The ocean is glowing neon blue at night– and a boat tour out of Newport Beach Wednesday evening will attempt to get passengers up close with the phenomenon that makes the water light up.
Bioluminescence has been showing up strong the past few nights, lighting up the waters enough that Newport Landing and Newport Coastal Adventure will be taking out viewers on “Glow Tours,” with about 600 seats on three boats during two trips available.
The trips are each about an hour and a half long, starting at 8 p.m. for the first departure and the last leaving Newport Harbor about 10:30 p.m.
Boat operators and photographers ventured out earlier this week to make sure the bloom leading to the bioluminescence was sticking around before launching the boat rides.
Watching from the beach is also possible, the plankton lighting up when agitated by the ocean’s crashing waves, but it can be difficult to track, moving with currents and tides and sometimes not showing up at all. On a boat, captains can scour the sea for patches further out in the ocean.
“After going out two nights in a row, we finally decided it would be worth taking passengers out to see it because it seems to be sticking around for now,” said Orange County Outdoors photographer Mark Girardeau. ” We were kind of nervous because it’s nature, and there’s just no guarantee that the water will light up.”
They took a small group out on Oct. 15 as a “test trip” to make sure the bioluminescence was visible out in the ocean
“Last night‘s trips were essentially a scouting mission to see if we could find bioluminescence and they ended up being super successful,” said South Bay photographer Patrick Coyne, who traveled from Torrance to hop on a boat. “Both trips we found patches of bright bio, which made everybody on board extremely excited.”
Past trips have resulted in dolphins frolicking in the glowing boat wakes.
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Some passengers said it was their first encounter, never seeing the electric blue water light up prior to their trip.
“Many of them said that they would remember this night forever, which was amazing to hear because we absolutely love showing people bio,” Coyne said.
Girardeau added that the patches lit up so bright, you could see all the fish swimming around as they lit up blue.
“It seems to be sticking around for now, but there’s no telling how long it will last,” he said.
The glowing water is caused by a dinoflagellate algae that glows only at night, but turns the ocean red during the day. Blooms can last just hours, or months.
The tours for now are only scheduled for Oct. 16, with operators holding off booking another night depending on how it shows up during tonight’s trip.
There’s also reports of the glowing water this week in the South Bay and San Clemente, Girardeau said.
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