Posted on 07/30/2014 7:22:33 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Social media is teeming with pictures of small bright blue sea creatures washing up all over California beaches, with sightings reported in Humboldt County, Monterey and Ocean Beach.
Despite being described as "strange," "bizarre," "mysterious," and even "aliens," it turns out these creatures have a name.
Marine researchers are calling it Velella velella, a name the Santa Cruz Sentinel said sounds "like a nominee for the Best Foreign Language Film." "Some people call them jellyfish, but they are in fact only distantly related and only superficially similar," said Rich Mooi of the California Academy of Sciences.
The small delicate-looking marine invertibrates are commonly called "by-the-wind sailor." They are 40-80 mm long as adults and are characterized by a clear, chitinous semicircular sail sticking above water.
Velella can be found floating at the sea surface. They feed on zooplankton and fish and their predators are snails. They generally float offshore but can be blown onshore in large numbers.
Nobody knows for sure why so many are washing up this late in summer.
Although they are related to the Portugese man-o'-war -- notorious for its stinging ability -- Mooi said Velella is completely harmless to humans but doesn't recommend eating them.
Only in CA can ya see small bright blue sea creatures
described as strange, bizarre, mysterious, and alien crawling up on the beaches.
Now you're making me homseick for southern California. I enjoyed Westwood, I enjoyed Manhattan Beach, and I especially enjoyed the (small) earthquakes. An earthquake resets your whole day. One of my high school teachers actually moved to Arizona to avoid "the big one."
No, I bet Gaia was telling us that we need to abandon capitalism and embrace the glorious all-powerful state, in order to combat global warming. Isn't that what she always says?
Their jellyfish.
Should be “velella velella.”
Look similar to Portuguese Man- o- War.
Do they have long stinging tentacles?
Get a tentacle wrapped around your leg and it feels like you stepped in a fire.
Note to self....
Read complete article before jumping in. Duh!
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