Jervis Bay in NSW is famous for the natural wonderment with many opportunities year round to catch a glimpse. Source: Shutterstock.
It’s a phenomena that’s not too often seen around south-east Queensland but this lucky family got to experience the spectacle of bioluminescence.
Renee Zmuda and her family were spending their night like most Queenslanders, tuning into the State of Origin, when a friend alerted them to something magnificent happening in the Bribie Island passage- bioluminescence.
Ms Zmuda said as soon as she saw what it was in the video that was sent to her she “took off mid-State of Origin to check it out”.
“I heard earlier in the week it was around and we had gone adventuring over to Woorim on Tuesday with no luck,” she said.
“This was out first time seeing the bioluminescence… it was an incredible experience.
“Truly magical.”
According to Professor of Marine Ecology at Griffith University Kylie Pitt the phenomenon is “becoming more common around the world” and especially throughout Australia.
“It’s spreading (we think) as a consequence of climate change,” she said.
“There has been a lot of media coverage about the bioluminescence in Tasmania and that’s something that’s only been occurring in the past 15 or so years.
“We think that’s because the East Australian Current (EAC) is accelerating and that’s bringing a lot warmer water into Tasmania and so we see the expansion of Noctiluca as a consequence of climate change.”
Noctiluca according to Professor Pitt is a single cell organism that causes the bioluminescence. It feeds on phytoplankton in the water and when there are increased nutrients in the water, more phytoplankton is produced and so too the Noctiluca-meaning- more bioluminescence which is when the “organism itself is producing light”.
“There are a couple of way you can get increased nutrients in the water,” she said.
“One is completely natural and that is through the upwelling of deep water from offshore and that is something we see quite commonly but you can get additional nutrients in systems from runoffs from the land, so that might be through the use of fertilizers or though the discharge of sewage.”
Professor Pitt mentioned many Jellyfish and even some mammals are bioluminescent and that-yes- it’s “safe” to play in and can be “quite good fun” but there might be some affects to the surrounding environment.
“It doesn’t release any particularly harmful toxins, but it can have detrimental effects on the environment because when the blooms die off in the decay process it depletes oxygen from the surrounding water and when you deoxygenate the water, it means there is less oxygen for the other animals that live there.”
“It has been associated with killing fish and other animals.
If you’re on the bioluminescent hunt, then Professor Pitt said that you’ll most likely see it on the water’s surface when “you’ve got calm conditions”.
