Bioluminescence at Botany Bay

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So there are things that are always in my, erm, orbit, I guess in terms of something I would love to be able to witness at one point in my life and bioluminescence has been and still is something that absolutely enchants me, and I always felt that it would be something I would have to travel to see. And with that in mind, I’d actually joined quite a few Facebook groups in South Wales that followed bioluminescence and report on it, because there always seems to be quite an abundance of it when the sea heats in high summer, particularly in South Wales. 

So I always wondered whether it might be something that if it was reported, I might make a dash down there for an overnight trip to, to try and see it. And then I stumbled upon the fact that someone had witnessed it here in Thanet, and so I went out in the daytime looking and could see some, of what looked like the algae blooms that would be causing the bioluminescence and then went back to Botany Bay later that night.

And sure enough, there it was. The bioluminescence was there. And it’s one of those things that is actually really impressive to see, because sometimes things that you can see at night look a lot more vivid on camera than they do to the eye, simply because the camera has a lot more light capturing, light sensing capability compared to our eyes.

However, the bioluminescence sparkles and glows in that electric blue, to the eye as waves crash, and there is no denying it’s there. And it’s absolutely stunning for the fleeting seconds that these algae blooms get agitated and the plankton, when they are agitated are glowing, and they glow as part of that process.

And it’s just amazing to, to think that there’s all of these little things in the sea that are, getting knocked about and in the process of that are glowing and glistening this electric blue at night. So it’s something to watch out for when the sea starts to heat, the algae bloom comes in, and there’s a real possibility then of, if the algae is there, the, bioluminescence will also accompany in the evening once the sun has set, and it is dark, that is when you will start to really see the sea glow. So I hope we maybe get to see this again.

However, a cautionary tale with that is that the sea heating and the fact that we’re seeing it in Thanet, could be one of these things that nature’s doing really beautiful things, but it’s actually trying to warn us and alarm us about the changes that are happening in the ocean temperatures and this is something that I witnessed as well with some of the jellyfish species that we’ve had turning up here in Kent.

And so it’s a cautionary excitement, I think. If it’s something that is, fairly infrequent, you know, maybe happens every few years, then maybe that’s just how it works. But if it’s something we see more and more regularly, then I think there’s, absolute caution and alarm that should be sort of read from that message in nature.