If you are someone who regards skinny dipping at night a safe
practice because other skinny-dippers around you cannot see your tender
nakedness in low light, skinny dipping in the waters off our Grand Cayman dock may
not be advised.
The water here is conspiring against you.
There is a good possibility the water may light up and expose you
the instant you splash into the ocean.
It’s not the water itself, mind you.
The water is brightened by light emitting life: plankton in this case. Something called bioluminescence.
Plankton, by definition are small to microscopic organisms in the
water. They might be anything (and
everything) from diatoms and protozoans (single-celled lifeforms) to small crustaceans
and the larvae of larger animals. In our
bay—which is known as Bio Bay around the island—a high concentration of dinoflagellates
are present. Dinoflagellates are another
single-celled form of life. They are something
of a whirling algae. Ours produce light
in a chemical reaction when disturbed.
At night, in our bay, the water lights up and glows a Wedgewood
blue when you swish or splash anything in it thanks to high concentrations of
these plankton.
Last night, with the moon stuffed away deep inside a laundry pile
of clouds, the bioluminescence was on full display in the water off our
dock. Several of our group went out to
the dock in the darkness and swished oars in the seawater, creating glowing blue
swirls.
I read, somewhere, that only twelve or so places in the world exist
where concentrations of the plankton is great enough to cause such displays. In that regard, we are lucky to witness
this. I have posted a photo of a bioluminescent
display from Bio Bay I found on the internet.
That is followed by a video I tried to capture last night.
We got a pretty good laugh from the video, actually. A funny failure with my voice attached…
Bioluminescence (PHOTO: Cayman Catamaran Charter)
My failed video
—Mitchell Hegman
I later went out into the center of the bay in a kayak. I was very impressed with that.
ReplyDelete