Emily's summer experience

Over my holidays, the main place we went was Vancouver, Canada. There was an island off the west coast of British Columbia, three ferries away from Vancouver, called Cortes Island. Cortes is very nice and nature-y, and has a wild and natural atmosphere to it. A very cool thing about Cortes is that the water around the island has micro-organisms in it, called plankton. And when the water is at a certain temperature, this plankton is bio-luminescent. This means that when you stir up the water, it glows pale green!

My mum saw an ad about night kayaking, from 8pm till 11pm, where you can kayak through the bioluminescence. After seeing the ad, my mum signed us up.

The Big Night

One my family, my grandparents and cousins, were all securely in the two man kayaks and paddling, and it was dark enough to see the bioluminescence, we were shocked! One touch to the water would stir the plankton and make the water glow brightly. It was especially amazing to put you paddle in to the water and quickly swoosh it back because it would create a stream of glow-in-the-dark green. All around us in the dark, we could hear the sound of the baby seals calling to their protective mothers. And you could tell it was baby seals calling to the mothers because the call really did sound like, "mmmaaa-mmma!"

More information about bioluminescence

Bioluminescence used to be called 'phosphorescence' but then the name changed.
Why do they light up?
The bioluminescence light up defensively in case your hand is prey. Te reason their defence is lighting up is because they are trying to attract attention to you.