MBARI scientist gets his picture on a postage stamp

Here is a link to Haddock’s website.

http://biolum.eemb.ucsb.edu/organism/photo.html

A local scientist’s photo is now getting a whole lot of attention.

A marine biologist here on the Central Coast took an amazing photo of bioluminescence, which ended up on a postage stamp.

Bioluminescence in itself is pretty cool, and is something only few animals and organisms can actually do. It’s basically a chemical reaction inside of them… Which can produce a flash or even a glow of light.

Steven haddock at the Monterey Bay Research Institute has been looking into this phenomenon for years. “It’s like a super power or a magical ability” says, haddock – marine biologist, MBARI.

Steven Haddock describes his fascination with one of the most interesting underwater phenomenon’s… one that Big Sur saw just a few weeks ago.

Haddock says, “It happens to various degrees every year. There’s always a little bioluminescence out there. And then sometimes when, like I said when it gets calm or the conditions are right… It will really accumulate and intensify.”

And while the light show is not an everyday thing… there’s more luminescent creatures in the bay than you might think.

“We looked through almost 500,000 organisms and we cataloged each group, by weather it was bioluminescent or not. And when we looked at the data about three quarters of the data that we had found, that we could see in the water column, where bioluminescent. All the way from the surface down to 4,000 meters deep” says, haddock.

He says this does not include mammals or organisms living on the bottom of the ocean… Only things floating in the water.

And while Haddock does lots of different kinds of research…it’s this photo that’s grabbing attention. His picture of a bioluminescent worm has been turned into a forever stamp.

Haddock says, “It was here at MBARI. We collected it offshore with one of our subs… Brought it back into the lab and then I photographed it… and the stamp just reaches all parts of the country so it’s been a pretty rewarding way to get messages out about the ocean.”

And the only thing left for haddock to do… Is buy the stamp for himself. “We went to the post office here and they didn’t have them yet. So I actually haven’t seen the sheet yet.