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At around three hundred metres, the drop off levels out and we move out onto the Continental slope.
水深300公尺的地方坡度渐缓，我们进入了大陆斜坡。
This stretches for about a hundred and fifty miles from the coast, sloping in the gentle gradient down to a maximum depth of four thousand metres.
斜坡从海岸起绵延约150英里，坡度极缓，深入深海四千公尺。
Water temperatures down here drop below 4 degrees centigrade, and the pressure can reach up to 400 times that of the surface.
水温在此降到摄氏四度以下，压力可达水面的400倍。
Without the lights of the submersible it would be completely dark.
关掉潜水艇的光就是伸手不见五指的漆黑。
The water is crystal clear because there's so little organic matter.
因为有机物的缺乏，海水是晶澈透明。
Only three per cent of the potential food in the surface waters reaches the Continental slope.
只有大约3%来自水面的食物可以下沉到大陆斜坡。
At first sight it appears a lifeless desert, but take a closer look and you notice a network of tracks and trails.
这里给人的第一印象像是荒凉的沙漠，但是仔细瞧瞧，就会发现像网络般的足迹印记。
There is life even down here.
这里也是有生物活动的。
These animals would die immediately if brought to the surface in nets, so you can only see them behaving normally from submersibles. Many are new to science.
这些生物是不能捉到上岸的，它们一离开这里就会死亡，所以我们只能从潜水艇中望见它们平常的生活形态。许多都是科学上的新发现。
The deep sea floor is dominated by echinoderms, sea cucumbers, brittle stars and sea urchins.
深海海床多被棘皮动物，海参，阳燧足还有海胆占据。
There are literally millions of them marching across the seabed, hoovering up any edible particles there might be in the sediment.
一共好几百万只在海床上行进，找寻还可以吃的剩余物质。
They come in all sorts of shapes and sizes
这些动物有各种千奇百怪的形状大小，
and though they are very thinly spread the deep ocean floor is so vast that these are among the most numerous animals on the planet.
虽然它们看似松散地分布在海床上，但是深海的海床实在太广大，它们的总数量还是世界之最。
Their spikes are good for locomotion and defence, but perhaps not quite so good when it comes to mating.
它们身上的刺适合用来移动及防御，但是在交配时则显得碍事。
Finding a mate in this largely empty sea floor could be a problem, so some urchins stay together in herds to be sure that they're never too far from a potential partner.
在这片广大荒凉的海床上寻找伴侣是一件麻烦事，所以有些海胆都群居在一起，才不会离可以交配的同类太远。
Rocky outcrops provide good anchorage for animals that rely on food that might drift past.
崎岖的露头刚好让一些等待食物飘过的动物攀住固定。
These crinoids, or sea lilies, look like plants, but are in fact animals.
这些是海百合，长得像植物，但其实是动物。
Their long stalks ensure that their umbrella of feeding tentacles are positioned to best effect in the current.
长长的茎让伞状的进食触手可以在海流找到最有利的位置。
Particles are swept onto the arms and carried down to a mouth in the middle of the umbrella.
微小物质被扫到这些触手上带到伞状构造中央的口部。
These sudden movements swat away tiny amphipods that try to steal the sea lily's captures.
这些突然的动作可将一些想来抢食的排骨虾驱离。
Coral reefs are not supposed to exist in total darkness, but recently a new kind of coral was found as deep as two thousand metres.
珊瑚礁应该是不可能在一片黑暗中存在，但最近有人在两千公尺深海发现一种新品种的珊瑚。
In the cold waters of a Norwegian Fjord, there was a deep sea reef thirty metres high and two hundred metres long.
在冰冷的挪威海湾，有种高30公尺、长200公尺的珊瑚。
This coral gets no energy from the sun, so it has to be very efficient in catching food.
这种珊瑚的能量不是来自阳光，所以必须很有效地捕捉猎物。
Its polyps are far larger than those of shallow water corals.
所以它的水螅体比浅水域的珊瑚要长得多。
These are, in fact, the largest coral polyps in the ocean. They belong to the deep sea mushroom coral.
这是世界上最长的水螅体。属于深海蕈珊瑚的水螅体。
Their three centimetre long tentacles can catch far larger prey than other corals can.
它的触手有三公分长，可以抓到比较大的猎物。
