New Scientist, 24 Jun 2015.

“All I can say is wow, just freakin wow!” says Lisa-Ann Gershwin from Australian Marine Stinger Advisory Services in Launceston, Australia. This river in Southern Tasmania seemed to come alive this week as a bloom of Noctiluca scintillans – a type of bioluminescent plankton, also known as “sea sparkle” – washed into the region. When it’s disturbed, the organism produces light in its cytoplasm, the gel-like substance inside its single cell.

As news of the bloom spread, hundreds of people came to see the spectacle, says Gershwin. “People turned out in droves, rolled up their pant legs and danced, ran, splashed, stomped, tiptoed, you name it, people played! It was incredible!”

But there is a dark side to this impromptu festival of light. “The displays are a sign of climate change,” says Anthony Richardson from the CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency in Brisbane. Read the full story in the New Scientist.