A research team has developed a method to breed the bioluminescent marine organisms that cause the phenomenon known as a blue tide, which they plan to demonstrate at two aquariums on the Matsu islands.
Marine ecologists from National Taiwan Ocean University on Thursday unveiled their findings at a news conference in Pingtung County’s Kenting (墾丁).
Blue tides — also known as “blue tears” — are a naturally occurring bioluminescence in the sea around Matsu, a phenomenon that occurs between April and August which the county government has been promoting to attract tourism to the islands.
Photo courtesy of National Taiwan Ocean University
Chiang Kuo-ping (蔣國平), a professor of environmental biology and fisheries sciences at the university, said previous studies by the team had found that Noctiluca scintillans, or sea sparkles, was one of the organisms causing blue tides.
The team has been working on identifying the species that causes blue tides, understanding the conditions leading to their appearance, and finding ways to breed them in large numbers to address the difficulty in predicting their occurrence, which presents an obstacle for Matsu’s tourism, Chiang said.
The team linked sea sparkles to blue tides by isolating the species in cultures created from samples taken from the sea during blue tides, a conclusion that was later reinforced by RNA analysis performed with next-generation sequencing techniques, he added.
Following a year of research, the team developed a method for recycling 20 liters of sea water without losing the sea sparkles, which was the most challenging technical hurdle to commercial breeding of the organism, Chiang said.
The method allows researchers to breed the organism in tanks holding up to a tonne of water, he said.
After a series of tests conducted last year in the waters around Matsu, the team found that the intensity of blue tides was linked to algal blooms, or periods of rapid growth by microscopic algae, Chiang said, adding that the concentration of sea sparkles peaked toward the end of algal blooms.
The finding is consistent with a hypothesis that blue tides are the result of interactions in the marine food chain and are not caused by pollution, which distinguishes them from the Gulf of Mexico’s red tides, a phenomenon believed to be triggered by pollution and the breeding of harmful organisms, Chiang said.
The research was made possible by a grant from the Ministry of Education’s program for excellence in university education, National Taiwan Ocean University president Chang Ching-fong (張清風) said.
A blue tide habitat and tourism facility will be built at the site of the former Fisheries Research Institute facility on Nangan Island (南竿) and will be open to visitors by July, Chang said, adding that another facility on the university’s Matsu campus on Beigang Island will open next year.
Additional reporting by Yu Chao-fu
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