Well well well. Phytoplankton, anyone? That means light plankton if I was going to be literal. Yups, what we have here are bioluminescent plankton! (Picture credits: Andy Hutchinson) Was searching up things to do in Sydney and around NSW and ta-daaaaaa! Found a photo of these glowing microorganisms at Jervis Bay, NSW, Australia. They looked so amazing and the last time I came across this phenomenon on the web, they said you could only find them in the Maldives - which was out of budget. :( So you can imagine how delighted I was to find that I could possibly spot them in Australia, only 2.5 hrs away from Sydney!
Sadly, digging deeper, it is said that it is hard to spot these glowing delight because they are erratic and just the right conditions must be fulfilled for us to enjoy this! Based on my research, these are the conditions:
- It must be night/dark (duh!)
- There would be red algae bloom in the water during the day (aka red tide)
- Naturally for red algae to bloom, the water must be rich in nutrient and warm
- Warm temperatures = warm waters (i.e. likely spring-summer months)
- Especially during the surge/transition between winter & spring (Sept) and spring & summer (Jan) when the waters suddenly become significantly warmer
- High acidity in the water
- Onshore wind & the right tides (according to the poster found here.)
Yups, so in case any of you wanted to up your chances of seeing this, I have basically summed it up here as far as to my knowledge/research. I have to put a huge disclaimer though as I have not had the fortune to see these dinoflagellates (their scientific name ;) and have based my summation after only having read one research paper, consulted NSW Office of Water website on algal blooms and took the word of the photographer who took the photo above. So I'm sorry in advanced if these conditions were met but you did not see the bioluminescence! I would love to see it myself one of these days too.
On a side note, I was reading the research paper in the wee hours of the night, hoping really hard that it would conclude July was the month that they saw an increase in phytoplankton over their 3 year study...but to my dismay, no. Oh well.
Nonetheless, I hope the team will want to head to Jervis Bay for a looksie anyway, since one of the beaches there supposedly holds the record for having the whitest sand in the world! So, woah, white sand! Get me my sunnies! haha. There's not much info about phytoplankton in Jervis Bay but google where to see them in the world, and many lists pop up, though I wouldn't exactly place them as easy to get to.
Alright, time to snooze for now my dear readers. Hope this satisfied your wanderlust for the week :)
xx,
J