Noctiluca scintillans – the Sea Sparkle That Threatens the Arabian Sea 21/01/2021
Naresh M. Gohil out on his fishing boat. Photo: Malavika Vyawahare/Mongabay
On February 26, 2003, a group of scientists set out to sea from Goa in the Arabian Sea, India, on a routine mission. They called it “sea truthing,” verifying data gathered by satellites eyeing the earth from hundreds of kilometers above. What the team encountered there, in the middle of the Arabian Sea, was far from routine. About 970 kilometers northwest of Mumbai on India’s western coast, they found themselves sailing on a green swirl that spread out as far as the eye could see. At night, the waters glowed neon blue.
A single-celled organism that acts both as a plant and an animal has come to dominate wintertime algal blooms in the northern Arabian Sea. Winter blooms of Noctiluca scintillans, also known as the sea sparkle, have displaced microscopic algae called diatoms that form the basis of the marine food chain, a paper in Nature says.
The curious case of the glowing beaches
Premium
The two phenomena sea glitter and jellyfish, beauty and danger are inextricably interlinked. Together, they represent yet another pressing warning about the ill-health of our oceans.
(Photo: HT)
Bioluminescent algae have caused a stir along the Arabian Sea. But the sparkle could be a climate warning sign
India has been seeing warning signs, but what is now playing out along the Konkan and Malabar coasts indicates a perfect storm of climate change-induced fallouts is at its doorstep
Share Via
Read Full Story
PANJIM :
Just over a month ago, in remarkable unison, several separate communities arrayed on India’s coastline alongside the Arabian Sea reported the presence of sparkling waves the technical term is bioluminescent which looked like they were embedded with blue-green glitter, and they kept rolling up to the shore one after another every night. Sizable crowds assembled to admire this “magical effect at Juhu Beach in M