浮游生物具有巨大的食物潛能

Scattered through the seas of the world are billions of tons of small plants and animals called plankton. Most of these plants and animals are too small for the human eye to see. They drift about lazily with the currents, providing a basic food for many larger animals.
浮游生物數(shù)十億噸的被稱(chēng)為"浮游生物"的小動(dòng)物、植物散布在世界的海洋中。這些小的動(dòng)、植物大多太小而難以被人眼看到。它們隨波逐流，為許多較大的動(dòng)物提供了基本的食物。

Plankton has been described as the equivalent of the grasses that grow on the dry land continents, and the comparison is an appropriate one. In potential food value, however, plankton far outweighs that of the land grasses. One scientist has estimated that while grasses of the world produce about 49 billion tons of valuable carbohydrates each year, the sea’s plankton generates more than twice as much.
浮游生物曾被描述為生長(zhǎng)在大陸陸地上的各種草類(lèi)的海洋對(duì)應(yīng)物。這種比喻是恰當(dāng)?shù)?。然而就潛在的食物價(jià)值而言，浮游生物遠(yuǎn)勝于草類(lèi)。一位科學(xué)家曾經(jīng)估計(jì)，世界上的草類(lèi)每年生產(chǎn)大約490億噸有用的碳水化合物，而海洋里的浮游生物每年生產(chǎn)的碳水化合物多于此數(shù)的兩倍。

Despite its enormous food potential, little effect was made until recently to farm plankton as we farm grasses on land. Now marine scientists have at last begun to study this possibility, especially as the sea’s resources loom even more important as a means of feeding an expanding world population.
盡管浮游生物具備巨大的食物潛能，但直到最近人們還很少象種植草類(lèi)那樣付出努力養(yǎng)殖浮游生物。現(xiàn)在，海洋科學(xué)家們至少已開(kāi)始研究這種可能性。全球人口不斷擴(kuò)張，海洋資源作為食品的重要性日益突出。

No one yet has seriously suggested that “ plankton-burgers” may soon become popular around the world. As a possible farmed supplementary food source, however, plankton is gaining considerable interest among marine scientists.
現(xiàn)在還沒(méi)有人認(rèn)真說(shuō)過(guò)"浮游生物漢堡"會(huì)很快在世界上流行起來(lái)。然而，作為一種可能養(yǎng)殖的補(bǔ)充性食物資源，浮游生物正引起了海洋科學(xué)家們相當(dāng)大的興趣。

One type of plankton that seems to have great harvest possibilities is a tiny shrimp-like creature called krill. Growing to two or three inches long, krill provides the major food for the great blue whale, the largest animal to ever inhabit the Earth. Realizing that this whale may grow to 100 feet and weigh 150 tons at maturity, it is not surprising that each one devours more than one ton of krill daily.
一種似乎具有很大收獲可能性的微小的蝦狀浮游生物被稱(chēng)為鱗蝦。鱗蝦長(zhǎng)至2～3英寸長(zhǎng)時(shí)即成為地球上曾居住過(guò)的最大動(dòng)物--藍(lán)鯨的主要食物。成熟的藍(lán)鯨可以達(dá)到100英尺長(zhǎng)，150噸重，所以每頭鯨每天吞食1噸多的鱗蝦一點(diǎn)也不讓人吃驚。