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Monday, October 17, 2011

My Town Monday: Glow-In-The-Dark Waves in San Diego, CA

Here's what our ocean looks like during the day...

Red Tide in San Diego (photo credit: Gary Robbins, Union-Tribune)


And here's what it looks like at night...

Bioluminescent waves (photo credit: Brian Witkin, google images)

Phytoplankton, an algae that blooms late in the summer, is lighting up our beaches thanks to a scientific phenomenon called bioluminescence. When these tiny creatures are jostled, a chemical reaction occurs at the cellular level, and, wow, a blue light flashes.


So, when a wave breaks, billions of these single-cell organisms emit blue flashes. It's kind of like a wave of fireflies. Of course, there are lots of fun ways to light up the night: run along the beach, stir the water with your foot, surf, throw water from a bucket, etc. I've even heard you can fill a bottle with sea water and flush it down your toilet.

How long will the red tide be with us? No one knows for sure. It arrived at the end of September and may suddenly leave if the weather changes and blows it out or if a bunch of salp, a small jellylike creature, drift in and eat them up or if... Then again, the red tide might stick around for a while.

But, at least for the moment, we have glow-in-the-dark waves in San Deigo!

I'm this week's hostess. If you throw up a My Town Monday post, let me know here or on the official My Town Monday blog, and I'l link to you on both.

Below are links to some interesting My-Town-Monday posts by other bloggers:

Debra of From Skilled Hands has proof of great beauty in her small Village of Peninsula, Ohio

Jeannette Marie Powell has a haunting post on Frankenstein's Tower in Dayton, Ohio. Ooooh...


Enjoy your Monday!



sources:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/sep/27/red-tide-causing-stunning-bioluminescence-san-dieg/?sciquest
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/red-tide-glows-blue-along-the-san-diego-coast-photo/2011/09/30/gIQAFGXr9K_blog.
htmlhttp://www.nctimes.com/news/local/article_27326fb7-8916-55b4-8633-829a61dc69fe.html

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Posted by Barrie

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21 comments:

  1. BethOctober 17, 2011 at 4:10 AM

    That second picture is beautiful. But doesn’t a red tide cause coughing? On one of only two trips to Florida, our entire family spent the vacation coughing. We were told it was due to the red tide. Within minutes of leaving the island, the coughing stopped.

    (great vacation, huh?)

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  2. debraOctober 17, 2011 at 6:23 AM

    I've read about the bioluminescence. Must be pretty strange to see.
    And my post is up, too. It's October in my Valley

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  3. SarakasticOctober 17, 2011 at 8:28 AM

    I had no idea the ocean could do that. Good job ocean!

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  4. AnonymousOctober 17, 2011 at 8:42 AM

    That is SO COOL!

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  5. BarrieOctober 17, 2011 at 8:49 AM

    Beth: Hmmm.....I'm not sure. Is it possible the red tide you experienced was caused by a different algae? We do also call it a toxic red tide, but more in terms of being deadly for certain fish. People here definitely swim, surf, play in the red tide. I have read some accounts where being in the water was referred to as "uncomfortable," but mostly I've heard/read (from biologists, laymen) that there is no effect on humans. Interesting, interesting.

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  6. BarrieOctober 17, 2011 at 8:49 AM

    Debra: Thanks! I'll get your link up!

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  7. BarrieOctober 17, 2011 at 8:50 AM

    Green Girl: Very cool. :)

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  8. BarrieOctober 17, 2011 at 9:07 AM

    Sarakastic: I will pass along your kudos. :)

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  9. AbaGaylebOctober 17, 2011 at 9:29 AM

    Wow, that's beautiful.
    I lived in Georgia, about an hour away from Savanna,where there was Tybee Island, a beach my family LOVED to go to.I've never seen it at night before, but during the day, it was amazing (:
    I love beaches :D

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  10. BarrieOctober 17, 2011 at 9:32 AM

    AbaGayle: I love beaches too. I wish I lived within walking distance. As it is, I'm about 19 miles away.

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  11. Charles GramlichOctober 17, 2011 at 12:35 PM

    bioluminescence is just cool. Would love to be at sea in a ship when it was happening.

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  12. AbaGaylebOctober 17, 2011 at 1:04 PM

    Wow.
    We're, now, about 6 hours away from the ocean where some of the oil spill was.My siblings went there for a Church thing, and they said it looked terrible ):

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  13. BarrieOctober 17, 2011 at 1:38 PM

    Charles: Boating during the red tide would be neat. Hey, how about kayaking?!

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  14. BarrieOctober 17, 2011 at 1:39 PM

    AbaGayle: So sad.

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  15. Jennette Marie PowellOctober 17, 2011 at 6:27 PM

    Whoa, that's something! It sure didn't look like that when DH & I honeymooned in Carlsbad, 17 years ago. Way cool! (I think? LOL)

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  16. BarrieOctober 17, 2011 at 10:40 PM

    Aww, Jeannette, you were in Carlsbad 17 years ago? We were both here at the same time! And we may not have been experiencing a red tide when you were here. This year is an incredible bloom.

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  17. laughingwolfOctober 17, 2011 at 11:51 PM

    rats, that's not good!'

    before i moved back to the niagara area first of july, back in the maritimes they banned all shellfish harvesting/consumption every time the red tide hit... costly all round :(

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  18. BarrieOctober 17, 2011 at 11:54 PM

    Laughingwolf: They banned shellfish harvesting/consumption due to the toxicity during the red tide? And....you're up late. Hmmm...or else really, really early. ;)

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  19. Sarah LaurenceOctober 18, 2011 at 3:49 PM

    Very cool to look at but unfortunate. At least in Maine, a red tide means you can't eat the seafood.

    I was very pleased to hear about the blue whales return in your post below! They had a life size model hanging in the Museum of Natural History that impressed me as a child. I wonder if the algae will make them glow too. That would be quite a sight.

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  20. Travis ErwinOctober 19, 2011 at 10:58 AM

    Interesting. Wonder how this affects fishing.

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  21. Gabriele GoldstoneOctober 20, 2011 at 5:09 AM

    That is amazing. San Diego gets everything. Here, we get gorgeous looking blue-green algae on Lake Winnipeg that's toxic to people and animals.

    Can't wait to read how this wave-magic ends up in one of your books. Nature vs. human technology - nature wins again!

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