Bioluminescent sea creatures in the Gulf of Mexico

Works Cited:

• https://www.teamorca.org/cfiles/biolum_surface.cfm

Bioluminescent sea creatures in the Gulf of Mexico

By: Ariana Olivero

How do they make the light?

All light in the universe comes from the same basic process. When an electron absorbs energy, it moves to a higher orbit. When the electron falls back down to a lower energy state, a packet of energy, known as a photon, is released. Electrons can get excited in a number of different ways. In the sun, a candle flame or an incandescent light bulb, the electrons are thermally excited, which is why we tend to associate heat and light. In bioluminescence the electrons are excited by a very efficient chemical reaction that generates no heat at all. This is why bioluminescence is sometimes called cold light.

Jellies

Welcome Aboard!

Why do they make light?

The "jellies" are some of the most beautiful, fragile, and in many cases brilliantly bioluminescent creatures which inhabit the oceans. Because the nets which scientists use to sample life in the oceans destroy these fragile beauties, little was known about their abundance and importance in marine ecology until scientists began to explore the open ocean using SCUBA and submersibles.

Thank you for joining me, I am excited about our mission today. In a moment, we will begin our descent into the depths to view the living lights of the ocean. The creatures you will see on our dive today are beautiful, fascinating and critical to the very existence of most marine life. They are also little known and little appreciated, because so few people have the opportunity to see them with their own eyes.

There are so many bioluminescent creatures in the ocean, because their ability to make light helps them to survive. Some use their light to help them find food, some use it to help them find mates, some use it to defend themselves against predators

Typically, this sub is used to study both the mid- and deep-water realms, perform search and recovery tasks, and conduct underwater archeological missions. Today, we have outfitted it with exterior video and still cameras, as well as special equipment to detect and capture bioluminescent creatures!

I have checked all systems and we are ready to dive.

Let’s begin our journey!

Almost all comb jellies, like the one at the top, are bioluminescent. Although the beautiful rainbow colors seen here are often mistaken for bioluminescence, they are in fact simply iridescence. The bioluminescence is blue and to see it you must turn out the lights. This comb jelly can actually release great clouds of luminescent particles into the water to distract or blind an attacker, as shown to the left.

Dinoflagellates

The animal on at the top shows you the bioluminescent particles glitter from the surface of the jellyfish and then released into the surrounding water to your right.

Mission Accomplished!

Thank you for joining me on this journey today. As you’ve learned, the world of bioluminescence is vast and quite fascinating.

Dinoflagellates are single-celled plankton. There are several thousand different species and they come in many different forms. Many, like the one below, are bioluminescent. This is Pyrocystis fusiformis, which means spindle-shaped fire cell. But the light doesn't come from fire at all. This light comes from little packages of chemicals that are spread throughout the cell. This cell gets the energy to make these chemicals from the sun. Like many dinoflagellates it is photosynthetic. There are many bioluminescent dinoflagellates which are not photosynthetic and they get the energy needed to synthesize their chemicals by eating other, smaller plankton. Dinoflagellates are the most common source of brilliant bioluminescence in surface waters.

Crustaceans

Bioluminescence: Livings Lights

In order to see as many living lights as possible we are beginning our dive after dark. The light show we will witness is visible light made by living creatures also known as bioluminescence. Fireflies are bioluminescent. So are a few other land dwellers, like some earthworms, centipedes and fungi. But on land, bioluminescence is rare. By contrast, in the oceans, bioluminescence is very, very common. In fact, it would be difficult to find any place in the ocean where bioluminescence doesn’t exist.

Crustaceans are like the insects of the sea and like insects on land, they come in many different shapes and sizes. Copepods, like the one shown here, are the most common form, and many, like this one, are bioluminescent. Copepods usually release their bioluminescent chemicals into the water to produce a glowing cloud of light. This luminous smoke screen serves to distract or blind an attacker while the copepod beats a hasty retreat into the darkness. Gaussia (right) releases its chemicals from glands located on its tail.

Another copepod, Euaugaptilus magnus, discharges light from its hind legs. The shrimp-like euphausiids (right) are a very important part of the marine food web. Also known as krill, euphausiids are a vital food source for baleen whales, seals, fishes and birds. Except for one relatively rare, deep water species, all krill are bioluminescent. Unlike the copepods, they keep their bioluminescence inside their bodies, packaged in light organs called photophores.

In some places in the ocean bioluminescent creatures are so abundant that any disturbance such as a boat, a fish or, as you see to the left, even a hand passing through the water can produce a shimmering light show.