sea sparkle

plural sea sparkles

1. The bioluminescent dinoflagellate Noctiluca scintillans (syn. Noctiluca miliaris), that causes some seafire.

   Their quantity remained also high in summer, when the role of the sea sparkle N. scintillans and of meroplankton, especially B. improvisus, was increasing.

   2017, A. K. Vinogradov, Yu. I. Bogatova, I. A. Synegub, Ecology of Marine Ports of the Black and Azov Sea Basin, page 157

   3 more examples

   Sea Sparkle / Latin name: Noctiluca scintillans / […] A single-celled organism that can glow blue at night / […] sea sparkle float in coastal waters in swarms of millions. […] As fish and other creatures swim through the water, they disturb the sea sparkle, which then glow a vivid fluorescent blue. During a population increase, called a bloom, they tend to appear red or pink.

   2017, Kate Baker, Secrets of the Sea, page 14

   Thus what sailors call the "blossoming" of the night sea, that is, the appearance of swarms of phosphorescent phytoplankton on the surface, popularly known as “Sea Sparkle” (Noctiluca scintillans), is actually a sign that the sea has become “impure, turbid, slimy” (ibid.).

   2019, David Farrell Krell, The Sea: A Philosophical Encounter, page 173

   […] sea sparkle (Noctiluca scintillans, which roughly means 'shining light at night'). When the weather is warm and calm, bioluminescent sea sparkle lights up the sea.

   2025, Colin Janssen, Jan Mees, The Unknown Sea

2. The glow created by these dinoflagellates; seafire.

   Bioluminescence from microscopic organisms creates sea-sparkle, a globally occurring, nocturnal phenomenon of blue sparkling light in breaking waves or around moving objects.

   2019, Thomas M. Schmidt, Encyclopedia of Microbiology, page 526

   1 more example

   The nocturnal fish are agile and quick to take flight, wary of reef sharks and moray eels scouring the coral heads, but as they swim and disturb the water, the darkness is sometimes interrupted by the bioluminescent flashes of 'sea sparkle', product of the microscopic dinoflagellate Noctiluca scintillans .

   2006, Michael Bright, Wild Caribbean, page 190