澳大利亚的海洋科学家日前表示，在这个星期内，墨尔本的菲利浦港湾涌来了密密麻麻大约5万只蜘蛛蟹（spider crab）。这些家伙聚集在一起，霸占了差不多一个足球场那么大的海底，它们怪异行为还吓跑这一地区的其它海洋生物。
　　A 50,000-strong swarm of spider crabs gathered off a Melbourne beach this week, covering a stretch of seafloor the size of a football field and likely "scaring the hell" out of local fish, marine scientists said.
　　
　　澳大利亚的海洋科学家日前表示，在这个星期内，墨尔本的菲利浦港湾涌来了密密麻麻大约5万只蜘蛛蟹（spider crab）。这些家伙聚集在一起，霸占了差不多一个足球场那么大的海底，它们怪异行为还吓跑这一地区的其它海洋生物。
　　
　　据法新社5月26日报道，墨尔本维多利亚博物馆的科学家马克·诺曼和朱力安·费恩表示，他们已经把这些蜘蛛蟹如此大规模的聚集活动拍了下来。在一些地方，这些蜘蛛蟹层层叠叠的居然有大约1米高（3.3英尺）。
　　
　　诺曼表示，目前人们对这些蜘蛛蟹怪异行为的原因还不得而知，但是这可能和它们繁殖期的到来有关系。
　　
　　报道说，通常人们都是在墨尔本的菲利浦港湾和巴斯海峡看到蜘蛛蟹以小规模的群体出现，但是很少有人能看到蜘蛛蟹如此大规模地“入侵”。
　　
　　（国际在线独家资讯 王高山）
　　
　　本稿件为国际在线专稿，媒体转载请注明稿件来源和译者姓名。
　　
　　A 50,000-strong swarm of spider crabs gathered off a Melbourne beach this week, covering a stretch of seafloor the size of a football field and likely "scaring the hell" out of local fish, marine scientists said.
　　
　　Museum Victoria scientists Mark Norman and Julian Finn said they filmed the mass gathering, which was up to a meter (3.3 feet) deep in places, with crabs piled 10 high.
　　
　　Spider crabs are about 20 centimeters (nine inches) long with legs extending up to 40 centimeters.
　　
　　Norman told The Age newspaper on Thursday the reason for the mass swarming was unknown, but it was likely related to breeding.
　　
　　The crabs are normally found in small groups in Melbourne‘s Port Phillip Bay and the Bass Strait, but few people have encountered an invasion of this scale, he said.
　　
　　"We got some earlier warning from divers that they were here en masse, but we had no idea it was going to be so big," he said.
　　
　　"It was like something out of a science-fiction movie... as far as you could see there were crabs," he said, adding that the crustaceans were "scaring the hell out of local fish".
　　
　　The swarm began gathering early this week but by Thursday was thinning out, he said.
　　
　　"This has been observed elsewhere in the world, like the Mediterranean ... it‘s not a rare event, but it‘s rare that you encounter it."
　　
　　Norman would not say exactly where the swarm was located, only that it was in four meters of water off a beach in Melbourne‘s Port Phillip Bay.

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