Thursday, August 15, 2013

It's ALIVE! And It GLOWS!

 What's with all the jelly fish?

I get asked that a lot.
Isn't this amazing? It's Bioluminescent Bay, Viqueues Island, Puerto Rico.

I saw this picture after I wrote Devil's Concubine. Bioluminescence fascinates me. From milky seas to mushrooms to fireflies, if it glows, I want to see it. Most bioluminesecent creatures are unremarkable when they aren't glowing, but jelly fish always amaze me.

In high school, I took an oceanography course at the Museum of Science and Technology in Los Angeles. We took a field trip to the harbor and went out on a fishing boat. One of the creatures caught in the net was a jelly fish. (So, you know, poke it with a stick! For science!) It had tiny (dead) fish in its body, but I never knew if that was a result of being pulled out of the water while entangled in a net with all sorts of other creatures or if that's what it looks like when a jelly fish eats.

By the way, Sea Wasps are real.



AKA Box jelly fish. Found near Australia. They're known as the deadliest creature in the world. Their stings leave horrible scars (I won't post pictures here, but you can find them easily). I don't know if you could really load a water gun with them and shoot chunks of them at people, but let's agree now that there are some things in stories that we should just take on faith and never attempt in real life. Okay?


~~

For all you Sherlock fans, I wouldn't have added Bluebell,
 
 

the vanishing luminous rabbit, to my list, but then this. Funny, it didn't happen in Baskerville.




2 comments:

  1. Where I met my husband, in Thailand, there were glowing waters. Phosphorescent plankton. So when you swam at night, you'd be surrounded by a glowing aura.

    I'm not saying that's the only reason I fell in love with him. But it didn't exactly hurt. ;)

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    1. Was it milky seas? They occur in the Indian Ocean. Sailors reported it for centuries but of course it wasn't "real" until a satellite showed it.

      Swimming in a glowing aura sounds magical to me. So does Thailand.

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