Date Posted:Wed, Apr 06 2005, 4:17:39 Author: Alex Kang Subject: Re: Back from Redang In reply to:
Jac
's message, "Back from Redang" on Tue, Apr 05 2005, 14:22:06
Yes, I was at Laguna 1-4 Apr so it was probably me you saw. Should have come up to say 'hi' as I was thinking about you and the blue sand you mentioned :)
I asked Elvis (welcome manager at Laguna) about the blue sand and he brought me and some marine scientist friends I was with that first night and showed us. We could only find it at the corner of Pasir Panjang near the walkway to Redang Reef and at Redang Reef front beach (we didn't look in the back). We scoured the rest of Pasir Panjang up to Shark Bay and on the other side in front of Redang Bay but couldn't find it anywhere else.
Elvis used to work at Redang Reef and he mentioned seeing them at both front and back beaches. Sweeping the sand at the waterline with our feet would reveal tiny bright blue specks which we could pick up and put in our hands. Examined under our torchlight, we could see a very tiny brownish organism that moved. Squeezing or putting pressure on the organism caused it to become bioluminescent. According to my marine scientist friends from KUSTEM, it was likely to be a class of tiny crustaceans called ostracods (also known as 'sea fireflies' in Japan) and not phytoplankton as we had initially suspected. Interesting stuff!
