A FLUORESCENT WORLD
There is nothing quite as exciting as a fluorescent night dive. The ocean truly comes to life after dark, and it’s not just corals that glow: Some eels, sharks, stingrays, fish, and turtles also have fluorescent pigments. But being a coral communicator, my favourite organism to observe is always corals, and there is some pretty interesting science behind the glow.
HOW DO CORALS FLUORESCE?
Corals get their colours in two ways. They have photosynthetic marine algae living inside their cells which convert sunlight into energy. The brownish green colour you see in corals under normal daylight is from these algae, called zooxanthellae. When corals are bleached, they turn white because they expel the zooxanthellae.
