Last night was really, really hot. I'm usually hot, but last night for some reason I could not cool off at all. So after a while of being uncomfortable I announced to Lee that I thought it would be a good idea to walk down to the beach for a late night swim.... late night being like 8oclock ( it felt late b/c it had already been dark for 2 hours!) after a few minutes of convincing.... it's a short walk & how many times in our lives are we going to live within walking distance to the ocean... Lee agreed.
Well it was dark, really dark and kind of scary to just jump in the ocean without being able to see what is beneath you. But it felt soooo refreshing!!
As soon as we were walking in the water Lee said he saw something & I just assumed it was the reflection of the moon or something... but soon we noticed that every time we moved the water was lighting up with hundreds of tiny blue lights!! It was incredible! We just sat there clapping our hands and wiggling our fingers watching these things light up.
It was funny because we had seen these things on an episode of "I Shouldn't be Alive" one of Lee and I's favorite shows on the Discovery Channel. There was a story about some people being left from their scuba diving expedition and were stuck out in the middle of the ocean in shark infested water! They wanted to swim at night because it wasn't as hot but when they started swimming they noticed the water was lighting up & it was attracting sharks!
So Lee and I had an idea of what they were, but couldn't remember what they were called, so it was instantly googled when we got home.
They're called bioluminescence dinoflagellates... or as I like to call them underwater fireflies.
They are tiny plants that live in the ocean and obtain energy from the sunlight during the day & at night they emit bright blue light in response to movement in the water. cool huh?
Here's a picture I found on google
Here's a picture I found on google
4 comments:
That is so cool!!! Now I want to go swimming at night! So was it the LAE beach? I saw you tagged Aquarium Beach?
I would love to see the ocean light up like that! I wonder if its everywhere? How deep was the water?
Where did you get your new signiture of your name? Its cute!
This is awesome just like you said!
I went sea kayaking several years ago at night in the Carribean and had a similar experience. Sort of freaked me out and was awesome all at the same time.
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