Why the world's oceans are changing colour

August 1, 2024 4:49 AM

"When you picture the ocean you might imagine sparkling turquoise waters – but recent research suggests swathes of our world's oceans may in fact be turning greener."
posted by cupcakeninja (12 comments total)

this might be something that a mantis shrimp or a butterfly could see
Unlike the trichromatic retinas of humans (blue, green and red cones; plus rods) and honeybees (ultraviolet, blue and green photoreceptors), butterfly retinas typically have six or more photoreceptor classes with distinct spectral sensitivities. The eyes of the Japanese yellow swallowtail (Papilio xuthus) contain ultraviolet, violet, blue, green, red and broad‐band receptors, with each ommatidium housing nine photoreceptor cells in one of three fixed combinations [nih]
posted by HearHere at 5:50 AM on August 1 [3 favorites]

And at the same time our arctic rivers are turning orange.
posted by thecincinnatikid at 5:55 AM on August 1 [2 favorites]

When I picture the ocean I picture water of such a deep blue hue that it is almost purple. Turquoise is what the water looks like closer to land or in shallower depths.
posted by grumpybear69 at 7:49 AM on August 1

UK here, and even disregarding, er, other matters, I've never seen our coastal waters as sparkling or turquoise. To me they've always been brown, usually turbid, and often topped with an unlovely off-white foam.

Perhaps there are/were places on our south coast that are different?
posted by BCMagee at 9:28 AM on August 1

When I picture the ocean, I picture water of utter darkness and crushing pressure. The view from my abyssal vault is no view at all, since sight is useless to me. My concern with your perceptions of the tiny skin of my oceanic home which you inhabit will be made abundantly clear when I rise to address the mess you’ve made of it.
posted by GenjiandProust at 9:49 AM on August 1 [11 favorites]

From TFA:

"The colour itself is not something that's easy to describe with human language or that you can even see that well," says B B Cael, a scientist at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton in the UK. Instead, this might be something that a mantis shrimp or a butterfly could see, he adds.

So not only is it impossible to see, it is also really difficult to talk about!
posted by grumpybear69 at 9:58 AM on August 1 [1 favorite]

Maybe instead of focusing on the exact color of the wine-dark sea, it's easier to think about the ecosystem changes the article mostly is about.

It found that chlorophyll – a photosythetic pigment found in phytoplankton and plants that gives them their green hue – were 200-500% higher than average in the Norwegian sea and Altantic Ocean north of the UK in April 2023, while they were 60-80% lower in the ocean west of the Iberian Peninsula. The Mediterranean Sea saw chorophyll levels 50-100% higher than average in June 2023. In both cases the average was taken from measurements between 1998-2020.

Scientists believe these shifts in colour go beyond natural year-to-year variations and are a sign of warming ocean temperatures.

posted by Nelson at 10:22 AM on August 1 [6 favorites]

My concern with your perceptions of the tiny skin of my oceanic home which you inhabit will be made abundantly clear when I rise to address the mess you’ve made of it.

You know the next verse is “and on the surface die”, right?
posted by notoriety public at 11:56 AM on August 1 [1 favorite]

Homer's " the wine dark sea, " .
posted by hortense at 12:56 PM on August 1

> When I picture the ocean, I picture water of utter darkness and crushing pressure. The view from my abyssal vault is no view at all, since sight is useless to me. My concern with your perceptions of the tiny skin of my oceanic home which you inhabit will be made abundantly clear when I rise to address the mess you’ve made of it.

all hail lomlor!
posted by bombastic lowercase pronouncements at 2:49 PM on August 1

Ya know, South Park should've some Mr Hanky episode about the UK's beaches being coered in poop.
posted by jeffburdges at 8:42 AM on August 11

Since we see through an inch or so of what is essentially clarified ocean water, it would be surprising if we perceived it as strongly colored, no?
posted by jamjam at 10:19 AM on August 11