Mysterious Neon Blue Glow Took Over Texas Waters at Night. Locals Say It Looked 'Right Out of Avatar'
Just a few days after Valentine’s Day, the waters of southeastern Texas seemed to fall into romance. Something was stirring in Dickinson Bayou. When the sky turned dark, the waters dazzled up in a sparkling blue glow, attracting nearby residents like Clint Trueheart. Trueheart, who lived along the bayou, walked to the canal beside his house to see it for himself. He had heard about it from one of his friends who had gone fishing.
He jumped into a boat and plunged into the waters. Streaks of electric blue light were rushing through the vigorously lapping waves, and as he saw it, he couldn’t help but capture the sight on the camera, according to CHRON. From a scientist’s point of view, it’s just another episode of bioluminescence, but for some viewers, it's “Bayou Luminescence!” Clint confessed that he had seen this phenomenon before, in Galveston Bay on the west, but nothing like this. The glow was “immediate when disturbed,” he described, “and goes away right after.”
Not just Clint, dozens of other residents clambered down to the beach to witness the glowing milky waters. Judd and Thuy Gottlieb were among these. Despite living in the area for the past three decades, they have “never seen it before,” Judd shared with KHOU 11. For the last week, they had been noticing that the water was way more colorful than usual, probably due to the rolling storms, they assumed. To add to their curiosity, the couple stumbled upon a social media post that said something strange was happening in the bayou. They rushed down in their underwear to see it for themselves. “It was neon blue,” they recalled.
As they dragged the fishing lure through the water, ducking the paddles in and out, and swishing it back and forth, the waves lit up with a neon blue glow, as seen in the footage. “We were actually like children splashing each other with paddles; it was unbelievable actually,” they commented. The couple compared the scene to something “right out of James Cameron’s Avatar.”
While it may sound like something out of magic, or like a mass surfacing of photons from a mysterious deep-water location, it is simply a scientific process scientists call “bioluminescence.” In this case, the bioluminescence was triggered by sea sparkles called Noctiluca scintillans. This glittering algae, as The Guardian put it, is famous for exhibiting the “heck of a light show.” Every time someone disturbs it from the surface, the organism secretes a chemical as a defense mechanism to ward off predators, resulting in this mystical, almost emotional, glow.
In Dickinson Bayou, the moment of magic could be witnessed as soon as it got dark. "We had several weeks with extremely low tides," Trueheart said, adding, "Then the front pushed the bay water in, causing high tide, bringing the 'sea sparkle' with it." No one knows how long it will stick around, but until it is there, Judd, Trueheart, and other residents are suggesting that visitors grab the opportunity to witness it with their own eyes. “Go, disturb the water. It glows!” they said.
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