Mysterious glow of a ‘milky sea’ caught on camera for first time

The ocean turned white as a sailor looked out from the deck of the yacht. The sea is full of plankton but the bow wave is black. They said it gave the impression of sailing on snow.

For hundreds of years, mariners have described navigating night-time waters that were lit up by a mysterious glow, but such waters have long been shrouded in mystery.

There are only a few people who have seen one right now. Steven Miller is a professor of atmospheric science at Colorado State University in Fort Collins.

Milky seas are thought to be triggered by bioluminescentbacteria communicating with one another in response to changes in ocean currents. Miller has been chasing them for decades, jealously listening to rare first-hand accounts and looking for evidence to confirm their existence, as well as a means of seeing and studying the phenomenon himself.

There is a huge and mysterious response in our environment. He wants to know how it works and how it might change in a changing climate.

Low-light equipment fitted to newer environmental satellites has given Miller some leads. The first surface-based corroboration that these satellite images really are of milky seas has been provided by sailors onboard the Ganesha.

There was a bioluminescent event south of Java, Indonesia, between July and September of 2019. Images of the event were published in July of 2021. Naomi McKinnon, a member of the Ganesha's seven person crew, got in touch with Miller after seeing the media coverage of the research.

The crew had been partway through a round-the-world trip when the Ganesha hit a patch of luminescent water between Lombok, Indonesia, and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands. The entire experience lasted until dawn when the yacht entered the waters.

Miller was told that the glow was similar to glow-in- the-dark stars or stickers. The captain of the yacht said that the glow appeared to originate about 10 metres below the water's surface, rather than being a thin surface film.

Miller's findings are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The first photographic evidence of a sea was provided by pictures taken by the crew on a mobile device. It has been word of mouth since the early days of the trade ships. They have all described the same thing, and the pictures are consistent with what they have described.

It will be easier to study the sea in the future. Miller said that it means that we can now use satellite images with confidence to study the waters, but also to direct research vessels equipped with the right kinds of equipment to sample the water and determine its composition.

The Java sea appeared to last for at least 45 nights, which suggests that it's not just a shot-in-the-dark, one-night event, which would make it almost impossible to get out to one in time. When the larger ones are set up, they stay around for a while.