It is now thought that the larvae of certain organisms may drift through the water until, by some unknown chemical means, they detect that they have arrived at a food opportunity and fall onto it.
現在認為，某些生物的幼體可能在水里漂動，最后由于未知的化學原因，它們發現來了進食的機會，于是就撲了上去。
So why, if the seas are so vast, do we so easily overtax them? Well, to begin with, the world's seas are not uniformly bounteous. Altogether less than a tenth of the ocean is considered naturally productive. Most aquatic species like to be in shallow waters where there is warmth and light and an abundance of organic matter to prime the food chain. Coral reefs, for instance, constitute well under 1 percent of the ocean's space but are home to about 25 percent of its fish.
那么，既然海洋那么浩瀚，我們怎么就如此容易地弄得它負擔過重了呢？首先，世界上的海洋并不都是很豐盈的?？偣仓挥胁蛔闶种坏暮Ｑ蟊徽J為天生很富饒。大多敖數的水生動物喜歡待在淺水里，那里有熱量，有光線，還有豐富的有機物質來撫育食物鏈。比如，珊湖礁占了遠不足海洋空間的1%，但那里是大約25%海洋魚類的家園。
Elsewhere, the oceans aren't nearly so rich. Take Australia. With over 20,000 miles of coastline and almost nine million square miles of territorial waters, it has more sea lapping its shores than any other country, yet, as Tim Flannery notes, it doesn't even make it into the top fifty among fishing nations. Indeed, Australia is a large net importer of seafood. This is because much of Australia's waters are, like much of Australia itself, essentially desert. (A notable exception is the Great Barrier Reef off Queensland, which is sumptuously fecund.) Because the soil is poor, it produces little in the way of nutrient-rich runoff.
在別處，海洋根本沒有那么富庶。以澳大利亞為例。這個國家擁有36735公里長的海岸線和2300萬平方公里以上的領海，有著比任何別的國家更多的拍擊海岸的海浪，然而，正如提姆·弗蘭納星指出的，它在捕魚國家中還排不到前50位。實際上，澳大利亞是個海鮮的凈進口國。這是因為澳大利亞的很大一部分水域，就像澳大利亞本身的很大部分一樣，都是荒漠。（一個令人注目的例外是昆士蘭近誨的大堡礁，那可是個極其富饒的地方。）由于土壤貧癖，它的徑流里實際上不含任何營養。
Even where life thrives, it is often extremely sensitive to disturbance.
即使是生命很豐富的海域,也往往對于擾極其敏感。
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