What is causing the waves in California to glow? It looks like something from the movie "Avatar": ocean waters that light up like neon glow sticks when they splash.
Beaches across southern California have recently been alight with eerie, glowing waves. What could be causing such an otherworldly phenomenon? A recent report by Discovery News has provided an answer. According to marine biologist Jorge Ribas, the glowing is caused by a massive red tide, or algae bloom, of bioluminescent phytoplankton called Lingulodinium polyedrum. The microorganisms emit light in response to stress, such as when a wave crashes into the shore, a surfboard slashes through the surf, or a kayaker's paddle splashes the water.
The phenomenon has been observed on a semi-regular basis since at least 1901 along the beaches around San Diego, Calif. For surfers who don't mind catching a wave in water teeming with a sludge of microorganisms, the glowing ocean offers the chance of a lifetime. Black Widow Spiders May Have Met Their Match. Black widow spiders seem to be universally feared.
But who's scared of a brown widow? The black widow should be quaking all eight of its boots, a new study suggests. In the United States, there's a new widow in town. The brown widow. And scientists say it may be taking over some native western black widow territory. That may be good news in one sense: Brown widow spider bites are less toxic than those of black widows, researchers say. The brown widow spider first showed up in the United States (in Florida) in 1935. "The brown widows really burst on to the scene in a very short time, and we found brown widows in many habitats where we expected to find black widows," study researcher Richard Vetter of the University of California, Riverside, said in a statement. At 72 sites, the researchers found 20 times as many brown widow spiders as black widows. The findings are detailed in the July issue of the Journal of Medical Entomology. Bald eagle steals catch from fisherman’s pole (PHOTOS)
A bald eagle swoops down onto Bruce Huntley's fishing line.
(RickWarren/Bellingham Herald) Fishing buddies Bruce Huntley and Rick Warren were enjoying a relaxing day on Washington's Lake Padden. Huntley was reeling in one of the lake's rainbow trout when a massive, 6-foot bald eagle swept down from the skies and stole Huntley's catch directly off his fishing line. "I noticed the eagle had been watching us from the tree, did one circle, went right over his head. I yelled 'watch out,' Warren told Yahoo News in a phone interview. Warren, an aspiring photographer, says he'd heard stories of birds stealing fish from humans on Lake Padden, but neither he nor Huntley had ever seen anything quite like the bold eagle that literally snapped Huntley's fishing line and flew off with his catch. "He was a little shocked," Warren said of Huntley's reaction. "He came out of the tree and scared the holy bejesus out of me," Huntley told the Bellingham Herald.
"It's been great," he said. Rick Warren.