Sunday, October 9, 2011

Red tide surfing San Diego 2011 bioluminescence

Red Tide Surfing San Diego 2011 Bioluminescence from Loghan Call

While the great North has their natural neon phenomena known as the Aurora Borealis, San Diego, California, has its own water-based version.
The ocean glow is known as Red Tide and appears when billions of decaying single-cell organisms rapidly accumulate in a given water column, particularly on the coast.

During the day it makes the water a rust color, but it's durning the darkness that the real spectacle takes place.
When the sun goes down, the organisms produce a brilliant blue neon glow.
The bioluminescent waves look as if they have an electricity coursing through them.
Luckily, there's no radioactive elements here, just mother nature producing yet another awesome sight.

The cool natural phenomena has been generating a ton of Youtube traffic and spawned a flood of amateur San Diego filmmakers, including surfers and kayakers whose sports have carved the neon ocean and left bright blue trails behind.

Check out these Red Tide videos showing of a bioluminescent Pacific Ocean.
This is a movie shot in Encinitas, Carlsbad and Oceanside, depicting a bioluminescent red tide that has been present in the coastal waters off San Diego.
This particular species is called Lingulodinium Poleyedrum and emits a bright neon blue color when disturbed.

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