(MTD) At the end of 2016, a group of photographers captured a unique, beautiful scene when thousands of marine shrimp glow blue on the beach in Okayama, Japan.
The luminescent shrimp has the scientific name Vargula Hilgendorfii, belonging to the marine crustacean in the family Cypridinidae. Luminescent marine shrimp swim around the shore at high or low tide, in search of food. Their food source is dead fish and insects.
This shrimp species glows thanks to the reaction between the enzyme luciferase, the protein luciferin and the oxygen molecule. These compounds cause them to emit blue light for about 20-30 minutes. They are tiny, only 3mm long, with smooth, transparent circular armor, and a beak-like protrusion in the front.
At night, luminescent shrimp often light up the Seto Sea area, the waters between the Japanese islands of Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu. However, during the day, sea fireflies emit a red light. It is they, along with other marine algae, that cause the familiar “red tide” phenomenon
Local fishermen in the sea are used to calling them “umihotaru”, which in Japanese means sea fireflies, because in the night with the golden sand, the luminescent shrimp move like fireflies.
Two photographers, Trevor Williams and Jonathan Galione, were the ones who captured the luminescent shrimp scene in a series of photos called ” Le stone ” in August 2016, according to Mother Nature Network .
They said that luminescent shrimp live in the sand in shallow water, so they can often be seen washing up on the shore. But in order to have such a large number as in the photo, they had to catch them. They use glass jars to catch shrimp, then pour them on the rocks to make them glow while swimming out to sea.
