The Phosphorescent Sea

This week’s New Scientist carries an item about evidence being found to back up mariners’ tales of the sea glowing bluish-white at night. While I’ve never seen this phenomenon myself, I have seen something similar.

 

It was probably about 35 years ago. I was travelling on the night boat leaving Douglas for Liverpool. As the boat slipped out from the harbour into Douglas Bay, suddenly the waves and the wash around the boat erupted into a bright greenish-white glow. The glow persisted in the wash behind the boat for several hundred yards. This went on for about ten minutes until the boat got well out to sea. It was clearly some kind of bio-luminescence, but whether it was from plankton, algae or bacteria, I never found out. Whatever the scientific explanation, it remains a magical memory to this day.