A marine nerd's idea of an amazing Friday night

Last Friday night, I experienced my first night rowing outing. It was about 7 pm when we headed out on the rowboat towards town. As we pulled into the harbor, we spotted a fox slinking along the shoreline under the pilings. Its pelt was black and its tail was tipped with white. I had heard that there were red foxes on the island, so seeing a black one was a surprise. It turns out that the black foxes are the same species Vulpes vulpes, but they are called “Silver Foxes” because they are a melanistic form of the red fox. Melanistic is the opposite of albinism, that is, it is the undue development of dark pigmentation in the animal’s skin. In Greek, melanism means “black pigment.” The row back from town was equally exciting: I saw bioluminescence for the first time “live”. At first, it’s hard to tell whether you are seeing the moon reflecting off the ripples created by the boat but then you begin to see the distinct blue sparkling of the dinoflagellate Noctiluca scintillans appropriately nicknamed the Sea Sparkle. It is the most impressive, beautiful phenomenon and I will definitely be back out on the water at night to see more of these little Sea Sparkles.

Publicado el octubre 8, 2012 02:29 TARDE por laurenkay