After seeing that, I decided I wanted to be a marine biologist. One of our last stops was Fiji, where I got to explore a coral reef. When I was 11 years old, my family went on a trip around the world and visited all these wonderful places. Ana Miguel Blanco How did you get into studying bioluminescence? Robinson with The Medusa, an observation instrument and camera that can operate at depths up to 2,000 meters, using unobtrusive LED lights to capture bioluminescence. And then there’s a lot that produce luminescence from their bellies that exactly matches the color and the intensity of downwelling sunlight, so that they can hide out in the mesopelagic zone and not worry about the shadow that they’re casting, which is the ‘search image’ of an awful lot of upward-looking predators roaming around. Light is also used a lot for defense, in a whole variety of ways: some of the most spectacular are those that can release their bioluminescent chemicals into the water in the face of a predator, and then swim away into the darkness: there are shrimp, squid, and even a few fish that have that capability. And, some animals use bioluminescence to attract mates, with particular flash patterns from uniquely-shaped light organs. There are animals that have built-in flashlights to be able to see in the dark, or they have a lure to attract prey, like the anglerfish that people know thanks to Finding Nemo. You also see them in surface waters: you sometimes get bioluminescent dinoflagellate blooms, called ‘sea sparkle’, which illuminate the waves along the shore. That’s where the largest number of bioluminescent animals are usually found. There’s still sunlight there, but it’s very, very dim – not enough for photosynthesis. Edie Widder Where in the ocean do bioluminescent organisms tend to reside?Ī lot of them are in the mesopelagic zone, which is also called the ‘twilight zone’. The deep-sea shrimp ( Acanthephyra purpurea) spews its bioluminescent chemicals into the face of an attacking viperfish. Most of that has happened in the ocean: on land it’s pretty rare, but in the ocean it’s very, very common. It turns out there’s a lot of different chemistries that have evolved to do this – we think bioluminescence has evolved as many as 50 separate times – and that’s an indication of how important it is for survival. It’s cold chemical light, and the chemicals are produced by living creatures. The kinds of bioluminescence most people are familiar with are fireflies and glowworms. A unique legend, she spoke to us from her home on the east coast of Florida, where she runs the Ocean Research and Conservation Association (ORCA) focusing on preservation and restoration of a local estuary, the Indian River Lagoon. Widder, 71, has devoted the majority of her career to advancing knowledge on bioluminescence and the technology available to capture it, as retold in her memoir Below the Edge of Darkness: A Memoir of Exploring Light and Life in the Deep Sea (Penguin Random House, 2021). marine biologist Edith Widder, who has been at the forefront of documenting and showcasing some of the organisms that brighten those depths. The world’s deep oceans are sometimes portrayed as dark and empty, but in reality, they’re teeming with life – and light.
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