… and your paddle seems like its
throwing fire balls as you leave a huge dragon tail like wake.
Fun and a little spooky seeing whats swimming around under you @ night too. … Th th that WAs a sea lion right ???
If no one has every tried it yet … Try jumping off a speeding powerboat into it @ night.
New England
I’ve seen it off Marthas Vinyard and around Aquidneck Island.
North Carolina
I’ve seen it most summers at Cape Lookout in the sound side and behind Masonboro Island.
Suicide Surf Paddle
We went out on a night with no moon to watch the flashes…
very spooky when you realize you are right in the break zone just off some big rocks …
bio-luminescence
It is here in Southeast Alaska in August, and I’ve seen it around the same time along the north Bafffin Coast. Make for great night paddles.
westbrook ct.
behind Duck Island. It was there years back, anyways. Good nighttime entertainment when we’d be anchored there in our sailboat.
Chesapeake Bay
San Juan Islands
Just light a BP oil burp.
all over
Where are the biologists when you need them???
In Massachusetts, I usually expect to see it in early June for a few weeks, in Maine a bit later. I always assumed that it is dependent on water temperature.
Suz
It’s a sign 
Well, even if it’s not, I loved playing with it the one time I experienced it. Almost like having fireworks displays in the water. And they told me that was a only a so-so night.
Did not see any at Sweetwater or Fort DeSoto, probably because I didn’t go for any night paddles! Daytimes were cold enough already, as you know. Did you do any night paddles there this year? Maybe next year’s will be warm enough.
As for Maine, that info came as a surprise, and it’s like icing on the cake. I am stoked.
Brrrrr!
A no-moon night swim in the cold Atlantic. Hmmm, maybe. Wonder if it’s as cold as that shaded marble quarry in northern VT at the beginning of July. Yikes–my bones ached in there!
Essex
I saw it in Essex basin (Mass) several years ago.
Wow, never knew it was in so many places
I grew up in MA and never saw it there. Might have something to do with never having paddled or swum at night then.
If it depends on water temp, seems odd that it’d be in Baja and Puerto Rico AND Alaska and Maine. There’s gotta be more to it.
Patrick, that’d be fantastic graphics…
for custom paddle blades!
Fluorescent or phosphorescent multi-hued fire-breathing dragon and tail. Now if you could only make it NOT look like the SKUK logo.
tomales bay
northern california
Newfoundland
All year round.
After a calm stretch they are very visible.
Temperature has little effect on it but as the bays gain a skim of ice I am rarely paddling after dark.
Biologists aren’t much…
help. I happen to have access to talk to Florida Wildlife Commision biologists often. Even the ones who study the little things.
I talk to paddlers who live on the coast.
Everyone seems to say it’s a hit or miss thing. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s not.
I’ve seen some examples while surf casting in the panhandle of Florida, but I’ve heard lots of stories of how bright it can be in Mosquito Lagoon, or Tampa Bay.
Exactly when and where, I don’t know.
T
Tomales Bay
Tomales Bay in the San Francisco Bay Area in August. Missed it last year but heard it was amazing.
light polution
I’ve seen it many times from boats off the Massachusetts coast, but never when on the shore - too much light pollution in many areas of the coast there.