This is Why Waves Glow | Bioluminescence | Wild to Know

[Music] these waves glowing mysteriously on an august summer night are just off the coast of monterey bay in california it's a phenomenon you might even have seen yourself an ocean lit up at night with countless tiny flashes but what causes this striking phenomenon where does the light come from [Music] bioluminescence is produced by an incredible range of organisms some bioluminescent organisms like fungi are found on land but most of them live in the ocean [Music] for bioluminescence creatures require two unique chemicals and here's how it works the enzyme luciferase causes a chemical reaction luciferin molecules react with oxygen to absorb energy and finally release it as light although different forms of luciferin can produce different colors of light marine organisms emit blue light this might be because blue light can travel the farthest while water absorbs other colors more quickly throughout history stories of bioluminescence were often thought to be pure fiction and seafarers have been telling each other magical tales ever since but in 1995 the captain of a british vessel wrote a real life account in his ship's log at 1800 hours on a clear moonless night 150 miles east of somalia coast a whitish glow was observed on the horizon and after 15 minutes of steaming the ship was completely surrounded by a sea of milky white color with a fairly uniform luminescence reports like this are pretty rare and there was no photographic evidence some scientists including marine biologist stephen haddock were curious and sought confirmation from above we wondered if you could find one of these ship reports where they they record sailing through one of these milky seas and actually find the corresponding satellite data that cover that area at that same time so we looked at this satellite from the ship report in 1995 and it was somewhat of a eureka moment we we cleaned up the noisy sensor image from the camera we mapped it onto the ship track and this 300 kilometer feature emerged on the map matching exactly with what the ship had reported so it was really an amazing moment and so satellite images from space did validate the story in the ship's log but what was causing a glow so bright it could be seen from space there are many different bioluminescent marine organisms found throughout the ocean one of them can even be found at the back of an ordinary fridge left for a couple of days this sea bream starts to glow the fish itself doesn't have any light producing abilities the glow is in fact produced by the bacteria found in almost all sea water when they start to feed on decaying fish when currents and temperatures cause a large bloom of algae in the ocean these bacteria also feed on dying algae once they reach a critical concentration their secretions trigger light in others too eventually they glow in such numbers that they can be detected by a satellite in orbit bacteria might have been the very first living things to glow but they aren't the only reason why the sea lights up if you put a drop of ordinary seawater under the microscope you can see it's full of tiny organisms invisible to the naked eye these are dinoflagellates dinoflagellates are one of the biggest single-celled organisms known to man they're neither bacterium nor plant nor animal but they do share some characteristics with both plants and animals ninety 90 of all dinoflagellates are marine plankton and when conditions are right in the sea they bloom in enormous numbers left alone dinoflagellates won't produce much light but if something like an ocean wave a current or a human disturbs them they will flash brightly this phenomenon was visible in august in monterey bay where the waves off the coast glowed blue according to the monterey bay aquarium a mass bloom of dinoflagellates caused this bright light the event occurs every few years along the coast of southern california but locals say this year's sea sparkle is especially vibrant possibly related to the historic rains that soaked the region and generated algae bloom bioluminescent tides like this are rare but dinoflagellates are found in huge numbers all over the world they're among the most widespread of all bioluminescent life wherever they exist these single-celled creatures illuminate anything that moves like these bow riding dolphins the chemical reaction that emits light requires a lot of energy so there needs to be a benefit to the organism that makes it worth their while if you're a single-celled organism like a dinoflagellate you're at the bottom of the food chain so avoiding getting eaten involves hard work every day scientists think that bioluminescence could be a defense mechanism to help them escape predators imagine a shrimp comes along and starts feeding on dinoflagellates by filtering them out of the water the shrimp will be illuminated as it feeds this could attract the attention of predators which might in turn feed on the shrimp just as a flashing burglar alarm alerts police to a thief the dinoflagellates expose their attacker to its enemies [Music] in this case a cuttlefish catches the shrimp and the dinoflagellates don't need to be afraid anymore there are many other bioluminescent organisms besides bacteria and algae so stay tuned for our next bioluminescence episode there's a lot more to come

Channel: Terra Mater

Views: 86,589

Keywords: bioluminescent, waves, California, ocean, cool, weird, marine, biology, plankton, animals, glowing, blue, alien, beach, scripps, institution, of, oceanography, dinoflagellate, algal, blooms, red, tides, bioluminescence, bioluminescent waves, terramater, terramatters, monterey bay aquarium, science, ocean science, weird and or wonderful world, weird and, glowing ocean, marine mammals, squid, atolla

Id: KX5YRXTNWIE

Length: 6min 39sec (399 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 11 2020