If you ask me what sea sparkle is, I’d just tell you to watch Life of Pi. I didn’t know this either, but when these glowing plankton bloom in the sea, they actually give off light. It’s a mysterious sight.

It’s hard to see, but…

The thing is, these plankton don’t just glow on their own; they only light up when something bumps into them. So when fish swim around, the light sparkles along the trail they leave behind.

Night view

It’s dark, so the photos didn’t come out pretty. Anyway, even when there were no fish swimming about, tossing in a pebble made the water flash and sparkle all at once. It was just magical. To be honest, though, a bloom like this is a kind of algal bloom, so it’s probably not that great for the sea. Then again, once a typhoon blows through, the sea sparkle disappears. So seeing it now and then in early summer seems fine to me.

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