Imagine sailing in the middle of the ocean… and suddenly, everything around your ship starts glowing. Not just a little — the entire sea turns a glowing white-blue, like something out of a sci-fi movie. For 400 years, sailors told stories of this “milky sea” — and no one believed them. But now, thanks to satellites and science, we finally know what causes this surreal light show. In this video, we dive into one of Earth’s strangest ocean mysteries and how modern tech finally cracked it. Trust me, this is one of those stories you’ll want to see to believe. Animation is created by Bright Side. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/
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00:00Look, the sea is glowing from within. It's stunning, yet eerie at the same time.
00:07White glow covering a huge area of the sea surface is not what you expect to see on a dark night.
00:14You look at one of the scariest and mysterious phenomena in the ocean.
00:19Let's study it.
00:20On January 30th, 1864, the Confederate ship, CSS Alabama, was sailing southwest along the Horn of Africa when the crew members noticed a mysterious white glowing sea.
00:35Captain Raphael Semes described it as a sickly and unearthly glare of a phantom sea.
00:42Although Semes was a stern and fearless sailor, he was scared by this bright water in the middle of the dark sea.
00:50At first, the crew thought they had been sailing over some kind of flooded ridge.
00:55They threw a weighted line, which immediately sank to the seabed, several hundred feet down.
01:01Obviously, the mysterious glow was not a ridge.
01:04For several hours, the ship sailed through this eerie glowing sea, and then, suddenly, this bright region ended.
01:12The Alabama entered the usual dark waters.
01:15Captain Raphael Semes' description was one of the very first documented accounts of a mysterious and elusive phenomenon called the Milky Sea.
01:26In 1851, in the famous book Moby Dick, this phenomenon was described as a sailor's quiet, superstitious fear at the entrance to the midnight sea of milky whiteness.
01:38Jules Verne, in his novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, described this phenomenon more scientifically.
01:45One of the characters of his book said that the whiteness was caused by the presence of myriads of infusoria, a sort of luminous little worm, gelatinous and colorless.
01:57For centuries, people have reported mysterious glowing water at night, and only recently have scientists got closer to solving this mystery.
02:05But first, let's be clear.
02:08What Captain Raphael Semes saw was slightly different from that violet-blue glow called bioluminescence.
02:16Aristotle wrote about luminous algae and phytoplankton in the 3rd century BCE.
02:22He noticed that sometimes, the water produced bright blue flashes when he hit the surface of the sea with a baton.
02:29In 1492, Christopher Columbus observed unusual flickering of light in the ocean caused by bioluminescent marine worms.
02:39As it turned out later, those worms rose to the surface to perform a circular mating dance.
02:46In the late 1800s, scientists discovered that bioluminescence is the result of an oxidative reaction inside certain animal and plant cells.
02:56You might have seen it at night while walking along the shore.
02:59If not, you can watch a video with bioluminescent water on the internet.
03:03But milky seas are a slightly different phenomenon.
03:07The sea glows white as if it's illuminated by a bright spotlight, and the area of white water can extend for miles.
03:16Unlike bioluminescence, milky seas are a rarer and quite elusive phenomenon,
03:21which is why it was so difficult for scientists to determine its nature.
03:26People didn't come across such glowing waters very often, so many regarded it as legends about mermaids or sea monsters.
03:34But in 1985, science got a chance to study this thing in more detail.
03:40That year, a U.S. Navy research vessel got into the milky sea while sailing near the Arabian Peninsula.
03:47There were scientists on board who collected some samples of milky water and conducted a laboratory analysis.
03:55And that's what they found out.
03:57The water contained bioluminescent bacteria, but what caused them to glow?
04:02Scientists suggested that algae colonies first rose to the water's surface.
04:06They began to bloom and gradually decompose.
04:09Those cells of rotten algae burst and release special substances, lipids.
04:16A huge number of bacteria began to feed on lipids and multiply rapidly.
04:22The number of bacteria grew in such large numbers that they began to produce a continuous white glow.
04:28But where exactly and under what conditions could these milky seas appear?
04:35It was necessary to know not only for scientists, but also for authorities.
04:40Such a bright spot in the water could reveal the outlines of a submarine and turn it into an easy target for enemies.
04:47So, scientists continued their research.
04:50One of them was atmospheric scientist Stephen Miller.
04:55He started studying milky seas in the early 2000s and made a breakthrough in his research.
05:01To begin with, he decided to find out if the sensors on space satellites were capable of seeing bioluminescence.
05:09Miller started looking for any mention of extensive milky spots on the internet.
05:13He came across the Frontier Science Portal, where people wrote about strange and unexplained phenomenon around the world.
05:22There, he found a report from the British merchant ship SS Lima, which hit the Milky Sea in January 1995 while sailing along the Horn of Africa.
05:32This is how the log entry described the event.
05:36The bioluminescence appeared to cover the entire sea area from horizon to horizon.
05:41And it appeared as though the ship was sailing over a field of snow or gliding over the clouds.
05:48After that, Miller collected the images taken by certain satellites over the place where the SS Lima sailed at that time.
05:56At first, he didn't notice anything strange.
06:00But later, he realized that he was looking directly at the Milky Sea.
06:05The area of the glowing spot was so large that he had to scale the image down.
06:10That's when he saw a spot that looked like a comma.
06:15The edges of this spot coincided with the place where the crew of the SS Lima saw the white glow.
06:21Miller studied the images of this area taken before, during, and after the encounter,
06:27and found out that the Milky Sea rotated counterclockwise to the local ocean currents.
06:33But most importantly, Miller now knew that the White Sea could be seen from satellites.
06:40In 2011, two satellites with more sensitive sensors, capable of seeing in poor light, entered Earth's orbit.
06:47They helped Miller and other scientists to find out that milky seas appeared most often in the winter and summer
06:54in the northwestern Indian Ocean and around Indonesia.
06:58Great! Now Miller had the place and time to work with.
07:03He analyzed satellite data for the period from 2012 to 2021 and found out that one of the largest Milky Sea incidents occurred in 2019.
07:14For 45 nights, a white glow covered 40,000 square meters, which is the approximate area of Kentucky.
07:21But even after all these studies, scientists haven't managed to find the exact cause of the white glow.
07:29In addition to the idea about the disintegration of algae,
07:33researchers have put forward a theory that the glow may be caused by quorum sensing.
07:39This is the ability of bacteria to communicate using chemical signals that produce light.
07:46Okay, let's say there's some truth to this.
07:49But why are they doing this?
07:50To find out, let's look at classical blue bioluminescence in other organisms.
07:57Some biologists suggest that with the help of the glow, bacteria attract partners for reproduction.
08:04Another theory claims that the bright light works as an alarm when dangerous enemies appear in the sea.
08:11For example, a colony of phytoplankton meets hungry fish.
08:15The organisms turn their glow on to attract larger fish.
08:19It's like using evil to fight another evil.
08:22There are many theories, but what's the problem with figuring out the exact reason?
08:28Even with all the satellite help and studies of milky seas, it's quite difficult to get to the right place at the right time.
08:36Let's say a white glow the size of a football field appears in the sea.
08:42The satellites notice this and send a signal to the research center.
08:46Next, a team of scientists boards a vessel and goes directly to the place.
08:51The distance to the milky sea can be quite big.
08:54And by the time they arrive, the glow has already disappeared.
08:59In an ideal situation, scientists need to be around the area before, during, and after the glow to get the full picture.
09:07Unfortunately, this is not possible at the moment.
09:10That's it for today.
09:12So hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your friends.
09:17Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the bright side.
