In those days, the island was known only to the locals and a few professional fishermen, so I had it all to myself. On the weather side stretched one of the world’s great beaches: three miles of perfect white sand, a hundred yards wide. Except for an automated lighthouse, there was nothing there but natural vegetation and an astonishing number of birds. I decided to go for a walk along the shore and reflect upon the day’s events.

It was almost totally dark by the time my stroll began and a dim glow in the west marked the sun’s last light. A very young crescent moon followed it into the sea, and several planets marched in single file along the ecliptic, revealing perfectly the plane of the solar system. Walking into the night, the rotation of the earth became apparent and, as the sky darkened, the Milky Way appeared, knotted and clustered and so bright that those poor unfortunates not familiar with a truly dark sky could have mistaken it for a cloud. With only a little knowledge of astronomy, the great circles of horizon, ecliptic, equator, and Galaxy provided clear evidence for the three-dimensionality of the cosmos. There was the unexpected appearance of increasing star density toward the Milky Way, giving the illusion of depth, a perspective vanishing point along the Galactic equator. One did not just look up at this sky, it was possible to look into it. It all made perfect sense, like being inside an immense armillary sphere, except that the earth was not at the origin. In fact, there was no center at all, and the planes of earth’s horizon, revolution, rotation, and even of the Milky Way itself were simultaneously obvious, yet clearly arbitrary. There was no up or down, just endless axes extending forever into infinite space.

It suddenly became clear how even my meager knowledge of astronomy made it possible to appreciate the vast mechanism of the sky in a way that had been impossible for the ancients. I was also aware that other levels of reality also lie beyond our sight and understanding, and that at other scales of time and space my perception is just as flawed and limited as theirs was. We all understand this, of course, but we rarely ever feel it emotionally. I realized I had never really experienced the universe all at once, directly. Suddenly, all those textbook diagrams became concrete. There were other insights too, the events of the day, the personal and intellectual experiences so important to me, meant nothing at all to this immense indifferent coldness. The universe is incredibly old, extravagantly large, and almost unbearably beautiful, but most of all it is primarily empty. It was a devastating insight for a young man, and it haunts me to this day.

In a little over an hour I had hiked the long length of the island and was gradually strolling off the end. I knew the tide was rising, and I was brought back down to earth with the thought that I had better get back to the beach before I was stranded on the flats and had to get my clothes wet wading back. I did not relish the thought of an hour’s walk back to the tent with soggy shoes and wet jeans slapping at my ankles. For the first time I switched on my light to find the driest path; I had forgotten that the north end of the key was one of the few suitable spots on that entire coast for sea birds to roost.

In an instant the air around me was clogged with ghostly shapes trying to dart out of the beam of my light; a blizzard of birds, screaming and shrieking at my audacity at awakening them. For a moment I was so dazzled and startled by the explosion of life that I almost panicked. I ran back to the beach and sat down on the sand in the dark until the birds quieted down and I could see again clearly by starlight alone. Once again I had that disturbing feeling: that in spite of the beauty around me, I had no business being there. All the way back, the waves washed across my boots and I gazed, with dark-adapted eyes, at the sparkling phosphorescent micro-organisms in the sea, almost as numerous as the stars themselves.

Not my photo, and I suspect it was adjusted to get the colors right. And they are right; like you, the image perfectly evokes treasured memories.

Red Tide (Gymnodium) does not glow in the dark, but in high concentrations you can actually see an oily reddish scum floating on the surface of still water. There is nothing to prevent you from having simultaneous blooms of N. AND G., but as a rule they are not connected.

Phosphorescence is often seen in perfectly healthy water, even far out at sea. We used to go to the fantail on our ship, especially when we were steaming dark on night patrols (with our stern NAV light turned off) and watch the screws churn the sea into a cauldron of blue green fire that stretched behind us in our wake for as far as we could see.

Red Tide is rare in Florida, and usually localized in a small area (unlike the current outburst). Noctiluca’s blue glow is common but rarely noticed in FL because there is so much development at the beach that the lights drown it out. You Californians have managed to keep artificial light away from your wild coastlines! But night sailors and fishermen here are very familiar with it. In a small boat you can see the fish darting around, getting out of your way, like ghostly torpedoes, and in your wake there is an unearthly blue green highway in the sea stretching out behind you. If water splashes on you, the dark-adapted eye can see the sparkle of the individual organisms blinking on and off on your skin and clothes, dripping off the sail and ghostly outlining sheets and halyards. The water sloshing in the bilge is a witches’ brew glowing blue-green like something from the Ancient Mariner. If there is a chop, every whitecap flashes as the wave peaks, where the foam should be. A bottle filled with sea water and shaken briefly glows bright enough to read by.

Your photo is perfectly color-balanced! Its hard to get that right at low light levels. That’s exactly what you see. Thanks for posting this, Robert. It brought back a flood of beautiful memories, things I doubt I’ll ever see again. And its also given me yet another flash of bitter hatred for what these bastards are doing to my planet.

Noctiluca scintillans (Twinkling night light)

I don’t know about Florida’s variety, but California’s is bioluminescent, and one of my strong childhood memories is being awestruck by the blue waves breaking.

Like so much in nature, it’s the prettiest things that can be the deadliest.