Bioluminescence, and the Mystery of Light Production

The first 200 words of this essay...

Bioluminescence

Introduction

On a recent holiday to Jamaica, the peoples' love of Bob Marley was all too apparent. However, if you scratch under the surface of the reggae music, a natural phenomenon can be seen. In the waters offshore a little harbour town called Falmouth, bioluminescence occurs.

When I went to Falmouth to have a look at bioluminescence, it was quite dark - it was 6 pm, but from standing on the dock it appeared that the lagoon was like any other I have seen, the water looked no different to normal and there was nothing out-of-the-ordinary. However, when we got into the boat and left the dock behind us, the bioluminescence quickly showed itself. There was a distinct "neon-like" glow to the water which had been disturbed by the boat, especially the wake behind us.

Any fish in the water could be seen to be glowing, and if you put your hand out and held it into the water when you take it back out again you could see that glowing too. Jerry, our sailor-cum-tour guide showed us what it would look like if it was raining by getting a bucket of water and