Bioluminescence
in the Salish Sea

Have you seen Finding Nemo? The angler fish has a famous lure on its head to attract prey called an esca which houses specific bioluminescent bacteria, some unique to each species of anglerfish. Living thousands of meters below the surface, angler fish don’t come across other fish very often resulting in a bioluminescent lure, a very large mouth to body ratio to fit the largest prey and causing some species of anglerfish to mate by sexual parasitism. Where the tiny male anglerfish attaches to the side of the large female, eventually fusing into her body and connecting circulatory systems. The female has full control of when sperm is released and she can wait until conditions are optimal to fertilize her eggs.

Some sharks and other fish have a darker topside and a lighter bottom to camouflage with the water above and below called countershading. Animals use this same principle at night using bioluminescence called counter-illumination. Bioluminescent organs called photophores match their undersides to the moonlit water above with the exact same light intensity which is controlled and adjusted. This cookie cutter shark does that too except for one dark patch that may look like prey causing a bigger fish swim to it and the cookie cutter shark has dinner with a signature circular bite.

The pocket shark is so small it’ll fit in your pocket. As the cutest shark in the sea, this shark looks a little different from others and was recently identified in 2010. It's a deep living shark in the Gulf of Mexico that has bioluminescent liquid hypothesized to release it when threatened or to attract prey. It was found by folks studying sperm whales which is hilarious because it looks like a tiny sperm whale.

 Some open ocean organisms use bioluminescence much like the firefly, to attract a mate. Ostracods are tiny crustaceans with a mating display known as the string of pearls, where the males vomit bioluminescence mucus strings and balls underneath them that the female ostracod finds and swims up. This phenomenon is a famous encounter for scuba divers around the Caribbean.

The stoplight loosejaw is a creepy looking deep sea fish with blue/green photophores like other fish we have discussed. This fish is spectacular because it also has red photophores which is interesting because red light is absorbed by water and virtually disappears after 15 feet. About 100 meters down, a red fish would be virtually invisible resulting in an inability to see red in most deep sea fish. The stoplight loosejaw hunts and communicates using a red light which is invisible to any other species. Shining its own invisible flashlight like a deep sea ninja.