Have you ever seen a field full of flickering fireflies? What about a video of glowing jellyfish in the deep sea? These animals aren't the only glow-in-the dark creatures on Earth. The most common ones are much smaller, phytoplankton.
Electric blue sea in the Maldives
Bio-luminescent plankton don't glow in the dark all the time. It takes energy to make the chemicals that mix together and produce a glow. One example of bio-luminescent algae is a dinoflagellate called Noctiluca, or Sea Sparkle. They are so small that thousands can fit into a single drop of water.
In some places such as the Caribbean, Sea Sparkle are so abundant that the water sparkles neon blue at night when you run your hand through it.
The dinoflagellate bloom every few years, forming what is known as a red tide. While the algae gives the water a soupy red coluor during the day, night time is when the show begins. Every time the algae is jostled — either by the movement of the tides or the slice of a kayak moving through the water — it emits a bright blue bio-luminescent glow.
Waves in San Diego
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