A kayak tour operator is riding a boom in bioluminescent plankton population.
Peter Townend, director of Canoe and Kayak, told Breakfast this morning that the blue glow was caused by phytoplankton.
"It's one of the smallest living organisms in the ocean and it has a chemical reaction that goes on inside it when it moves," he explained.
"It lights up and gives this amazing light show at night. It's very, very pretty."
The company runs one-and-a-half-hour tours in small groups out of Auckland.
"The clients just absolutely go off on it, it's just really amazing."
And the different tours come across different kinds of bioluminescence.
"The main one's 'the big blue', we call it, where the boat moves through the water and the whole surface lights up," Townend said.
"The other one which is really spectacular is, you put your hand under water and move it around and it's like you're reaching up into the heavens and moving the galaxies around, all these stars just move around. It's really, really impressive.
"The other one we see often is what we call 'fairy dust', which is a super, super fine bioluminescence on the surface."
Other kinds include when a reef lights up beneath the kayak – a bit like paddling over city lights, Townend said – as well as when zooplankton eat the phytoplankton and when little fish leave trails of glowing "fairy dust".
"It's always unbelievable."
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