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第一段
1 .I’ve been looking at ocean biodiversity, that’s the diversity of species that live in the world’s oceans.
我一直在关注海洋生物多样性，就是全球海洋中的物种多样性。
2 .About 20 years ago biologists developed the idea of what they called ‘biodiversity hotspots’.
大约在20年前，生物学家提出这一概念，他们称之为“生物多样性热点”。
3 .These are the areas which have the greatest mixture of species, so one example is Madagascar.
它指代那些拥有最多样化生物的地区，其中一个地区就是马达加斯加岛。
4 .These hotspots are significant because they allow us to locate key areas for focusing efforts at conservation.
这些热点地区非常重要，它们让我们可以集中观察重点区域的保护效果。
5 .Biologists can identify hotspots on land, fairly easily,but until recently, very little was known about species distribution and diversity in the oceans,and no one even knew if hotspots existed there.
生物学家可以轻松鉴定出陆地上的热点地区，但是直到最近都很少有人了解海洋中的物种分布和多样性。甚至没人知道海洋中是否有热点区域存在。
6 .Then a Canadian biologist called Boris Worm did some research in 2005 on data on ocean species that he got from the fishing industry.
一名叫鲍里斯•沃尔姆的加拿大生物学家在2005年根据他从渔业拿到的海洋物种的数据做了一些研究。
7 .Worm located five hotspots for large ocean predators like sharks, and looked at what they had in common.
沃尔姆为大型海洋食肉动物（比如鲨鱼）定位出五个热点，而且它们有相同之处。
8 .The main thing he’d expected to find was that they had very high concentrations of food,but to his surprise that was only true for four of the hotspots - the remaining hotspot was quite badly off in that regard.
他本想在研究成果中表明它们这几个热点的食物产量都非常丰富，但是出乎意料得是只有四个热点是这样的，剩下的那个热点情况很糟。
9 .But what he did find was that in all cases, the water at the surface of the ocean had relatively high temperatures,even when it was cool at greater depths, so this seemed to be a factor in supporting a diverse range of these large predators.
但他发现，所有案例中，海洋表面水层温度也相对偏高，即使深层温度很低，这可能是大型食肉动物多样化的因素之一。
10 .However, this wasn’t enough on its own, because he also found that the water needed to have enough oxygen in it -so these two factors seemed necessary to support the high metabolic rate of these large fish.
然而，还不仅仅是这些，他还发现海水中需含有足够的氧。所以这两个因素似乎是大型鱼类的高代谢率的原因。
11 .A couple of years later, in 2007, a researcher called Lisa Ballance, who was working in California,also started looking for ocean hotspots, but not for fish what she was interested in was marine mammals, things like seals.
几年后，在2007年，一位在加利福尼亚工作的叫丽萨•巴兰斯的研究员也关注到了海洋热点，但不是针对鱼类，她着眼于海洋哺乳类，比如海豹。
12 .And she found three places in the oceans which were hotspots,and what these had in common was that these hotspots were all located at boundaries between ocean currents,and this seems to be the sort of place that has lots of the plankton that some of these species feed on.
她发现三个海洋热点，它们之间的相同点是都在洋流边界，这里有很多可被其他生物捕食的浮游生物。
13 .So now people who want to protect the species that are endangered need to get as much information as possible.
现在那些想要保护这些濒临物种的人们需要了解尽可能多的信息。
14 .For example, there’s an international project called the Census of Marine Life.
比如，有个国际项目叫国际海洋生物普查计划。
15 .They’ve been surveying oceans all over the world, including the Arctic.
项目参与者致力于考察包括北极圈在内的全球海洋。
16 .One thing they found there which stunned other researchers was that there were large numbers of species which live below the ice sometimes under a layer up to 20 metres thick.
令人震惊都是，研究员发现大量生物存活在冰层下，有的生存在20米厚的冰层下。
17 .Some of these species had never been seen before.
有些生物从未被人类发现过。
18 .They’ve even found species of octopus living in these conditions.
他们甚至发现有些章鱼还生存在此。
19 .And other scientists working on the same project, but researching very different habitats on the ocean floor,have found large numbers of species congregating around volcanoes, attracted to them by the warmth and nutrients there.
在这个项目里的其他科学家在研究海底不同栖息地时发现，大量生物聚集在火山附近，因为那里温暖且有大量营养元素。
第二段
1 .However, biologists still don’t know how serious the threat to their survival is for each individual species.
然而，生物学家并不能知道生存威胁对于每个单独物种有多大。
2 .So a body called the Global Marine Species Assessment is now creating a list of endangered species on land,so they consider things like the size of the population how many members of one species there are in a particular place - and then they look at their distribution in geographical terms,
现在有个叫全球海洋物种评估的团体正在建立陆地濒临灭绝的物种名单，他们正在研究这些生物族群的大小在特定区域单一物种的数量，然后他们研究这些物种在地理上的分布，
3 .although this is quite difficult when you’re looking at fish, because they’re so mobile,and then thirdly they calculate the rate at which the decline of the species is happening.
这很困难，因为这些鱼类一直在移动，最后他们会计算出这些物种的递减率。
4 .So far only 1,500 species have been assessed, but they want to increase this figure to 20,000.
目前，只有1,500种被他们评估，他们想将数字增加到20,000。
5 .For each one they assess, they use the data they collect on that species to produce a map showing its distribution.
他们在评估每一个物种时会运用他们收集的数据来建立一个地图显示它在全球的分布情况。
6 .Ultimately they will be able to use these to figure out not only where most species are located but also where they are most threatened.
最终，他们会利用这些数字显示出大多数物种的分布，以及受危险最严重的区域。
7 .So finally，what can be done to retain the diversity of species in the world’s oceans?
那么最后一点，如何做可以保护全球海洋物种的多样性呢？
8 .Firstly, we need to set up more reserves in our oceans, places where marine species are protected.
首先，我们需要建立更多的海洋储备，将海洋物种保护起来。
9 .We have some, but not enough.
我们虽然已经这么做了，但是那还远远不够。
10 .In addition, to preserve species such as leatherback turtles, which live out in the high seas but have their nesting sites on the American coast,we need to create corridors for migration, so they can get from one area to another safely.
此外，我们还要保护像棱皮龟这类生活在深海但是会到美洲海岸产卵的物种。我们需要为它们建立一个迁移通道，让它们可以安全往返。
11 .As well as this, action needs to be taken to lower the levels of fishing quotas to prevent overfishing of endangered species.
另外，我们还要降低捕鱼频率以保护因为过度捕捞而濒临灭绝的物种。
12 .And finally, there’s the problem of "by-catch".
最后，还要解决“附带捕捞”的问题。
13 .This refers to the catching of unwanted fish by fishing boats - they’re returned to the sea, but they’re often dead or dying.
这是指在渔民捕捞的时候会捕捉到一些本不会捕捞的鱼类。然后他们会将这些鱼类放回大海，但是它们通常最后都会死亡。
14 .If these commercial fishing boats used equipment which was more selective, so that only the fish wanted for consumption were caught,this problem could be overcome.
如果这些商业渔船运用一些可选择性捕捞的设备，那么他们就会只捕捞预期捕捞的鱼类，这样就不会存在附带捕捞的问题了。
15 .OK, So does anyone have any ...
好了，现在是否有人……