纪录片《南太平洋》 第41期 四海为家（09）

The open ocean beyond their shallow reef is, in fact, a huge barrier.

开阔海域的浅礁如同一个巨型栅栏

So how did all these fish come to be here?

那么鱼儿们是如何来到这里的?

Colonising new reefs is a challenge faced by fish across the South Pacific,

对于穿越南太平洋的鱼类而言，开拓新领地是一种挑战

but they have a simple solution.

然而它们有简单的解决方法

Once a year, thousands of groupers gather on the reefs.

每年上千条石斑鱼都会在暗礁上聚会一次

With the coming of the full moon, an extraordinary event unfolds. They spawn¹.

满月时，一种奇异的景象发生了。石斑鱼开始产卵

A female darts² up and releases millions of eggs,

雌鱼释放出数百万颗卵

quickly followed by the males, who jostle to fertilise them.

雄鱼快速跟进，竞相给鱼卵授精

But starting new life can end in death.

然而新生命刚一开始就可能马上面对死亡

Grey reef sharks. Groupers are normally too quick for sharks...

它们是灰礁鲨。通常石斑鱼的速度要比鲨鱼快得多

but a distracted grouper is shark bait.

但一条慌乱的石斑鱼很容易成为鲨鱼的美餐。

1 spawn   

n.卵，产物，后代，结果；vt.产卵，种菌丝于，产生，造成；vi.产卵，大量生产

参考例句：

• The fish were madly pushing their way upstream to spawn.鱼群为产卵而疯狂地向上游挤进。
• These fish will lay spawn in about one month from now.这些鱼大约一个月内会产卵。

2 darts   

n.掷飞镖游戏；飞镖( dart的名词复数 )；急驰，飞奔v.投掷，投射( dart的第三人称单数 )；向前冲，飞奔

参考例句：

• His darts trophy takes pride of place on the mantelpiece. 他将掷镖奖杯放在壁炉顶上最显著的地方。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I never saw so many darts in a bodice! 我从没见过紧身胸衣上纳了这么多的缝褶！ 来自《简明英汉词典》