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Maharashtra: Blue tide witnessed along Mumbai, Sindhudurg coasts

Earlier on Tuesday, bystanders observed a blue hue on the beaches of Juhu and Devgad which is also known as bioluminescence which refers to production and emission of light by a living organism.

Maharashtra: Blue tide witnessed along Mumbai, Sindhudurg coasts
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Several bystanders on Tuesday, November 24, witnessed a blue hue on the Juhu beach in Mumbai and Devgad beach in Sindhudurg along Maharashtra’s coastline.

This blue hue is also known as bioluminescence which is the production and emission of light by a living organism. However, even though it looks beautiful to the eyes, high temperature, high quantity of organic material such as sewage and effluents and increased turbulence/wave action of the water could be the cause for this bioluminescence. Apart from man-made causes, the adverse impact of climate change leading to increased seawater temperature could be playing a major role in such a phenomenon.

This occurrence has been common along the west coast since the year 2016. Moreover, this has been observed across India’s coast as well as the coastline of many beaches in the world, for example, Maldives, Vietnam, Indonesia, USA, Australia, etc.

On the other hand, there exists another phenomenon which is very similar to this blue tide. It is called the red tide or the harmful algae blooms that emit the red light. This happens to be a rare occurrence when several algae spiral out of control, producing toxic or dangerous effects on the people, mammals, birds, fish and the marine life in general.

In fact, in most types of animals, from bacteria to sharks, every species includes some bioluminescent members. While the functions of bioluminescence are not known for all animals, however, bioluminescence is usually used to warn or evade predators or to lure or detect prey, and for communication between members of the same species.

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