Sparkling seas explained

[Judi Lynn]

Julie Head IMAGE CREDIT: Sea sparkle in Tasmania
Sparkling seas explained
BY JOHN PICKRELL | NOVEMBER 9, 2018

A sinister truth lies behind the rise of beautiful night-time blooms of bioluminescent plankton.


IT’S A phenomenon that’s become so popular to see and photograph it has its own Facebook group – Bioluminescence Australia – with about 9000 members.

This forum allows users to alert others to sightings of bioluminescent plankton blooms, and swap spectacular images, videos and stories of their experiences.

Through this group in August, photographer and amateur astronomer David Finlay was first alerted to a remarkable bloom along the beaches of Vincentia, Jervis Bay, on the New South Wales south coast (at right).

Sixty people gathered that evening to see planktonic organism Noctiluca scintillans glowing by the bucketful along the tideline.

The lightshow grew brighter and lasted 4–5 hours as the tide came in. “It was hard to believe,” David told ABC Radio. His captivating images were subsequently splashed across the Australian media.

More:
https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/science-environment/2018/11/sparkling-seas-explained/

More:
https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/science-environment/2018/11/sparkling-seas-explained/

[burrowowl]

1. Wow!

Thanks!

[Judi Lynn]

2. It's good to read about what appears to be impossible from a distance!

If I were to stumble across a manifestation like that without warning, I believe I might simply collapse and never return! Too totally unfamiliar to absorb suddenly! What a shock. Amazingly beautiful at night.

[Nitram]

3. My family used to swim among bioluminescent plankton in 1966 in Florida.

I've swum among bioluminescent plankton in the Philippines and Thailand at night. It's nothing new and it has always been a natural phenomenon world-wide in warm seas.

[RainCaster]

5. Our family has sailed in biolumes for decades.

We have been 8n plenty of this, at anchor and sailing. It's beautiful. San Juan Islands.

[SergeStorms]

4. Another harbinger of ocean destruction.

"Agricultural runoff and global warming" rear their ugly heads once again. Between global warming, chemical pollution, over-fishing, and plastics our oceans are taking the worst humans can throw at them, for now. They can't survive forever under stress like this.