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.
Big engine
Paddling this isn’t, but in the San Juans I drove a runabout at night a few times and an outboard motor really lights them up.
They were there all summer, as far as I could tell.
Good point
– Last Updated: May-05-10 11:43 PM EST –
I'm lucky to have camped in many places where the night skies are incredibly crisp and loaded with stars. All but one were in the interior west. Being able to sleep right under them--no tent or tarp or bugs or rain--is not a rare thing, either.
Yet the stars are always there, above all of us. It's just that in some places they have so much competition from manmade light.
Bioluminescence isn't "always there" but maybe it's more common than people notice.
As for what causes it, while I'm curious, at the same time I like the mystery. Beautiful things don't always have to be explained.
if seen it
just did a solo month kayak down the Thai coast to Maylasia…saw it many times there…never seen it before, What was great was paddling at night and the lumines…would drip and pour off my paddle blade…it was great to see.
Watched it in the ship’s wake
most of the way across the Pacific some 35+ years ago while in the Navy. Some of us would go “topside” to relax after dark. It was pretty cool to watch the phosphorescent wave peal away from the bow and the flying fish jumping ahead in the moon light. I guess that is the same as bio-luminescent. Not sure. At any rate it helped continue a love of being on the water that started in the Boy Scouts.
Mosquito Lagoon
Haulover Canal in the Mosquito Lagoon - Titusville FL
freaky
Cuba…really freaky to swim in. Especially when really big fish swim around/under you. Yikes
Long Island Sound
Used to live in West Haven CT. During the summer, I made a few night trips. Was my first experience with bioluminesence. Saw lots of it (took me a little while to convince myself that it wasn’t my mind playing tricks on me, as it was always off to the side, at the edges of my peripheral vision, since thats where the paddle stroking was going on. Coolest of all, was seeing these torpedo like luminescent attacks that looked like they were coming right for me. I think it was bluefish attracted towards the light that I was indirectly creating with my paddle. They would rush in, creating themselves a large bioluminescent wake approaching my boat at a high rate of speed. Kind of freaky, and a little bit scary until I realized what was going on.
FAJARDO & CULEBRA, P.R.
Fajardo, on the northern east coast of Puerto Rico, and Culebra, an island around 14-15 miles off Fajardo, are two famous spots for bioluminescence on the island.
We paddled there a few years back while visiting a friend in San Juan, and as described above, it was an interesting trip from shore. We all got into tandem SOTs, and paddled through a small anchorage, into and through several mangrove tunnels and out into the ‘bioluminescent bay’. There, we were informed/taught by the guides about some basic bioluminescence biology. They stressed the ecological fragility of the area, and noted that the maximum traffic had been achieved with the current flock of tour operators, and that they were restricted on the number and frequency of trips they, and the other outfitters, could run on a daily basis.
It was truly an amazing sight to behold as the swirls became more and more intense as we stroked towards the middle of the lagoon from the tunnel exit, where we rafted up for the guides’ talk. We played in the water, marveling at the patterns formed by paddle strokes, and eddies after strokes, along with hand dips, and boat wakes, before returning via the same tunnels.
The water couldn’t have been more than 3-4’ deep once we hit the tunnels, where the traffic was heavy, with any of the several operators leading trips of up to a dozen SOTs each coming and going to and from the lagoon. Indeed, there was much hooting and hollering as the newbies, unaccustomed to paddling, consistently ran into0 the mangrove ‘walls’ and each other; a couple even overturned, but all hopped back on in the shallows just fine.
It was a fun and enjoyable trip, but I think I’d next prefer to go it in a group of experienced paddlers on our own. It would be a far calmer and saner tip to
PADDLE ON!
-Frank in Miami