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Sea sparkle

Alexandrium fraterculus

Description:

Alexandrium fraterculus is a genus of dinoflagellates that exhibit bioluminescence in movement. For several days, the waves around Punta del Este were lit by these microorganisms. More photos and a video in the link.

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12 Comments

remco.douma
remco.douma 8 years ago

Thank you Bhagya, Leuba and venusflytrap2000!

Bhagya Herath
Bhagya Herath 8 years ago

Amazing .....

Leuba Ridgway
Leuba Ridgway 8 years ago

Unbelievably beautiful ! Thanks.

CalebSteindel
CalebSteindel 8 years ago

amazing!

remco.douma
remco.douma 8 years ago

Thank you Mark, glad you liked it!

Mark Ridgway
Mark Ridgway 8 years ago

Brilliant video. Thanks so much. Video here http://uruguay-foto.com/noctilucas/h40fb...

remco.douma
remco.douma 8 years ago

Thank you, António!

Great series remco.douma,just beautiful,congrats on the Project Noah Fact of the Day and thanks for sharing

remco.douma
remco.douma 8 years ago

Thanks people! :-)

SargonR
SargonR 8 years ago

Such surreal beauty!

Mark Ridgway
Mark Ridgway 8 years ago

Beautiful !! I love watching this stuff behind ships at night. The trail can sometimes stretch to the horizon.

DanielePralong
DanielePralong 8 years ago

Congratulations remco.douma! Your spotting has been chosen for Project Noah Fact of the Day:"Have you ever seen the sea glow at night? The chance is this was caused by bioluminescence. Bioluminescence is light produced by a chemical reaction within a living organism. Bioluminescence is found in fireflies and some fungi, but most bioluminescent organisms are found in the ocean. In plankton, tiny organisms called dinoflagellates produce bioluminescence as a defense mechanism against predators. Minute forces on their surface are enough to trigger the phenomenon. Bioluminescent dinoflagellates are most often observed in warm water lagoons.

Sea sparkles (Alexandrium fraterculus), bioluminescent dinoflagellates spotted in Maldonado, Uruguay, by Project Noah user remco.douma"
https://www.facebook.com/projectnoah/pho...

remco.douma
Spotted by
remco.douma

Maldonado, Uruguay

Spotted on Apr 1, 2015
Submitted on Apr 6, 2015

Spotted for Mission

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