10/09/2025
USO - Gulf of America
Location coordinates: 28°1.913’N • 83°4.032’W ( 10 miles west of caladesi island, Clearwater beach Florida)
“I work on a research vessel. Recently we had a trip, studying bioluminescence in the Gulf of Mexico. Around 2345, we were conducting research as normal, when a science party member saw a strange light about a quarter mile off our stern.
We immediately started to make way towards the light. The intensity of the light was quite astonishing, nobody in the crew or the science party knew what to make of it. At first, we thought it could have been a sunken vessel, or a navigation buoy of some kind that sunk.
We proceeded to get as close as possible to the light, and eventually we hovered directly on top of it. Our vessel has a moonpool in the center, which the crew and science party were able to carefully observe the light from directly on top.
We used a sub-surface camera to attempt and capture what the object may have been. The science party onboard automatically ruled out the light being produced by bioluminescent phytoplankton.
This light source was 100% on the bottom of the ocean, and not something that was floating through the water column. It did not move in the current. The water depth at this specific location was 60’ deep. As we hovered on top of the light, we used an EK-80 ( sonar ) to provide us with imagining of the ocean floor at this location.
To our surprise, this object producing the light did not have a physical shape that we could detect. It was invisible to our sonar. The sonar is also capable of imaging objects that are below the sea floor ( objects that could be partially submerged in the mud ), and objects that could be as small as 3’ in length/ width.
Any speculations on what this object could have been? Consider the strength of the light having to shine through 60’ of water, and being strong enough for us to observe from a considerable distance away. There was definitely an arc of visibility that seemed to be brighter when viewed from further away, then top down.”
