Mornington, Victoria Australia

Description and Comments

I walked along the beach this morning at 5.45am. It was dark, no wind, and there appeared to be a sea fog over the water.

The wavelets seemed to have a fluorescence as they reached the beach. It was low tide.

My footsteps in the sand caused a momentary glow at each step.

I thought it was my iPod but after checking, it was definitely within the sand, each footstep caused the ground to glow.

My wife, later in the morning, noticed patches of red stain within the water, which she thought were was oily pollution.

No jellyfish, but what was it?

Brendan Hoban

Author

Jellywatcher (not verified)

Type of organism

Red Tide
Biofluroescence

Quantity

1

Latitude

-38.21

Longitude

145.05

Comments

jellywatch Thu, 07/22/2010 - 17:12

Hi Brendan -- This sounds like a classic bloom of bioluminescent dinoflagellates, sometimes seen as a red tide due to their pigmentation. Watch when you step on the sand in the day, and you'll probably see a dry-looking patch emanate from around your foot. This mechanical disturbance is enough to stimulate the flash response of these single-celled organisms.