Southern California boaters on Wednesday captured rare footage showing dolphins alongside their boat in neon-blue bioluminescence generated by the stirring of water during a red tide.
Capt. Ryan Lawler and photographer Patrick Coyne embarked from Newport Harbor after sunset hoping to chronicle this event. “This was our second night trying,” Lawler told For The Win Outdoors.
Vast swaths of red tide have been visible during the day recently from Los Angeles to San Diego. These algae blooms are filled with phytoplankton called dinoflagellates, which create bioluminescence at night when the water is jostled.
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(Mark Girardeau, owner of Orange County Outdoors, has captured several images showing bioluminescence in waves crashing on the beach, and we’ve shared a sampling with his permission.)
Lawler, owner of Newport Coastal Adventure, said he wanted to show marine life in bioluminescence, if he could attract dolphins in a red tide.
“The first night we found dolphins, but not bioluminescence,” he said. “On Wednesday, we didn’t see dolphins for the first 15 miles that we drove around. Then finally we found a few, but they were hunting and didn’t want anything to do with the boat.”
Common dolphins routinely race alongside fast-moving vessels when they’re not hunting, and Lawler and Coyne found a few willing mammals as they were returning to the harbor.
“Just two at first, then they were joined by another two, and they were in a really bright bloom of dinoflagellates, so we had exactly what we were looking for and were super excited,” he said.
Lawler, whose commercial whale-watching business is closed as part of COVID-19 restrictions, said harbor and ocean traffic is allowed for private boaters off Orange County.
–Video is courtesy of Patrick Coyne; images are courtesy of Mark Girardeau