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Let's Go2Mexico - Articles NATURAL ENCOUNTER
SUMMARY A romantic way to describe one of the most beautiful phenomenon of nature, which have no relationship with astronomy but one of the tiniest animals of the planet earth. The “nocturnal lights”; those blue twinkles to momentarily light while walking along the seashore or can be observed by divers and boaters at the sea have intrigued by centuries to humans. This phenomenon has been called bioluminescence. For centuries, sailors of the world, the well-known Jules Verne and the same Charles Darwin have described “sparkling seas that shine in the darkness to the end in the horizon”, and this phenomenon can even be observed from the space, as some pictures taken on 1995 by an American satellite, with a 156 miles area was light in front of the African coasts.
Defined as “the capability of a live organism to produce light”, this phenomenon result to be in the animal kingdom more common than believed, since up 90% of the sea life in the deep areas have the ability of producing some kind of light. However, the bio-light form we see is commonly produced by minuscule one-cell organisms that form part of the plankton, that are eventually carried out by the currents to the seashore, where their twinkling is watched by amazed night-walkers. Although there are many the organisms with this capability, just a few animals are responsible of most of lights we see on the surface and seashore, as sea sparkle (Noctiluca scintillans). Its scientific name has a very pertinent name, because is translated as “a light that sparkle by night”. Everybody is fascinated by these hypnotizing lights, from which comes the obligated question: How do they produce light? Light is the result of some complex chemical reactions where membranes, enzymes, proteins and oxygen are involved, all in a single cell. The interesting fact is this light can be controlled by will, and is believed that is produced as a kind of protection against their predators, warning if they are eaten, their sparkling stomachs will give themselves away to their own predators, when having lost the advantage of being in darkness. Another theory says that they can even “burn” with their lights some small predators. The Red Tide Some species of these organisms are well-known to be part of enormous colonies of with up 1 million of organisms per each liter dyeing the sea in red, a phenomenon known as “red tide”. If well they are not the only organisms that produce red tide, they are responsible of large extensions be light by night. Usually, the number of these red-tide formers remains very low amounts, with no more than few hundreds per each liter of water, but when reach more than 100 thousand individuals per liter, situation turn dangerous for sea life. When there are more than 250 thousand per liter water turns red and mortality of fish and sea life begins, despite they are toxic and use the oxygen present in the water. This exaggerated and fast increase in the population of these organisms is known as a “bloom”, occurring due changes in the water temperature, salinity, PH, luminosity, ocean currents an of course, because water pollution. Although bioluminescence phenomenon is worthy of admiration, we must not forget why they are here and why red tide is produced. The high levels of pollutants in our oceans are a red light we must consider, because if we continue dropping our untreated waste, there will be a large affectation to all our sea life and our health. Let’s do our own part to keep the ocean clean, because all pollutants we discard will finally end in the same animals we eat. Email to a friendOscar Aranda – Biologist Oscar Aranda is the founder of the Western Ecological Society (Sociedad Ecologica de Occidente) and its program of protection and conservation of sea turtles in Puerto Vallarta. Visit his website www.vallartanature.org or e-mail him to seaturtlesvta@aim.com. If you love ecotourism, hire an eco-friendly whale-watching tour. Visit www.ecotoursvallarta.com or call (322) 22-26606.
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