While we were almost ready to go to bed on the second day, my church member, Carmen, commented that there are a lot of "blue sand" (蓝眼泪) on the beach just in front of Redang Reef. I sent Daniel and Joseph there verify the claim and not long after, Joseph brought back one to the room. All of us went to the beach to look for blue sand after that :-)
What is blue sand? According to redangisland.com :
Bioluminescent Ostracods (also know as Firefleas/Sea firefly) Found at front beach of Redang Reef Resort, The guide call as blue sand. Ostracods are microscopic crustaceans, typically 0.2mm to 2mm long but are readily fossilised and can occur in enormous numbers in some sediments. Ostracods inhabit in aquatic environment use bioluminescence during mating where the males will attract females to them. Males ostracods flash in a sequence as they swim to attract females. Bioluminescence is blue colour because all colors of light do not transmit equally through ocean water, so if the purpose of bioluminescence is to provide a signal that is detected by other organisms, then it is important that the light be transmitted through seawater. Blue light transmits best through seawater.
Apart from the blue sand, we also saw a lot of mudskippers.
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| blue sand |
To be continued and see you next post :-)
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