Its most common occurrence to the sailor is in the often brilliantly luminescent bow wave or wake of a surface ship. In these instances the causal organisms are almost always dinoflagellates, single-cell algae, often numbering many hundreds per liter. They are mechanically excited to produce light by the ship's passage or even by the movement of porpoises and smaller fish. The deep-sea fish Aristostomias has more than one light organ. Read more about this and other amazing adaptations .
Bioluminescence is a primarily marine phenomenon.
It is the only source of light in the largest fraction of the habitable volume of the earth, the deep ocean . On land it is most commonly seen as glowing fungus on wood, or in the few families of luminous insects. Bioluminescence has evolved many times in the sea as evidenced by the several distinct chemical mechanisms by which light is emitted and the large number of only distantly related taxonomic groups that have many bioluminescent members. Find out more about the basic properties of bioluminescence. This page is continually being revised.