For more than a week, photographers, scientists and adventurers alike have captured stunning images of an electric blue light emanating from Southern California's waves at night.

The appearance of bioluminescence, which occurs when a species of algae is moved, is difficult to predict, but over the past nine days, Californians have shared videos and photos of the phenomenon from San Diego to Point Mugu and several other locations in between.

On Monday evening, photographer Patrick Coyne went to Marina del Rey, where he saw the brightest bioluminescent water he said he had ever experienced — quite a feat considering he's been chasing the neon blue waves since 2018.

“It was so incredibly bright last night that my iPhone picked it up more than ever before,” said Coyne, 30. He said he had been on area beaches eight of the last nine nights and had seen the neon blue waves, the illuminated surfers along the waves and the glowing water documented as he waded along the shore.

Coyne has a large online following through his stunning photos and videos, but also through his willingness – and commitment – to find out and share when and where the bioluminescent light shows will be shown. Once he posts where he saw the electrifying waves, dozens of followers soon join him at the spot, he said.

“I love showing people this phenomenon. … It feels like magic,” he said.

And for those who haven't seen the bright blue sea yet, perhaps it's not too late.

“We really don’t know; “Mother Nature decides when it will show up and when it won’t,” said Coyne, who estimates he has probably seen 300 occurrences in the last six years.

But he also struck many more times.

“I’ve been out looking for it hundreds and hundreds of times,” he said. But he's happy with his chances on Tuesday night.

“If I had guessed it, I think it will be there tonight – but I've been burned in the past,” he said. “It’s so random.”

Given the intensity of the glow he saw Monday night and the long streak already recorded, he thinks there will still be enough microscopic algae – called dinoflagellates – emitting the bioluminescent glow somewhere along the Southern California coast. During the day, these dinoflagellates cast a rusty hue across the ocean – often called a “red tide” – which sky cameras captured around the Santa Monica Pier on Tuesday. This strong reading also bodes well for more nights of bioluminescence.

However, according to UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography, red tides – and the coordinating bioluminescence – are unpredictable and quite capricious. They can last just one or several days and extend over hundreds of kilometers or be localized.

“Previous events lasted from a week to a month or longer,” said the Scripps researchers. “There is no way to predict how long they will last.”

In 2020 there was a particularly long stretch of spectacle lasting several weeks in the region. It is not yet clear how long this will last.

“We recently had dinoflagellate blooms along the California coast,” said Clarissa Anderson, a biological oceanographer at Scripps and director of the Southern California Coastal Ocean Observing Systemsaid last week. “I see a lot Lingulodinium polyedra And Tripos furca in the last few days – both are producers of the bioluminescent light shows we see.”

Last week, a UC San Diego photographer captured dolphins gliding through blue, glowing waters.

The dinoflagellates, known as Lingulodinium polyedra Use bioluminescence to avoid predators by either scaring away hungry sea creatures or drawing attention to their location, which attracts predators' predators, experts say.

Researchers are still working to better understand how these algal blooms affect marine life and humans. There is no public health warning related to the events, but some people have reported health effects from the red tide.