May be a common event that I have never viewed but the incoming waves were glowing last night as they crashed into the beach. Not reflected light. Not every wave hitting the beach would glow but all up and down the beach as far as I could see, those that did glow were magnificent. Looked like a bunch of those glow sticks they sell for kids were floating together in the waves.
So given all your many years of visits it must be fairly rare?? Who else has viewed this phenomena ??
We have seen bioluminescent waves here many times over the last 35+ years. Try splashing the water up in the air with your foot or stomp on the wet sand and that area will light up also. We saw it at night once in the tide pools. Absolutely amazing!
I've seen it 4-5x in 20 years on Sandy Beach and around Pinto Pt. from my house in Cholla. I usually spend 35+ days a year there.
Pretty rare it is.
For night time pic's, if you have a camera tripod use it.
I have also personally witnessed it in Cholla Bay. We were told it was a luminescent algae but I can't remember exactly what it was referred to as. Lady Jeeper is probably correct.
Does the word phosphorous make sense to anyone. I can remember years ago in Florida seeing something like what you describe
and the folks down there said it was phosphorous. Just a thought, how factual, I have no idea.
It's actually a combination of both plankton and bio-luminescence. Several years ago, I spent the night out at the 51 on a moonless night. Once I turned off the deck floodlights on the boat, my eyes adjusted and I could see perfectly in the starlight. The sea was alive with tiny critters blinking on and off and the water glowed green as you looked down into the depths. After awhile, it gave me a case of vertigo because as you looked out to the horizon, you could not see where the sea ended and the sky began -- it all looked to be one with twinkling stars.
It's actually a combination of both plankton and bio-luminescence. Several years ago, I spent the night out at the 51 on a moonless night. Once I turned off the deck floodlights on the boat, my eyes adjusted and I could see perfectly in the starlight. The sea was alive with tiny critters blinking on and off and the water glowed green as you looked down into the depths. After awhile, it gave me a case of vertigo because as you looked out to the horizon, you could not see where the sea ended and the sky began -- it all looked to be one with twinkling stars.
