Living luminescence lighting up the Neck

HILL Street Grocer worker by day, amateur nature photographer by night and weekends — Jamie Walker is known for going above and beyond for an epic capture.

Thursday night was no different.

Despite being on crutches after breaking his ankle snapping the Disappearing Tarn a fortnight ago, Mr Walker jumped in his car and committed to the 45-minute drive when he heard bioluminescence had been spotted at Eaglehawk Neck.

“I’m the admin of the Bioluminescence Tasmania Facebook page and we have people who upload findings all around the state, so when I spotted a post from Hannah Robertson about 1.30pm saying there was bio at Eaglehawk, I went straight after work,” Mr Walker said.

The phenomenon is tough to forecast as it’s a production and emission of light by a type of living organism, which the photographer likens to the glowing “ghost mushroom” or plankton.

“During the day it appears bright pink, then at night time when you disturb it, it turns bright blue,” Mr Walker explained.

It’s widespread around the world in coastal areas, and is quite common in southern Tasmania, where it responds well to the high nutrient load from urban discharge, agricultural run-off, aquaculture and the slow flow situation created naturally by Storm Bay and the Derwent Estuary.

“It normally likes the warmer weather, so I was really surprised Hannah found some,” Mr Walker said.

His Facebook group has more than 10,500 members, with some members travelling from all over the world just to see the sparkling spectacle in Tasmania.

“This was my first time getting these photos. I was quite lucky being down there at that time of night, and I only had about 15 minutes to get that shot with the Milky Way in the background,” Mr Walker said.

“If the wind and everything stays to plan it should stay in the same spot for a couple of days.”

With another Tassie wonder ticked off his bucket list, the snapper will turn his attention to his next challenge for 2020 — hiking to the top of Hartz Mountain.