THE DISTRIBUTION AND CHARACTERISTICS 

 OF SURFACE BIOLUMINESCENCE IN THE OCEANS 



HISTCRICAL RESUME 



A fully developed luminescent sea is one of the most striking natural 

 phenomena that mariners or sea travelers can witness. Many reports in the 

 form of log entries or as part of various written narratives in travel 

 books or cruise reports have referred to luminescent seas since ancient 

 times. During past centuries these strong displays of light often were 

 viewed as having mystical meanings and were identified with the super- 

 natural. In the South Seas, for example, islanders considered the fire 

 they used on land as originating from the brilliant liuninescent seas 

 they often encountered during their travels among the numerous islands. 

 Whatever ancient peoples thought of biolumi nescence, they left little 

 record of their observances, except for a few poetic references and some 

 more disciplined records by Aristotle. 



Descriptive reports of bioluminescent seas of a more scientific nature 

 increased after the 15th century. Various sea captains, whether on ex- 

 ploring, military, or commercial ventiires, made numerous records of lumin- 

 ous seas from almost all the oceans of the world. One of the earliest 

 descriptive reports on file concerned a "burning and glittering light of 

 the sea ... as though all the Sea ourer had beene burning flames of fire." 

 This luminous condition of the water was observed by the explorer John 

 Davis in the lyth century near Ascension Island. The terms "burning sea" 

 and "milky sea" often appeared in the records. The ocean surface, when 

 strongly lighted by the phenomenon, appeared to be burning, to give off 

 flames as if on fire, and to contain what appeared to be "smoldering 

 coaJ-s." Sailors to this day have called such manifestations "phosphor- 

 escent seas." We now know this term to be a misnomer; the liiminescence 

 of the sea is bioluminescence, or biological light caused by living 

 organisms, rather than phosphorescence, which in the strict sense results 

 only from the irradiation of inanimate substances by radiant energy. 



"Milky seas" were observed in various oceans, mostly tropical, and 

 were particularly intensive in the Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea, and the 

 seas of the Indonesian Archipelago. Stavorinus (1798)^ a- Dutch navigator 

 on a voyage to the East Indies, described this phenomenon neax the coast 

 of southern Saudi Arabia. 



"On the 3W;h (January) we met at night a very singular 

 appearance in the color of the sea. It assumed so great 

 a degree of whiteness that it was perfectly like milk... 

 as the evening twilight diminished, it became whiter and 

 increased gradually in whiteness till nine o'clock when it 

 was so white that the whole sea appeared as if covered with 

 a white sheet, or exactly like the appeaxance in the night 

 time of a flat country overspread with snow." 



