Amazing shot of the Red Tide in Southern California

[n2doc]

CNN producer note
darkseed, 31, shares this photo of the bioluminescent red tide at Torrey Pines State Beach in San Diego, California. He says: 'The best way I can describe it to others is that the water looks to be electrified when the waves crash. When you walk down the beach the sand leaves a glowing foot print behind. It very much feels like you are visiting the ocean of an alien planet.' The photo was taken on the evening of September 27.
- elchueco, CNN iReport producer


iReport —
A strong red tide along the San Diego County coastline is causing brilliant neon blue bioluminescence that's visible at night as tiny light-producing organisms get stirred up as the waves break.

This image was captured at 11pm at Torrey Pines State Beach by Photographer: David Hatfield

http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-679929?hpt=hp_bn2

http://davidhatfieldphotography.com/blog/bioluminescent-beaches-a-shot-from-from-san-diegos-red-tide-sept-27th/

[Hubert Flottz]

1. It's Godzilla!

The Fukashima monster!

[HappyMe]

2. Wow! Cool!

[MineralMan]

3. When a similar thing occurred near Morro Bay, CA, many, many

years ago. My ex-wife and I, along with several friends, camped overnight on a sandspit and watched this phenomenon. There, too, the beach lit up when you walked on it, creating glowing footprints that lasted for some time.

Disclaimer: A generous quantity of marijuana was consumed that night, enhancing the experience. A great memory, but we all forgot our cameras, unfortunately. However, we did remember our bags of chips and other snacks.

[liberal N proud]

4. That would be a wild site

[goforit]

5. Or could it be nuclear Japan hitting the Ca. beaches?

[kenfrequed]

6. No,

Radiation usually doesn't visibly glow, contrary to about every pop culture image of anything radioactive.

[Bake]

7. Cool, but it looks blue to me ...

Just sayin'.

:hi:

Bake

[RC]

8. During the early 60s I was in a small boat in the middle of the pacific for some Navy night training

against saboteurs. Anyway, being thousands of miles from any city lights, it was way dark out there.
Every wave crest glowed. we could see the water slouching in the boat bilges. If we reached over the side and scooped up some sea water in our hand, it glowed well enough to see the details of the hand. We could see where the blacked out ship itself was because there was a dark spot in the water.

[jwirr]

9. I appears beautiful - is there an scientific explanation for this?

[EOTE]

Yep.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioluminescent

[jwirr]

15. Thank you.

[Fire Walk With Me]

10. Stunning...thanks for posting.

[Ganja Ninja]

11. One of the strangest sights I ever saw was bio-luminescent plankton when I was in the Navy.

I was on a Submarine and we were coming in from patrol at night and cruising on the surface. One of my friends called me up to the sail to see it. The water was sheeting back over the round hull and as it broke the plankton would all flash at once like flash bulbs going off all around us. Then you would turn around and look back at the wake and they were going off in huge flashes for hundreds of yards behind us. It look like depth charges going off only there was no explosion or splash

[n2doc]

13. Those are usually caused by larger animals

Like jellyfish. The glow in the picture I posted is due to really small ones, ones you have to use a microscope to see. I've seen the 'flashy' ones too on some cruises. Neat to see.

[Arugula Latte]

17. That's so cool.

I've seen it in Mexico, where the breaking waves flash, and if you run your hand quickly through the water at night it lights up.

[frylock]

12. i'm going to try and get down to the beach this weekend with my nikon..

awesome picture.

[mod mom]

14. Aren't red tides bad for the environment? Depletion of oxygen in the water?

[eppur_se_muova]

19. That, and some dump toxins in the water ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brevetoxin

[Quantess]

16. Cool!

[onethatcares]

18. red tide here in Floriduh consists of an algea bloom that

pulls the oxygen out of the water and kill the fish. This year we didn't have one here on the left coast which is strange but we didn't have any hurricanes either which is stranger still.

the stench of millions of pounds of fish rotting is more memorable than being stoned on a beach, trust me.

[eppur_se_muova]

20. In the Gulf, a particular algal species actually produces a potent toxin ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_tide#Overview