About a week in a half ago,My buddy and I went surfing just before sunset.The water was extreamly red.As it got dark out, he was catching a wave and he thought a fish was following him under his board.What was happening was the water was lighting up an extreamly bright blue every time you paddled or had any movement in the water.It would just leave this huge blue trail.The waves that were breaking were even lighting up.I was told that it was Plankton.Anybody ever have this happen.And no I was'nt taken any type of drugs.
plankton the red is a plankton called dinoflagellate. it gives you tightness of the chest (red tide). the glow is also a phytoplankton. stay in school. your spelling needs improvement.
the red tide that causes respiratory irritation (Karenia) was observed for the first time along the Delaware Coast for the first time in 2007. Monitors observed it again in small numbers again this year. What you saw probably wasn't this form of red tide, probably some other bloom forming algae. It also sounds like you were seeing bioluminescent organisms in the water. Different types of plankton can produce bluish or greenish light when they are disturbed. It's usually a defense communication meant to deter predators. I think the first time I saw bioluminescence was off the beach in Fenwick Island and I was on acid. I saw it alot in the Indian River Lagoon in Florida and in the Indian River Inlet in Delaware not on acid.
This was in Avon N.J.It was the week of the full moon.Took a spin to Belmar and it was happening there as well.My buddy also saw it in Point Pleasant.It was pretty crazy stuff.Hey Retro, Can you please proof read my spelling? Im lacking my eduamacation. Tks
I saw it too...... not as crazy as you described though....it's rare up here in NJ....goto FL they get it bad.
when the phytoplankton known as dinoflagellate are disturbed they emit light for about a second. sometimes at night when they are around the sand glows for a second after you step on it.
I saw small traces of it last year. Wasn't near as interesting. Just like when the waves would crash up on the shore, you would see all the blue and green specs after the water receded.
I don't know about Karenia, it probably does cause respiratory irritation, but it's definitely been known before that. Pyrrophyta, a type of red algae, also can be harmful because it has a paralytic toxin in it for self defense, shell fish eat them and are immune, but if people eat too many shellfish with the algaes toxin built up they can get Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning (PSP)....learned about it in marine bio freshman year, but from what i hear it's very rare because shellfish are run under fresh/cleaner water for several days to weeks before bein sold as food to prevent it. I just stick to what I catch myself
when a wave breaks or you throw a rock the water lights up... its pretty cool but not the greatest thing in the world
I've seen it in tropical climates (northern austrailia, fiji, hawaii), but the plankton glowed green instyead of blue, and never as intense as you saw
