Tasmania’s Glowing Water

Tasmania's Glowing Water.

What else could be more romantic than to stroll down the beach with your significant other after sunset and all of a sudden, the water is glowing blue?

TOPTENZ

 Well, you can experience this in Tasmania, among other places. And it’s so beautiful, some have even gone as far as calling it the aurora borealis of the sea. What causes it are billions of single-celled algae that flash every time they are disturbed by waves, currents, or any other movement. Also known as the ‘sea sparkle’, this single-celled organism is officially called Noctiluca scintillans. Marine biologists believe that this bioluminescence is a self-defense mechanism with which the sea sparkle either scares away predators, or attracts its predator’s predators. But while it’s not dangerous to humans in any way, the phosphorescent plankton does have a voracious feeding tendency. Scientists oftentimes call it ‘the vacuum’ since it literally sucks up all nutrients from the water, leaving the other marine organisms to starve.