Puget Sound Bioluminescence

sinnettc · Sep 12, 2012

We saw it in Echo Bay at Sucia Island a couple summers ago. I pulled the swim ladder up after dark and it looked like a starship entering hyperspace. It was the most incredible display I ever remember seeing. I spent the next 30 minutes swirling things in the water just to make it glow. It was like being a little kid again.

RichH · Sep 12, 2012

Happens a lot at sea, especially on dark nights and more especially with approaching bad weather ---- approaching hurricanes 'really' cause the bioluminescence to erupt.

Not only the turquoise effect ('silver heels') but also the flashing 'sparklers' (phytoplankton) that are irritated by the bow and stern waves (and also when pumped into the head and 'light up') ... its always wonderous to see and never boring to watch.

Best I ever saw was when running in from the Atlantic and up the Chespeake Bay to get to a far distant port before Hurricane Floyd hit .... every damn fish (big and little) that got out of the way of the oncoming boat also had a 'silver heels' following it, Silverheels at the stern wake, 'flashers' on the bow and stern waves ... and lighted streaks and glowing trailing curls from dodging fish, 'flashers' going off when irritated by the large fish - incredible!!

Hollyweirdos · Sep 13, 2012

Next time you see it, take the dinghy and drop rocks into the water. The bio will make trails all the way to the bottom in 20 or so feet. It is pretty cool.

Tim R. · Sep 13, 2012

Just about every night here in Maine. Not as much in Portland Harbor as around the islands. Best show so far this year was at Buckle Island although we saw herring darting in Northeast Harbor.

Pretty awesome to swim at night.

kloudie1 · Sep 13, 2012

As Rich said, watching the fishes streak through, followed by a shaft of sparkly light is amazing. As a child of about 8, I remember the first time I saw the stern waves crested by the green glow.. and the prop trails from our old twin engine cabin cruiser as we headed out Vermilion Bay in South Louisiana. and the bright flashing sparkles when bringing in seawater to the head..

arf145 · Sep 13, 2012

The first time I saw this phenomenon was on my first sailing trip too many years ago. I was sleeping in the cockpit at anchorage on the Chesepeake and saw a crab swim by leaving a glowing trail. I think I stayed up half the night watching things swim by and disturbing the water myself just to marvel at it--swishing the fish net through the water was especially spectacular, like the glowing mantle of a Coleman lantern.

kps85 · Sep 13, 2012

Seen it when I worked on a merchant ship in the tropics. It was windy with lots of white caps and the entire ocean was lit up with no moon. The entire ship forward of the bridge was a perfect silowet (sp) in the ocean. Something I will never forget.

KPS85

fox islander said:
I swear this last weekend I had a religious experience. Due to quickly deteriorating weather conditions and a marine forcast of worse to come I decided to leave my South Puget Sound anchoage and catch the end of the ebb tide through the Tacoma Narrows. This involved getting up and getting the boat ready to leave at 4:00am Sunday morning in order to clear the Narrows before the flood. As I walked up to the anchor I knocked a bow line overboard...the instant it touched the water there was a sudden and very bright turquoise blue flash in the water lasting a few seconds. Each drip of water from the wet line resulted in a 2' diameter luminous flash. It was a very dark morning, no moon, no nearby lights on land...I was amazed at the brightness. As we headed north we were trailed by a 10' wide by 50'-60' long river of turquoise churned up by prop wash, that stayed with us until we entered the choppier water of Carr Inlet... A little research on the computer pointed to a bacteria called dinoflagella often present during red tides. Has anyone else out there experienced this?

Gudenuph · Sep 13, 2012

One fall evening while anchored off the SW corner of Hartstene Island, I dropped something onto the cockpit sole, and a starburst of color erupted in the water. It looked just like a July 4th fireworks display. After several repeats, a dogfish swam lazily by with just enough agitation to perfectly outline it's full form, like a pencil sketch. A jaw dropping sight.
My first time to see the silver heels was behind the four churning screws of a light cruiser in the low latitudes of the North Pacific near the end of WW II and my thought was that if we were supposed to be running dark, someone sure forgot something.

WayneH · Sep 13, 2012

We were crossing the southwestern edge of Louisiana last year when I told my wife I was turning off the navigation lights. She was amazed at the light coming from under the boat. She describes it as "Somebody attached a floodlight to the bottom of our boat and pointed it aft." After about 10 minutes, we turned the nav lights back on but talked about it the rest of the trip.

Before we left, she was reading blogs about people who were short handed sailing long distances. One blog was about a guy singlehanding. Something woke him up and he went on deck to see this beautiful line of phosphorescence about 40 feet from his boat. As he followed the line with his eyes aft of the boat, his thought was "OMG!!! Look at the size of that freighter!!!"

I told her that we wouldn't make trips without someone being awake at night just because of that. And AIS sure helps a lot with that.

Lee Coller · Sep 13, 2012

It's quite common. We see it off the Southern California coast frequently.

wetass · Sep 13, 2012

If I look carefully, I can see it most nights to one extent or another - Most obvious in the prop wash of an outboard. But, this summer in Puget Sound and the Gulf Islands seemed particularly bright.

A few weeks ago I got a survey from the Royal British Columbia Museum about which exhibits would I be most likely to go to - An exhibit on bio-luminescence and the little creatures that cause it was one of the options.

s sauer · Sep 13, 2012

Various cruise ship tours from San Juan Puerto provide a night time kyak excursion in Fjardo Bay, Puerto Rico where the bio-luminescence is consistent and dependable and an unbelievable experience. That said, I have experienced significant bio-luminescence events in summer in the northern Chesapeake bay including all around our slip in Tolchester Marina...it was amazing to run the engine in reverse gear with the prop wash bubbling up all around the hull in a luminescent green light!