Jelly fish, Red Tide, Bioluminescence

February 21st red tide arrived at Miramar Beach in Fort Walton Florida. We were able to see it on the ocean and originally thought it was an oil slick. When it made it to shore the curls and foam were almost blood red at times and for as far as the eye could see in both directions of the beach. It arrived about 2:00 in the afternoon and continued until the sun went down. That evening about 10:00pm my husband went onto our deck and the waves were illuminated with florescent blues and greens and what appeared to be bright white. It was like watching the aurora borealis in the ocean. The waves that broke offshore were luminescent also.

We arrived at the beginning of February and friends of ours were staying at Panama City Beach. The told us they saw jelly fish on the beach everyday. We had not seen a jelly fish until last week when we saw our first. Today February 26th we counted at least ten. One was huge by comparison to most and three or four had the red stripes making them look like sand dollars. The big one was just a solid colorless mass.