First Alien-Like Glowing Turtle Discovered By Explorers In South Pacific Islands

Scientists diving near the Solomon Islands made an incredible discovery: a turtle that glows neon red and green. And now, as an exclusive to National Geographic, scientists have reported the first case of biofluorescence in a reptile. It is different from bioluminescence, which is the production of light through a series of chemical reactions, or host bacteria that glow. Marine mammals are sometimes observed “glowing” underwater when they are surrounded by bioluminescent plankton.

Gruber headed to the Solomon Islands in late July not to study Hawksbill sea turtles, but to film biofluorescent small sharks and coral reefs.

In addition to whether the turtles can see the biofluorescence and what they use that ability for, Gruber says there are other interesting questions to answer, such as where the hawksbill sea turtle gets the ability to biofluoresce in the first place.

Gruber told the Daily Dot that after discovering the hawksbill’s fluorescent capabilities, he took a closer look at the loggerhead turtle and found it was able to fluoresce as well.

The hawksbill sea turtle is also critically endangered. “This is really quite wonderful”. The turtle was captured on video before it swam away.

To capture the fluorescence, the team have developed cameras with high energy blue lights (to stimulate the animals biofluorescence) and yellow filters (so they can see the colours being emitted). They’re not sure why this turtle may possess biofluorescence-other species typically use it to communicate with one another or, believe it or not, to blend in.

For 5 minutes, Gruber followed the reptile through the waters until he was forced to let it go back alone into the dark depths beyond his sight. It’s the ideal light environment that would fuel the biofluorescent quality in hawksbill sea turtles.

“(Biofluorescence is) usually used for finding and attracting prey or defense or a few kind of communication”, Gaos said.

“It’d be fairly hard to study this turtle because there are so few left and they’re so protected”, he said. However, researchers will direct their attention to its closest relative, the green sea turtle, in search for similar abilities.