43,060 glowing organisms mapped across the world's oceans, 1872–2025. Each dot is a recorded sighting of a bioluminescent species, positioned by latitude and longitude, colored by phylum, rendered with a faint glow on a near-black ocean.
The world map is barely there. A dark grey fill for land. The glowing dots form the geography. Dense clusters mark well-sampled regions: the North Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, Pacific coast. Sparse areas reflect both where ocean research ships have rarely traveled and where bioluminescence is genuinely uncommon.
Filter by phylum to isolate different types of glow-makers. Hover any dot to see the scientific name, phylum, depth of observation, and year recorded.
| Phylum | Color | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Arthropoda | Cyan #00ffff |
Ostracods, copepods |
| Cnidaria | Blue #4488ff |
Jellyfish, corals |
| Myzozoa | Green #00ff88 |
Dinoflagellates |
| Ctenophora | Purple #cc44ff |
Comb jellies |
| Proteobacteria | Yellow #ffdd00 |
Luminescent bacteria |
| Mollusca | Pink #ff6688 |
Squid, clams |
| Annelida | Orange #ff8844 |
Polychaete worms |
- Hover any dot: scientific name, phylum, observation depth, and year appear in a tooltip
- Click phylum buttons (bottom left) to show or hide that taxonomic group
- Help icon (top left) shows total observation count and data credit
- Fullscreen button (top right) for a cleaner view
- Touch-friendly, works without a mouse
- Source: Ocean Biodiversity Information System (OBIS) — obis.org
- Filter: Organisms with bioluminescence traits, global ocean coverage
- Count: 43,060 observations
- Date range: 1872–2025
- Fields: Scientific name, phylum, latitude, longitude, depth (meters), observation year
Dots are drawn grouped by phylum in a single beginPath() call per group for performance across 43,000 points. D3 quadtree handles hover detection, finding the nearest observation within 10px without looping all records on every mouse move. Land polygons come from TopoJSON world data, rendered at minimal opacity so the dots remain the focus.
Background: #010408. Dot radius: 1.2px with 4px shadow blur for the glow.
bioluminescence/
├── index.html # Complete single-file application
├── social-card.png # 1200x630 Open Graph image
└── highres.png # High-resolution version
Canvas 2D, D3.js v7 (quadtree, projection, data loading), TopoJSON, vanilla JavaScript.
python3 -m http.server 8000
# Open http://localhost:8000By Luke Steuber · @lukesteuber.com · dr.eamer.dev
Part of the data poems collection at dr.eamer.dev.