Bioluminescence

For the Greatest Light Show on Earth you have to go deep--real, real deep.

If you’ve ever seen a firefly, then you have seen a bioluminescent organism. In the ocean, bioluminescence is not as rare as it is on land. In fact it is found throughout marine habitats, from the ocean surface to the deep sea floor. Most kinds of animals, from bacteria to sharks, include some bioluminescent members. While the functions of bioluminescence are not known for all animals, typically bioluminescence is used to evade predators, to lure or detect prey, or for communication between members of the same species. Bioluminescent light is produced from chemical reactions inside or ejected by the light making organism. It works much like how a light stick does. After a depth of around 800 meters, the eyes of fish species tend to get smaller the deeper you go. This makes sense, since there is not enough light at these depths to make vision useful. But many species living even deeper near the bottom of the ocean have big eyes. So what are they looking at? It must be bioluminescence, since this is the only source of light at these deep depths. And what creature would want to miss that?

Are we loving our beaches to death? Turns out, we are.