‘Blue Tears’ off Matsu coast confirmed to be caused by dinoflagellates

Taiwan News
Date: 2016-07-11
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

A research conducted by a National Taiwan Ocean University (NTOU) team laid to rest the riddle regarding the formation of the “Blue Tears,” the mysterious blue lights spotted off the coast of Taiwan’s outlying Matsu archipelago from April to September, confirming that the most widespread hypothesis that the blue lights are caused by glow emitting planktons known as dinoflagellates.

A research team led by Chiang Kuo-ping, a marine biologist and director of Center of Excellence of the Oceans at the NTOU, has since April this year taken samples of sea water from a coast where the “Blue Tears” often appear. The team put the water under dissecting microscopes and employed the isolation of single bacterial colonies to successfully confirm that dinoflagellates are a main part of the luminescence emitting organisms off the coast of Matsu.

Chiang said Noctiluca scintillans is a nonparasitic species of dinoflagellates that exhibits bioluminescence when disturbed. It is a single-celled protist and a heterotroph that engulfs tiny food in the sea, Chiang said.     [FULL  STORY]