Thread: Would you eat glow in the dark Barra?

Gday Ben,

I have seen this type of thing in the ocean a couple of times, looking out the back of the boat and seeing thousands of small bait type fish glowing in the water.
If you turn off all the boats lights the prop wash glowed the same, so can only assume it was some type of phosphorus in the water. Well that's my excuse for it anyway.

For the record I was stone cold sober and dead straight, so can blame the beer or mind altering drugs

Cheers Ean

Quite common in the Gulf and associated rivers. At night it looks like your tinny has an afterburner, the glow is that noticeable. Eaten heaps of fish from this area with no after effects that I know of.

Also seen this in SEQLD, was told it was phosphorus in the water

It's bio-luminescence. Funky thing to go diving at night and there's so much in the water you don't need a torch, just wave your arms around and it lights up. It's actually a sign of a healthy water body.

Did any of you guys click on the link and read it???

They are artificially adding the fluorescence so they can differentiate wild and stocked barra.

They are introducing calcein to the water when they are young which bioaccumulates in the bones of the growing barra.

A friend and former colleague works in the hatchery that produces them.


I am well aware of bioluminescence...

fluorescein has been used for ages in medicine with no ill effects as a cell activity tracer. when i was young, my father who is an ophthmology prof. would return home from clinics etc, fingers stained with the stuff

i would eat them Luurve Barra with a little lemon ..

jc

Thanks for the link Ben,
WA fisheries truly put us dumb Queenslanders to shame.

Great way of tracking stocked vs native fish!

S