If you head to the beach this weekend, you may come across a mysterious, unusual sea creature on Southern California’s shoreline.
Hundreds of “by-the-wind sailors,” jelly-like creatures known for their beautiful blue hues, were spotted two miles from Orange County by Dana Wharf Whale Watching on Friday, April 7, with reports this weekend of some already washing up on shore in Huntington Beach, the South Bay and on beaches farther north.
“Watch for them on the beaches, they are going to be washing shore pretty soon,” said Nona Reimer, known as Nona the Naturalist for Dana Wharf who explained the creature on a video posted to social media.
In Huntington Beach, Marine Safety Battalion Chief Doug Leach estimated his team spotted hundreds of them on Saturday, but he admitted they were hard to quantify.
“We have a ton of them, mostly north of the pier, all over the high tide line as the tide was dropping this morning,” he said. Some also were seen just south of the pier, to about Beach Boulevard.
Leach said there were no plans to close the beach, but cautioned beach-goers that while it’s ok to admire the creatures, it’s best not to touch them, though “they are mostly harmless to humans.”
Frank Brenes said he took his son Liam to surf at Bolsa Chica State Beach when they came across about 100 of the creatures strewn around the sand.
Lifeguards reached at most other Orange County beaches said they had not seen the by-the-wind sailors as of late Saturday afternoon.
The creatures’ scientific name is Velella velellas, and they are distinguished by their “sails” on top, which look like a clear mohawk.
Though by-the-wind sailors look like jellyfish because of their gelatinous nature, they are not, and they don’t have the sting associated with jellies, though their tentacles on the bottom can irritate the skin.
It’s not the first time the species has been seen off local waters. Between 2014 and 2016, hundreds of thousands , maybe millions, washed ashore and blanketed beaches across the state and drawing curious beachgoers to the sand to see them up close.
They are known for living in more tropical waters off Baja California.
If they stick around, they could lure other fascinating creatures, like the sunfish, or Mola molas, 600-to 800-pound tropical sea creatures that like to feast on them.
A single creature is actually not just one organism, but rather polyps connected underneath a gelatinous blue sail.
Once on the sand, the by-the-wind sailors gradually lose their blue color and the tissues disintegrate, leaving only the sail, becoming food for birds.
When they dry out on land, they look like plastic. They travel in groups and can pile up to a foot high when they wash ashore.
They got their name because of that sail-like flap, which stands up straight atop their bodies and puts them at the mercy of the blowing wind.
“They are at the mercy of the of the wind that push them in the water,” Reimer said.
Natalie Booth-Massey, a Cabrillo Aquarium naturalist who walks the Esplanade in Redondo Beach on weekdays, said a fellow stroller alerted her to a few of them just past the shore break and on the sand in the South Bay on Thursday.
“These little jellies are fascinating creatures,” she said.
She has trouble making it down to access the beach, so a friend went down and took pictures to confirm the find. She had seen posts that they were coming ashore in big numbers at Point Reyes further north.
“The invasion, for lack of a better word, at Point Reyes, they were just covered on the beach there,” she said.
Staff writer Nathaniel Percy contributed to this report.
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