingfeeding frenzy by an array of creatures.

 

7 Although we didnot get to film the giant squid or observe any species new to science, we didmanage to film an important and often overlooked part of the ocean life cycle.When animals in the ocean, particularly large ones like whales, die and sink tothe bottom, they create their own micro-ecosystem, sort of like an oasis in thedesert. Hagfish, deep sea isopods and the large and powerful six-gill shark allshowed up to feed on the buffet we had set on the sea floor.

 

8 Making thesekinds of observations are incredibly important to understanding how the oceanworks. Think of it like an antique watch. As long as it keeps ticking, you willknow what time it is. What happens if it is not keeping accurate time or itstops? You can’t understand what the problem is by just looking. You have tocrack it open and when you do, you find an intricate and complicated system ofgears designed to make this machine function. Unfortunately, getting insideevery part of the ocean is not as simple as opening a watch.

 

9 The deep sea isthe most hostile environment on Earth. Reaching it requires the same kind ofmethods, technology and expertise required for exploring space. Yet despite thesimilarity in how we employ technology to explore both the ocean and space,there is a great disparity between the amount of funding put toward space explorationand ocean exploration. The result? We have better maps of the surface of Marsthan we do of our own planet’s sea floor.

 

10 There are nodoubt countless discoveries to be made under the surface of the sea, whetherthey are species we know to exist but have yet to observe in their own habitat,species new to science or those species thought long extinct.

 

11 All of thesetypes of findings fit together in a jigsaw puzzle that, as it reachescompletion, reveals to us how people fit into the picture and how we can bestmanage, conserve and protect the oceans for our own benefit.

 

12 It isimperative that we keep pushing the limits of our ocean. We will not findmegalodon, but we might find the key to our survival on Earth.

 

探索深海也是探索我们自身的生存

格雷格·斯通博士

 

1 1953年，在马达加斯加近海的科摩罗群岛发现第二具腔棘鱼标本之后不久，J·L·B·史密斯（他曾对该物种进行过描述）在伦敦《泰晤士报》上写道：“我们过去认为不仅已经征服了陆地还征服了大海……，实际上我们没有。生命在海洋里繁衍生息，一如既往。时至今日，人的影响只不过是浮光掠影。这一发现意味着我们可能会发现其他类鱼生物，这些生物被认为已经灭绝但却仍然生活在海洋里。”

2 与人们认为已经灭绝的腔棘鱼不同，早在数世纪之前，我们就知道巨鱿存在于海洋深处。由于无法观察到深海老家的活巨鱿，我们对它们的生活状况、栖息地点、以及它们的行为了解甚少。

3 这种无知状况一直延续至2012年，那一年，伊迪丝·威德、史提夫·奥谢和窪寺恒己三位博士第一次在天然深海栖息地拍摄到难以捉摸的神秘巨鱿。这是海洋探索史上具有里程碑意义的时刻，同时也是一个实例，证明技术和智慧如何克服我们在深海探索领域面临的巨大挑战。但在等待我们发现的奥秘之中，它仅仅是沧海之一粟。

4 作为一个科学家，我想探索海洋中那些匪夷所思的奇迹，作为一个自然环境保护者，我需要探索人与海洋的重要联系：海洋如何能够为人们提供生存资源，以及我们对海洋的健康有何影响。在本世纪，这对我们是至关重要的。我们的人口正迅速增长，即将达到90亿，我们对粮食、淡水和能源的需求预计将翻一番。

5 健康的海洋可以帮助缓解我们的人口对这个星球造成的负担，但是为了有效保护海洋，我们必需能够探索、观察和了解海洋的全部。

6 我对深海探险并不陌生。事实上，在拍摄巨鱿之前，我就在同一艘考察船上，制作一部名为《鲨鱼：来自深海的陌生客》的纪录片，该片后来成了一个《鲨鱼周》节目。我们把一条显然是自然死亡后被冲上海岸的鲸鱼沉入2,000英尺深的日本海海底，然后坐在潜水器里下到海底去观察其后各种各样生物豪享这场盛宴。

7 虽然我们没有拍摄到巨鱿，也没有观察到任何科学尚未知晓的新物种，我们确实设法拍摄到了海洋生命周期的一个重要的、常为人们忽视的部分。当海洋中的动物特别是像鲸鱼这样的大动物死亡并且沉到海底时，它们创造了自己的微生态系统，有点像沙漠中的绿洲。盲鳗、等足类深海动物和强大的六鳃鲨全都出场，来吃我们放在海底的自助餐。

8 作这类观察，对了解海洋如何运行是非常重要的。把海洋想像作一块古董手表。只要它保持滴答作响，你就会知道时间。如果它计时不准或不走了，会怎样呢？你光看是弄不明白怎么回事的。你必须打开它。一打开，你就会发现一个使这台机器运转的精细复杂的齿轮传动系统。不幸的是，进入海洋的每一个部分并不像打开一块表那么简单。

9 深海是地球上最为险恶的环境。到达深海所需的方法、技术和专业知识，与探索宇宙空间相差无几。然而，在探索海洋和探索空间中，尽管在如何利用技术方面相似之处甚多，投入两者的资金却有天壤之别。结果呢？我们绘制的火星地表图比我们自己星球的海底图精准得多。

10 毫无疑问，在洋面之下将会发现无数物种，有的是我们已知存在但尚未在它们自己的栖息地观察到的，有的是科学尚未发现的，有的则是我们以为早已灭绝的。

11 所有这些发现将拼成一幅图案，这个拼图一旦完成，就会揭示人类在图中的位置，展示如何从我们自身利益考虑去管理、保存和保护海洋的最佳方法。

12 我们必须坚持不懈地去克服海洋探索中遭遇的各种挑战。我们不会找到巨齿鲨，但是可能会发现我们能在地球上生存下去的关键。