One of 1000’s of creatures often called “by-the-wind sailors” which have been washing ashore on Southern California seashores in April.

Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times through Getty Images

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Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times through Getty Images

One of 1000’s of creatures often called “by-the-wind sailors” which have been washing ashore on Southern California seashores in April.

Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times through Getty Images

The Velella velella, a reputation so good you gotta say it twice.

Who are they? The tiny disc-like critters are colonial hydrozoans, categorised beneath the phylum of cnidaria, and their eponymous genus of Velella (not a Game of Thrones reference).

• Formally titled the Velella velella (say that 5 occasions quick) you might know them as by-the-wind sailors.   
• The sailors are a few inches lengthy, and differ in putting shades of cobalt and child blue whereas they’re alive.
• They have an analogous construct to jellyfish, however have a small sail protruding from their bell, explaining the identify and their migratory patterns.

What’s the large deal? California beachgoers have reported seeing 1000’s of the Velella velella alongside the shoreline lately, although they sometimes stay far offshore.

• And their sails can clarify it! They rely utterly on the wind and ocean currents to maneuver round, and when the circumstances are good, like with latest storms, they will get pushed up onto shore. 
• They additionally lose that lovely blue hue as soon as they depart the embrace of ocean waters and die onshore, sometimes turning into grayish or clear. And with no exoskeleton to maintain their form propped up, they shrivel as much as resemble plastic. 

• Their high predators embody gloriously hued sea slugs and a particular breed of predatory snail.  

Want extra on oceans? Listen to the Consider This episode on why melting ice in Antarctica is a big problem for coastal Texas.

The velella velella sitting on sand after washing up on shore.

Autum Sasala/Getty Images

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Autum Sasala/Getty Images

The velella velella sitting on sand after washing up on shore.

Autum Sasala/Getty Images

What are folks saying? Marine biologist Julianne Kalman Passarelli is the training and collections curator at Cabrillo Marine Aquarium in San Pedro, California, and spoke with NPR concerning the mysterious blobby dudes.

On how they reproduce:

Hydrozoans are simply actually weird as a result of they do one thing referred to as alternation of generations. That’s how they reproduce. And they travel between a polyp stage, a colonial polyp stage, and a medusa stage. 

On the construction of the Velella velella and its ecosystem:

[The Velella velella is] a colony of animals. And when you look actually carefully, all these little issues hanging down that appear to be tentacles are all totally different organisms inside the identical colony, they usually all work collectively, sort of like coral, they usually all have a distinct function. One is for copy, one is for feeding, and one is for protection. 

On the textures of the sail:

If you have been to the touch the highest of the sail, it appears like plastic. It’s fairly thick. And really what’s in there’s chitin. And that is the identical materials that’s within the exoskeleton of crustaceans. So it is notoriously laborious and protecting, however you positively do not need to decide them up and contact them as a result of they’re cnidarians. Their sting is just not identified to be as poisonous as their relations, the Portuguese man o’ battle, and even their extra distant relations jellyfish, sea nettles, issues like that. But they will trigger irritation. I would not counsel choosing them up together with your naked palms. 

So, what now?

• As lengthy because the circumstances are proper, the Velella velella will proceed to clean ashore, till winds push them elsewhere. Real go-with-the-flow sort guys.   
• Though it is not yearly, seeing these tiny frisbees of the ocean is not probably the most uncommon factor. “I’ve lived down here for over 20 years and I’ve seen them at least 10 times,” Kalman Passarelli stated. 

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