The Glowing Ocean - Navo

• Whether seen from the beach or from the seat of a kayak, the glowing ocean is a phenomenon that, once experienced, is not soon forgotten. What causes this strange glow in the ocean’s water? And what purpose – if any – does it serve?
• The phenomenon of the glowing ocean has fascinated sea travelers for a long time. Folklore from northern Europe, southeast Asia, and the South Pacific include reference to it. Aristotle (3^rd century BCE) wrote his observations about the phenomenon in his work De Anima. During the Renaissance, when European explorers set sail across the world’s oceans, observations of bioluminescent organisms became even more widespread. Even Charles Darwin made note of the phenomena in his written journals from his time on the HMS Beaglein the 1830s.
• The creatures behind the mysterious bluish-green glow in the ocean’s surface waters are tiny organisms called dinoflagellates. These single-celled organisms range in size from 30 µm to 1 mm and can be found in waters around the globe. While an individual dinoflagellate’s glow is typically too dim to be seen by the naked eye, when their populations swell to high concentrations, their presence is unmistakable.  Along the coastlines of the United States, dinoflagellate populations typically grow to high concentrations during the summer to late fall months, when water temperatures are warmer and the seas are calmer.
• Whether on land or sea, however, bioluminescence is another in the long list of those curious traits of our planet’s organisms; traits that, while only a byproduct of some other adaptation, come to serve the organism in other practical – and fascinating – ways.