Why Dolphins Appear To Glow In This Surreal Footage

Surreal footage captured off the coast of California shows a pod of 'glowing' dolphins swimming in dark water. Photographer Patrick Coyne was lucky enough to film the extraordinary sight of the dolphins swimming through bioluminescent algae and shared it on social media, where the video has gone viral.

While sharing the footage on Instagram, Mr Coyne explained that he first came across the phenomenon of bioluminescence - or the production of light by a living organism - on a Netflix show, which inspired him to attempt photographing it. On Thursday - which he described as "one of the most magical nights" of his life, he went on a nightly tour off the coast of Newport Beach and managed to capture the rare footage himself. 

"Capt. Ryan @lawofthelandnsea of @newportcoastaladventure invited me along to capture rare video of Dolphins swimming in bioluminescence," he wrote while sharing the video. "The first time I saw this actually filmed was a few months back while watching a Night on Earth documentary on Netflix. The second I saw that footage it became a dream of mine to one day capture something similar and that's exactly what we did."

According to the Daily Mail, the light show was caused by the dolphins disturbing the bioluminescent algae - tiny organisms that glow as a fear response.

Watch the dolphins below:

View this post on Instagram

•Dolphins Swimming in Bioluminescence• Last night was truly one of the most magical nights of my life. Capt. Ryan @lawofthelandnsea of @newportcoastaladventure invited me along to capture rare video of Dolphins swimming in bioluminescence. The first time I saw this actually filmed was a few months back while watching a Night on Earth documentary on Netflix. The second I saw that footage it became a dream of mine to one day capture something similar and that's exactly what we did. This was by far the most challenging video I've shot for a number of reason. For starters the bioluminescence has sweet spots to where it shows up and then fades away so while on the water it's impossible to just find it. Not only that but actually finding any type of animal in pitch black is just so ridiculously hard. Conditions have to be absolutely perfect for the bioluminescence to show up and to have an animal swim through it so we can film it. On top of all that just trying to nail the focus at such a wide aperture with something moving in the water was a nightmare. We were out for a few hours and on our final stretch back we finally had 2 Dolphins pop up to start the incredible glowing show. A few minutes later and we were greeted by a few more which was insane. I'm honestly still processing this all and I can't thank @newportcoastaladventure enough for having me out because without them none of this would be possible. Be sure to check our their edit from last night as well! I hope you all enjoy this video. ——————————————————————————— Shot on a Sony a7Sii with a Rokinon 35mm Cine DS T1.5 Len. Shutter speed: 1/50 Aperture T2 ISO 80,000

A post shared by Patrick Coyne (@patrickc_la) on Apr 23, 2020 at 8:40pm PDT

Since being shared online on Friday, the video has collected over 60,000 views on Instagram, along with hundreds of amazed comments.

"This may be the most beautiful video on the internet. Ever," wrote one person in the comments section.

"Oh wow, this is insane," said another.

According to Mr Coyne, filming the footage was a challenging task as conditions have to be "absolutely perfect for the bioluminescence to show up" and finding animals in pitch dark is "ridiculously hard". 

What do you think of the video? Let us know using the comments section.