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Best Night to Do the Biobay Depends on the Moon

Posted on Mar 18th, 2008 by • Updated on Oct 10th, 2012

You can skip this intro and jump straight to the calendar →

CURRENT MOON

When you visit Puerto Rico, one of the must-do things is a trip to one of our bioluminescent bays (or bio-bays). Whether you go to Laguna Grande in Fajardo in a kayak, Laguna Grande in an electric boat, Laguna Grande on a walking tour, Mosquito Bay in Vieques, or La Parguera in Lajas, you’re sure to have an experience that you will never forget.

In case you want to try to capture some memories of the biobay in pictures, we’ve written a primer for taking photos in the biobay. Note that you’ll need a camera with lots of manual settings — you’ll need to be able to control the length of exposure, the aperture setting (f-stop), and the ISO/ASA film speed setting.

The health of the biobays is measured by the number of dinoflagellates per unit of water. That measure translates into how "bright" the bay will be. Mosquito Bay is the most healthy. La Parguera is the least healthy. The Department of Natural Resources has taken steps to maintain and improve the health of Laguna Grande.

In any case, the biobay is best experienced on a cloudy or moonless night. While we can’t predict if there will be clouds, we can do a pretty good job of predicting the phase of the moon and the time the moon rises. Those are the main two factors that come into play. In general, it’s best to avoid the 5 to 8 nights prior to the full moon.

The better bio-bay tour operators will be able to tell you in advance if the night you’ve chosen will be a good night, with regard to the phase of the moon and moonrise. Many operators will not even conduct tours on less-than-optimal nights. Others will bring a tarp to use to block out the moonlight.

To help you with your planning, we’re providing the calendar below which indicates the new and full moons, and our opinion of which nights will be better or than others.

   New Moon     Best     Good     Fair     Bad     Full Moon
   Fair Early, Bad Later     Best Early, Good Later     Good Early, Fair Later 
MAY 2013
SMTWTFS
1 2 3  4
5 6 7 8 9 10 11
12 13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30 31
JUN 2013
SMTWTFS
1
2 3  4 5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20 21 22
23 24 25 26 27 28 29
30
JUL 2013
SMTWTFS
1 2 3  4 5 6
7 8 9 10 11 12 13
14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27
28 29 30 31
AUG 2013
SMTWTFS
1 2 3
 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17
18 19 20 21 22 23 24
25 26 27 28 29 30 31
SEP 2013
SMTWTFS
1 2 3  4 5 6 7
8 9 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28
29 30
OCT 2013
SMTWTFS
1 2 3  4 5
6 7 8 9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25 26
27 28 29 30 31
NOV 2013
SMTWTFS
1 2
3  4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
DEC 2013
SMTWTFS
1 2 3  4 5 6 7
8 9 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28
29 30 31
JAN 2014
SMTWTFS
1 2 3  4
5 6 7 8 9 10 11
12 13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30 31
FEB 2014
SMTWTFS
1
2 3  4 5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20 21 22
23 24 25 26 27 28
MAR 2014
SMTWTFS
1
2 3  4 5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20 21 22
23 24 25 26 27 28 29
30 31
APR 2014
SMTWTFS
1 2 3  4 5
6 7 8 9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16 17 18 19
20 21 22 23 24 25 26
27 28 29 30
   New Moon     Best     Good     Fair     Bad     Full Moon
   Fair Early, Bad Later     Best Early, Good Later     Good Early, Fair Later 

 

PuertoRicoDayTrips.com assumes no responsibility regarding your safety when participating in the activities described in this article. Please use common sense! If your mother or that little voice in your head tells you that you are about to do something stupid ... then don't do it! Read more about Safety →

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3 comments
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  1. We’re considering going on Dec 21 when the moon is full, but there is supposed to be a total lunar eclipse. Will this be a good day because of the eclipse or not?

  2. Dec 21, 2010 is the night of the full moon. In general, this would be a bad night. Depending on the time and duration of the lunar eclipse, it may or may not be a good night to go to the biobay.

  3. while I have heard that also, the night I went was a cloudless full moon night and our excursion leader @ fajardo said he had never seen the biobay so bright, and it was stunning!

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