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Whale Shark Gliding Through Bioluminiscent Algae _ Mike Nulty

SPACE SHARK!!! SPACE SHARK!!! SPACE SHARK!!!

Ok but as someone who has swam in bioluminescent water, there’s one thing you should know.

The bioluminescence is never fully captured on camera. It is so much MORE in person.

Bioluminescent algae is not a scattered few spots, it’s millions. Millions of tiny little things, the size of a pinhead, that glow the faintest pale blue when they are moved or the water they’re in disturbed. That’s the thing about them. They only glow around moving things in the water.

The water is black, the night is dark, but you swish your hand through it and suddenly it lights up like the heavens. Like a comet’s tail that trails after the stone, the bioluminescence trails around and behind the moving object, your hand. As if it’s a cloak of a million tiny stars.

So yes, this whale shark is swimming through dark water with spots of light that look like stars. But imagine, just imagine for one second what this looks like in person. A whale shark in dark water but everywhere it touches is a galaxy of pale blue lights, leaving a faint ephemeral trail.

Edit: found a link where someone had a REALLY good camera and captured that particular glow

[video description: a black and white video of a whale shark swimming through dark water, around him are several bright spots of bioluminiscent algae, making it seem as if he’s swimming through space. /end description].