Among the peculiar features of the phosphorescence of the sea are the suddenness with which it sometimes appears and disappears, and its very irregular variations both at different seasons and at different hours of the same night. On certain nights the sea is apparently full of living fire when, almost suddenly the light vanishes and hardly a trace of phosphorescence remains; while, on other occasions, the phenomenon is observed only on certain patches of water, the areas of which are so well defined that one passes suddenly from or into a luminous sea.
The actual nature of the light and the manner in which it is produced are but ill understood, but the variations and fitfulness of its appearances can be to a certain extent conjectured from our knowledge of some of the animals that produce it.
In our own seas the luminosity is undoubtedly caused principally by the presence of myriads of minute floating or free-swimming organisms that inhabit the surface waters. Of these each one has its own season, in which it appears in vast numbers. Some appear to live entirely at or near the surface, but others apparently remain near the surface only during the night, or only while certain conditions favourable to their mode of life prevail. And further, it is possible that these minute creatures, produced as they generally are in vast numbers at about the same time, and being more or less local, are greatly influenced by changes of temperature, changes in the nature of the wind, and the periodic changes in the tides; and it is probable that we are to look to these circumstances for the explanations of the sudden changes so frequently observed.
In warmer seas the phenomenon of phosphorescence is much more striking than in our own, the brilliancy of the light being much stronger, and also produced by a greater variety of living beings, some of which are of great size, and embrace species belonging to the vertebrates and the higher invertebrate animals.
Those interested in the investigation of this subject should make it a rule to collect the forms of life that inhabit the water at a time when the sea is unusually luminous. A sample of the water may be taken away for the purpose of examination, and this should be viewed in a good light, both with and without a magnifying lens. It is probable, too, that a very productive haul may be obtained by drawing a fine muslin net very slowly through the water. After some time the net should be emptied and gently washed in a small quantity of sea water to remove the smaller forms of life contained, and the water then examined at leisure.
Of course it must not be assumed that all the species so obtained are concerned in any way with the phosphorescence of the sea, but any one form turning up in abundance when collected under the conditions named will probably have some connection with the phenomenon.
One may well ask ‘What is the use of this light-emitting power to the animals who possess it?’ but this question is not easily answered. The light produced by the glow-worm and other luminous insects is evidently a signal by means of which they call their mates, and this may be the case with many of the marine luminous animals, but it is evidently not so with those which live in such immense numbers that they are simply crowded together; nor can it be so with the many luminous creatures that are hermaphrodite. It is a fact, however, that numbers of deep-sea species possess the power of emitting light to a striking extent; and the use of this power is in such cases obvious, for since the rays of the sun do not penetrate to great depths in the ocean, these luminous species are enabled to illuminate their own surroundings while in search of food, and, in many cases at least, to quench their lights suddenly at such times as they themselves are in danger.