Glowing Sea Turtle Discovered in the Solomon Islands [Photos]

Marine biologists scored a surprising and rare find one night at the Solomon Islands.

David Gruber, a marine biologist from the City University of New York, was on a night dive with his team at an area within the South Pacific island nation looking for biofluorescent sharks when a solitary hawksbill sea turtle came into view. It was glowing in two colors, prompting him to describe the sighting as akin to seeing an alien spaceship.

"I followed it for a few minutes and then it dove down a deep coral wall. I decided to leave it alone as it had already divulged its secret," Gruber told ABC News.

"The critically endangered hawksbill sea turtle is the first reptile scientists have seen exhibiting biofluorescence-the ability to reflect the blue light hitting a surface and re-emit it as a different color," National Geographic explained. "The most common colors are green, red, and orange."

"Biofluorescence is different from bioluminescence, in which animals either produce their own light through a series of chemical reactions, or host bacteria that give off light," the news source went on to clarify.

Alexander Gaos, Eastern Pacific Hawksbill Initiative director, agrees that the discovery is an astounding one.

"I've been [studying turtles] for a long time and I don't think anyone's ever seen this," he affirmed.

Gruber said that this find leads to new questions, such as how the creatures use the biofluorescence.

"We know they have really good vision and they go under these long and arduous migrations," he commented, as noted by USA Today. "But how are they using this? Are they using it to find each other or to attract each other?"

"It'd be fairly difficult to study this turtle because there are so few left and they're so protected," he added.

"[Biofluorescence is] usually used for finding and attracting prey or defense or some kind of communication," Gaos said, although he thinks it's too early to conclude how such turtles are able to glow - or if other turtles in other areas can, too.

Notably, Gruber found that some captive hawksbill turtles, when lit with blue light, emitted a similar neon palette of colors as the one they found at sea, The Huffington Post said. This effect may have not been noticed before as biofluorescence do not manifest in shallow water because of the lack of blue light.

Gaos also said that hawksbills are hard to find, aside from being one of the rarest species on earth, as they're very good at concealing themselves, thanks to their shell.

Gruber said that an alternative strategy would be studying the green sea turtle, which is a close relative of the hawksbill turtle.

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