Algae blooms in Hong Kong illuminate the water with beautiful blue lights called sea sparkle. The swirling lights are so pretty that people often throw rocks into the water or otherwise agitate the algae for the purpose of getting them to light up, turning the ocean into a moving work of art; courtesy of Mother Nature.
While the algae are mesmerizing, they are also deadly and they kill a variety of aquatic life, reports CNN. The scientific name for the sea sparkle is Noctiluca scintillans and the bloom is also referred to as a “red tide” in Hong Kong.
The agal bloom is lethal because it removes vital oxygen from the water. This does not pose a direct danger to humans and is not considered toxic to touch, but indirectly, it does affect the people who rely on the water for food. It can result in the deaths of large swaths of fish, which may cause an unbalanced ecosystem and a cascade of problems.
Despite the blue lights being so beautiful and looking so pure, they are actually caused by pollution. In this case, the harbor is polluted with just about the worst and dirtiest substances known to man: sewage and waste from restaurants, which the plankton love to feed upon. They will keep eating the sewage and other trash until it runs out. In this case, though, the garbage flows right from people’s homes into the water, so the algae have an unlimited supply of meals to keep them illuminating the sea.
When the organisms do finally die off, they consume even more oxygen after they sink to the bottom of the water and decay. As this occurs, many fish and shellfish species are killed because the oxygen supply dips so low. Consequently, there is less oxygen in the air as well.
The sea sparkle algae may illuminate the water with stunning lights that are pleasing to the human eye, but they also wreak havoc on the ecosystem because of the fish they kill, and this eventually results in a more limited food supply as there are fewer live fish to catch and more fish that are unhealthy because they are infected with toxins from the algae.
So many things in nature are beautiful yet deadly, and these single celled organisms are no exception. Still, Hong Kong residents love to manipulate the water and enjoy the resulting illumination. It is a spectacular show that reminds us nature can be simultaneously gorgeous and cruel.
