Atolla vanhoeffeni (E. Widder)
Almost all comb jellies (right) are bioluminescent. Although the beautiful rainbow colors seen here are often mistaken for bioluminescence, they are in fact simply iridescence. The bioluminescence is blue and to see it you must turn out the lights. To see the bioluminescence, click on the animal. This comb jelly can actually release great clouds of luminescent particles into the water to distract or blind an attacker.
Cyclothone sp. (E. Widder)
As the fast swimming predators lunge for their dinner, the shark twists and flips to avoid the attack and sinks its impressive set of teeth into the attacker's flank. As the attacker swoops past, the shark is spun by the momentum, neatly carving out the "cookie" shaped dinner.
This black dragonfish (right) was caught with the Johnson-Sea-Link submersible. It took more than 15 minutes to catch it because the fish could swim almost as fast as the submersible's top speed of 1 kt. Thanks to the skill of pilot Phil Santos and the use of a very special capture system invented by Harbor Branch engineer Chris Tietze, this fish came up in perfect condition. Most fish caught in nets exhaust their bioluminescence long before they reach the surface, but this fish still had plenty of luminescence to put on the best light show we've ever seen (click on animal to see the lightshow).
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LIVING LIGHTS
Jellies
The "jellies" are some of the most beautiful, fragile, and in many cases brilliantly bioluminescent creatures which inhabit the oceans. Because the nets which scientists use to sample life in the oceans destroy these fragile beauties, little was known about their abundance and importance in marine ecology until scientists began to explore the open ocean using SCUBA and submersibles. Roll your cursor over the animal (left) to see bioluminescent particles glitter from the surface of the jellyfish and then released into the surrounding water.
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Eurhamphea vexiligera (E. Widder)
Fish
There are far more bioluminescent fish in the world than most people realize. In fact this little bioluminescent fish, which is known as the Benttooth Bristlemouth (left) is the most common vertebrate on the planet. Its bioluminescence comes from a series of tiny light organs arrayed on its belly.
This rarely seen, deep-sea shark (below) is known as the "cookie-cutter shark" because the few specimens that have been caught have a stomach full of cookie-shaped hunks of flesh from large predators such as tunas, porpoises and swordfish. Since the cookie cutter is rather small (less than 3 ft.) and not a great swimmer, the question is how is it able to feast on these big bad predators.
Isistius brasiliensis
(reproduced w. permission from Tinker 1978)
The answer may be bioluminescence. Swimming at its usual cruising depth of ~600 feet below the surface, against a background of dim sunlight filtering down from above, it emits a soft continuous glow from its underside to hide its silhouette. That is, all except the darkly pigmented collar around its throat. From below, this small shadow looks like a helpless little fish. Roll cursor over animal to view it's deception.
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