![]() ![]() Within hours of birth, the Hawaiian bobtail squid attracts bioluminescent bacteria, which colonize a special light organ above its eyes. In these cases, bacteria may come to the rescue. Some animals could benefit from a little light beneath the waves but don’t have the necessary proteins to produce a bioluminescent reaction themselves. Lit by the waning moon and each other, males and females simultaneously release their eggs and sperm into the water. The males that heed that call swim up toward the circling females and flash in response, creating a scene like a wild nighttime dance party. There they swim in circles while alight in a bioluminescent call to male fireworms-like posting your best selfie and waiting for the date requests to roll in. Several nights after the full moon, female fireworms swim up from the soft bottom of the seafloor to the ocean’s surface. Travel to Bermuda’s waters and you’ll see the ocean’s version of online dating, starring the bioluminescent Bermuda fireworm. The glowing waters can be traversed by kayak in the dark, and although in recent years the bioluminescence there has dimmed, it is still a sight worth seeing. Red tides are unpredictable, though, so if you’re hoping to catch a glimpse of the sparkling scene in the wild, you might want to book a trip to Mosquito Bay, off the island of Vieques in Puerto Rico. polyedrum are destroyed on a daily basis and regenerated for their nighttime light show-like the one seen here in a long-exposure photograph. The bioluminescence of one species in particular, Lingulodinium polyedrum-known for causing red tides and lighting up the Southern California coast-has its own circadian rhythm, producing more reactions at night than during the day. Scientists believe that dinoflagellates may be hoping the fierce glow will scare off predators or attract bigger predators that will eat their pursuers. The light can also serve as a tool for those too tiny to defend themselves: When they light up, the microorganisms attract attention in what marine biologist Edith Widder calls a “bioluminescent burglar alarm”. Bioluminescence can serve a variety of purposes, such as signaling predators to stay away or beckoning mates to come closer. ![]() Why the small creatures light up is still not entirely clear. A slight movement can trigger the bioluminescence in these tiny one-celled plankton, making for spectacular shows as they light up a wave crashing onto the shore or the wake of a boat speeding through the dark. ![]() Bioluminescence is readily visible in scores of microscopic marine organisms, including many of the thousands of dinoflagellate species found throughout the world’s oceans. ![]()
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