You know that summer has arrived on the Costa Tropical when ‘mysterious orange stains’ start appearing along the coastline.

The photo is of Playa Cantarriján and was taken by Amigos de Playa Cantarriján, but these stains have appeared in Almuñécar, Salobreña and Torrenueva, as well.

But far from being body-snatching aliens or an indication that Donald Trump has secretly been bathing on our beaches… the real culprit are harmless (which is more than can be said for Donald) micro, marine organisms called Noctiluca scintillans or Marine Sparkle to its friends and the English-speaking world in general.

This summer visitor, according to Wikipedia, is a “free-living, marine-dwelling species of dinoflagellate that exhibits bioluminescence when disturbed (popularly known as mareel). Its bioluminescence is produced throughout the cytoplasm of this single-celled protist, by a luciferin-luciferase reaction in thousands of spherically shaped organelles, called scintillons.”

Although this is a natural phenomenon, the frequency in which it is now appearing is not: it used to be once in a blue moon but now appears just about every summer.

However, the Aula del Mar at the University of Granada, is not taking any chances and is taking samples to make sure that there are no harmful elements within the ‘brew’ (such as Donald).

Summing up, yes these stains are harmless but that does not mean that you should gargle with them…

(News: Herradura, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)