Nature & Environment

New video shows dolphins glowing in the ocean

By T.K. Randall
April 28, 2020

Image: Bottlenose Dolphin
Credit: NASA / (PD) The ethereal scene, which could easily be mistaken for something out of a science-fiction movie, was filmed recently in the ocean off California's Newport beach.

Coyne, who had previously seen glowing dolphins on a Netflix documentary, had been keen to capture the phenomenon for himself and had spent hours searching after dark for a sign of the animals.

"We were out for a few hours and on our final stretch back we finally had 2 Dolphins pop up to start the incredible glowing show," he wrote on Instagram.

"A few minutes later and we were greeted by a few more which was insane. I'm honestly still processing this all..."Despite appearances, it is not actually the dolphins themselves that are glowing - instead they are swimming through concentrations of microscopic bioluminescent organisms called dinoflagellates.

When disturbed, each cell emits a flash of light lasting mere milliseconds.

When a pod of dolphins swims through a large number of them, it can produce quite the light show.

You can check out the footage Coyne captured below.


Source: Science Alert

Tags: Dolphins