A curated database of milky sea observations from 1600 to present

Milky seas are a rare form of nocturnal oceanic bioluminescence distinguished by a steady, non-flashing, white/gray/green glow. Scientific inquiry into milky seas has, for centuries, been held back by the remote ephemeral nature of this phenomenon. Combining centuries of eyewitness accounts with modern satellite observations, we present a curated list of milky sea observations since 1600. This database greatly expands the ability to study when and where milky seas occur, as well as the commonly observed features of a milky sea., , , # A curated database of milky sea observations from 1600 to present

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.0gb5mkmbc](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.0gb5mkmbc)

## Description of the data and file structure

The data in this archive was collected for the paper \"From Sailors to Satellites: A Curated Database of Milky Seas Since 1600\". By combining centuries of eyewitness accounts with satellite observations for the first time, we hope to expand the ability to study and understand milky seas.

### Files and variables

#### File: Milky\_Sea\_Database.pdf

**Description:** A human readable PDF of every eyewitness account and satellite observation within the database. This file contains the date, location, description, and who reported the account for every milky sea observation. This is Supplemental 1 for the paper.

#### File: Milky\_Sea\_Database.tsv

**Description:** A machine-readable tab-separated values file containing detailed information on every milky sea observation within the database. 
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