Return From Puerto Rico

Sorry for my blogging absence – I was traveling around Puerto Rico, a naturalist’s heaven!

The most memorable experience was swimming in a bioluminescent bay off the eastern island of Veiques. I scoured YouTube for a good video of bioluminescence, the best I could find is this one of glowing waves filmed in Australia:

The microscopic dinoflagellates produce the glow when disturbed as a defense mechanism. The sudden glow is thought to startle the hunting zooplankton and perhaps alert larger hungry predators to the zooplakton’s presence.

The glow is created by a chemical reaction which produces blue-green light and no heat so it doesn’t cook the little buggers – just like lightening bugs. 

As we kayaked out to the middle of the bay in the pitch dark, each paddle dip stirred up an electrifying glow. We could draw in the water with our fingers like Picasso did with a flashlight and a long camera exposure. Very surreal!