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Jan 20, 2014: Bioluminescence captured on Maldives Islands beach
| While vacationing on the Maldives Islands, Taiwanese photographer Will Ho stumbled onto an incredible stretch of beach covered in millions of bioluminescent phytoplankton. These tiny organisms glow similarly to fireflies and tend to emit light when stressed, such as when waves crash or when they are otherwise agitated. While the phenomenon and its chemical mechanisms have been known for some time, biologists have only recently began to understand the reasons behind it. You can see a few more of Ho’s photographs over on Flickr. |
glatt Monday Jan 20 05:42 PM
This is like the tropical version of the northern lights.
I've never seen the glowing plankton in person, but I would absolutely love to. I should maybe research it. If there was a way to guarantee seeing it, it would be on my bucket list. And I don't even have a bucket list.
Molasar Monday Jan 20 06:11 PM
best way to guarantee it is buy a bucketful then kick it about to stress them into lighting up
otherwise you could go poncing about the Maldives for weeks only to find that the critters have sodded off the Seychelles or something.
fargon Monday Jan 20 06:14 PM
You see that all the time at sea, in the wake of the ship except it is light green, and very bright.
lumberjim Monday Jan 20 06:18 PM
I wish we'd had taken the time to go see that stuff when we were in PR. They supposedly have 3 of the 5 places in the world where that crops up regularly.
xoxoxoBruce Monday Jan 20 11:50 PM
I can't imagine what it cost the Maldives Tourist Bureau for all those LEDs. Maybe they're rented . 
Bloke Tuesday Jan 21 01:28 AM
I've been to the Maldives three times now and have seen this a few times. The most impressive sight is in the wash of a boat but you can also get a really nice effect by splashing through the waters edge on a night walk. There's next to no light whatsoever round much of the island so it's really bright.
SPUCK Tuesday Jan 21 07:18 AM
I saw it at Sunset Beach by Santa Cruz once. We were playing on the beach and it started all at once. The waves were about 3 feet high and when they broke the lit up like neon light. Very bright bluish color. It was really spectacular. The waves would rise, start to break and a huge flash that ripped down the beach with the wave as it broke at an angle.
footfootfoot Tuesday Jan 21 07:46 AM
When I was sailing to Alaska, dolphins (or possibly sharks) would race alongside our boat, cutting back and forth across our bow. At night you could see bright green "contrails" in their wake.
One of the coolest things evar.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
infinite monkey Tuesday Jan 21 08:46 AM
When we did the night dive portion of advanced scuba training, we waved our hands around and made light shows with the biolum...biolumn...the lighty uppy sea stuff.
Gravdigr Tuesday Jan 21 05:16 PM
The most interesting thing I've ever seen at the beach was a large floating, bobbing turd in Panama City, FL.
SPUCK Wednesday Jan 22 07:41 AM
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Originally Posted by Gravdigr
The most interesting thing I've ever seen at the beach was a large floating, bobbing turd in Panama City, FL.
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footfootfoot Wednesday Jan 22 12:13 PM
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Originally Posted by infinite monkey
When we did the night dive portion of advanced scuba training, we waved our hands around and made light shows with the biolum...biolumn...the lighty uppy sea stuff.
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Uppity Lighty!
"Once you start using slippery slope arguments, the next thing you know you're employing straw men and red herrings. It's a slippery slope." Jim Helm
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