Plankton called dinoflagellates lit up the surf at California’s Monterey Bay during a rare natural event that made the beach look like a scene from another planet. Locals gathered to watch a luminescent sea reflect the starry skies.
On their own, each dinoflagellate is just one sparkle in the night. But with a big bloom of them—sometimes called “red tides” though they’re not always red and have little to do with the tides—their collective trillions agitated in the waves produce aquatic fireworks
