Bioluminescent plankton attracts people as beaches in California light up amid dark

Coasts in southern California are lighting up in the dark due to sea organisms, catching people’s attention as the blue luminosity amazed people, with some of them comparing it with movie scenes.

The seashores are lighting up because of a maritime organism called bioluminescent plankton.

These lightings in the plankton occur when chemical reactions take place in the living creature. And in the case of plankton, luminosity is visible when plankton is moving in the ocean.

A photographer told CBS News that "this is something that looks like it's out of a movie, it doesn't really look real."

"This is part of a phenomenon that we call an algae bloom, or 'red tide,'" oceanographer Drew Lucas told CBS News.

While explaining, Lucas said: “The flourishing algae blooms are a rust colour during the day, and even though the bioluminescence emitted is blue, it all due to the red tide.”

"They do really like warm temperatures, calm conditions, and we've had a pretty long run of that here in Southern California over the last couple of weeks," Lucas added.

At the start of the current year, a large number of sea creatures such as sea lions and dolphins fell sick or died off California's coastline due to exposure a toxic algae.

NOAA Fisheries noted that the samples collected from the animals at the time determined they had domoic acid, a neurotoxin produced by the algae Pseudo-nitzschia.

But this lighting creature is safe.

"It really is a spectacular display of nature and something that you really have to see to believe," Lucas said.

In June, This phenomenon was witnessed in several parts of the UK at a particular time of the year in areas like Carmarthen, the Gower and Porthcawl in Wales, or Cornwall.

This lighting creature is reported to be found in tropical areas and warm seas such as the Caribbean or Southeast Asia.

People have been fortunate enough to snap the occurrence in the summer seasons showing beaching lighting up.