It was the most magical moment off Patrick Coyne’s life, so surreal he said it brought tears to his eyes.
Out in the dark of night Wednesday, Coyne and friend Ryan Lawler set out on an inflatable boat with hopes they’d find creatures that would illuminate in glowing sea water, which for a week off Newport Beach’s coast has caused a buzz because of bioluminescence that creates neon blue waters.
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They had almost given up on their quest and were headed back to the harbor when two dolphins suddenly showed up, lighting the pitch-dark ocean as they swam next to the small inflatable boat. The black ocean water and their sleek bodies were lit up by the brightness that this unique phenomenon creates, a rare sight off local waters not seen in years.
“I was like, this can’t be happening,” said Coyne, a Torrance resident. “This is so magical. After the two dolphins were playing with us, a few more joined in.”
The National Geographic-like moment has been a bucket-list treasure for a Southern California photographer who has set out night after night to score unique footage of the phenomenon.
A thick red tide has lingered off areas of the coastline during the day, the first sign that the bioluminescence could occur, which prompted Coyne and two other photographers, Mark Girardeau and Royce Hutain, to venture to Newport Beach last week to see if it would show up, and they were in luck.
Red tides are unpredictable and not all of them produce bioluminescence. There is no red tide monitoring program, but the Southern California Coastal Ocean Observing System at Scripps Oceanography performs weekly sampling for potential harmful algal toxins.
Scientists do not know how long the current red tide will last, previous events have lasted anywhere from a week to a month or more.
During the day, the photosynthetic organisms swim upward toward the light, creating a thin, dense layer near the surface. Circulation patterns create dense groups of the red tide organisms over the troughs of the waves.
Bioluminescent dinoflagellates, when moved by water or waves, make the water look bright blue.
The photographers, as well as others drawn to the phenom, have been showing up at the still-open beaches to document the rare sight. The first night, they shot glowing waves from shore and a few days later ventured out on Lawler’s boat to see how it looked offshore, with Coyne filming Hutain as he did a cannonball into the glowing water.
But none of that footage compared to what Coyne captured on Wednesday evening, April 23, when the dolphins showed up for the show.
He had the idea from a segment in the film Night on Earth he saw months ago on Netflix, which had similar footage. The landscape and architecture photographer said it became a dream of his to get footage of glowing dolphins.
Getting the footage wasn’t easy because of how unpredictable the glowing water can be off the coast.
“It’s not something you can just plan. It was showing up in little sections, we would drive the boat a bit, it would be bright and then it would go away,” he said. “You can’t really find it, it’s pitch black. We could see it when it would start glowing, there’s no way for us to predict it.”
Then, the sea creatures have to show up and swim through it. Not to mention the difficulty of shooting in pitch dark, the creatures moving at a high speed.
But he knew it was possible, and a hunch and good feeling about what could unfold.
“As soon as the dolphins showed up, I literally shed a tear,” he said. “I was like ‘This can’t be happening.’”
The dolphins stayed with the boat for about 15 minutes, cutting through the water on the side and in front of the small boat.
“Hands down the most incredible experience of my life,” Coyne said. “I’ve been really lucky, this truly tops everything.”
The moment even tops the Yosemite firefall he was able to capture a few years back.
Coyne said he has hours of footage he hasn’t even been able to go through yet of the bioluminescence off Newport Beach’s coast, like wading through glowing water surrounded by small fish and making neon footprints in the sand. His dream is to make a mini documentary with the footage.
“We’re pretty proud of it,” he said of the dolphin footage. “I don’t know how many people will ever see that in their life. I didn’t think I’d ever see this in my life, to be honest. It was truly one of the most magical nights of my life.”
