Watch electric blue waves crash against rocks — and a shooting star in the night sky above
A lucky photographer and videographer captured not one, but two stunning phenomena occurring simultaneously along the California coast.
Stars glittered in the sky as electric blue waves crashed against rocks and cascaded across the shoreline at Crystal Cove in Newport Beach. The sight is so dazzling, it’s easy to miss the shooting star that blinks across the frame in the opposite corner of the bioluminescent waves.
“Bioluminescence alone is amazing but adding a shooting star into the mix makes it even better,” video creator Patrick Coyne wrote in the caption on videos he posted to Instagram and TikTok March 1. “This was taken a few months ago at Crystal Cove. I didn’t realize I captured the shooting star until looking at the footage which was a cool surprise. Check the top right corner!”
TikTok users marveled at the serene sight in the comments.
“How did people look at things like THIS and decide we needed taxes,” someone asks.
“I just started my morning with bioluminescence and a shooting star,” someone else says.
“Does that mean I can make a wish?” someone else asks. Coyne tells them: “Absolutely it does.”
Coyne explains he happened to be in the right place at the right time when he filmed the waves a few months back.
“It’s always super random when it happens but I check often! Best indicator of bio is when there is a red tide during the day. The ocean looks brown,” Coyne said.
He’s captured bioluminescence on video multiple times in California and Florida, according to his TikTok account.
While the video is a few months old, southern California beaches started glimmering with bioluminescence at the beginning of March, McClatchy News previously reported. Bioluminescence comes from a chemical reaction that produces light energy within an organism’s body, according to the Smithsonian Institution .
This story was originally published March 6, 2023 at 6:19 PM with the headline "Watch electric blue waves crash against rocks — and a shooting star in the night sky above."
