Strange blue ocean dwellers have washed up by the dozens in Southern California.
In a Facebook post last week, the Point Reyes National Seashore confirmed that the blob-like creatures are Velella Velella, or flat hydroid polyps.
“[Velella Velella] live in the open ocean but are often seen washed up on beaches in Point Reyes National Seashore, in the spring and early summer months when strong winds push them ashore,” the post explained.
Also known as “By-the-Wind Sailors” thanks to the triangular sail attached to their body, Velella Velella are easily mistaken for their jellyfish cousins or Portuguese Man o’ Wars.
Like the man o’ war, the creatures are not single organisms, but are actually made up of thousands of individual polyps with specific functions, research assistant Rita F. T. Pires told Newsweek.
“The species usually forms large agglomerations when beached, as pictured, so it seems it could be the case,” she said of the Point Reyes National Seashore sightings.
“The mass strandings of the species on beaches during springtime follow periods of increased reproductive activity, and represent regular and natural occurrences…consistent with the life cycle of the species,” she continued.
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“V. velella is a hydrozoan that is found adrift, floating at the surface of the ocean with the help of a sail-like structure. Thus, their onshore transport is driven by particular wind and current regimes, similarly to the [Man O’ War].”
Last year, scores of Velella Velella washed in Hayle, along the UK’s Cornish coast.
“The cool thing is though that [Velella Velella] have a mechanism to keep from stranding the whole population: out in the open ocean, they have right-handed and left-handed forms mixed in the population. But one or the other will ride any given breeze better or more poorly than others,” Lisa-ann Gershwin, a former researcher and science writer specializing in jellyfish, told Newsweek.
But while the fascinating blue blobs have very short tentacles and sting only slightly, both Gershwin and Pires advised locals not to handle them.
“It is better not to touch them, even if stranded on the beach since the stinging cells will still respond mechanically to the touch,” Pires cautioned.
“I definitely wouldn’t put them on mucous membranes like your tongue or your eyes, or even touch those areas after handling them (best not to handle them!) because they do have stinging cells and mucous membranes are pretty delicate tissues. It’s just that under normal accidental contact, like an arm or leg, we don’t feel their sting,” Gershwin agreed.
