Passers-by describe it as stepping into a 'dream world' but experts say the bright blue and green lights from bioluminescent algae are a marker for the warming planet.
Grant Houghton was taking an evening walk with his wife along Rushcutters Bay on Sydney Harbour when a faint glow in the water caught his eye.
What the pair witnessed was a bioluminescence event, created by a glowing type of single-celled algae called phytoplankton which blooms in warmer waters. Professor Iain Suthers from the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of New South Wales said the phytoplankton creating this effect is known as noctiluca, which means night light.
The recent bloom has likely been caused by warming waters in spring, as well as relatively low winds that have led to even smaller organisms called diatoms flourishing — which the noctiluca feed on.
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