Light in the water

The other day I got to go on one of the tours I've been most looking forward to. In Puerto Rico, there are 4 or 5 very secluded lagoons with a very special characteristic. They are each conected to, but far from the ocean, and surrounded by a forest of mangrove trees. In these lagoons lives a tiny plant-like protist a bioluminescent dinoflagellate (By-oh-loom-in-eh-sent dy-no-flaj-eh-let). 500 of these little creatures could fit lined up on just 2.5 cm (1 inch) of your ruler. But the coolest thing about them, is they glow when you touch them!

Ok, so you can't really touch just one, but you CAN see when just one lights up. Sometimes two dinos will bump into each other, causing them to glow. But the best thing to see is when you run your hand through the water-it all glows around you. People had described it like fairy dust, which I though was kind of silly, but that is really the best way to describe it.

In order to keep from disturbing the natural environment, people are only allowed to enter the cove by kayak. There was light coming from our kayak paddles, from the kayak wakes, and every so often we'd see a burst of light underwater (it's mostly all less than 1 meter (3 feet) deep) where a fish would jump or dart away quickly. Finally, the tunnel of mangrove trees leading to the cove was illuminated by the water flowing against and through the mangrove roots underwater. Pitch black above the water, but a little bit of light below. So cool!

The biggest bummer for me is that it's nearly impossible to take pictures of the whole thing, which is why I have little to show here. The light is really bright compared to the darkness of night around me, but it's not bright enough for most cameras to capture, even in several seconds' exposure. I got scared out of bringing my big camera that might have been able to do it when a tour guide said he didn't recommend I bring it since it's not waterproom. I kind of regret that now, but oh well. It was a great experience anyway.

Here's a map of the area:

Laguna Grande is the Bioluminescent Bay. Click on the points for ID.

View PR points in a larger map