Tiny, jellyfish-like Velella invade Moonstone Beach

Cambria is a stunning community and resides in the Goldilocks Zone: not too cold and not too hot, but about just right. In other words, how many Cambria residents have air conditioners, and how many actually use them?

Cambria’s scenery looks like something out of a postcard. With that being said, Trish Lindsey and I were married at Old Santa Rosa Chapel in 1996. As a family tradition, our family visits Cambria each Easter Sunday.

This past Easter Sunday, while walking along Moonstone Beach, we noticed vast hordes of almost clear rubbery electric-blue, jellyfish-like sea creatures. Our daughter Chloe asked, “What are these, and can they harm you?”

Well, where the sea meets the sky in the warm or temperate waters of the world’s oceans live billions of these creatures aptly named “by-the-wind sailor.” Their scientific name is Velella velella.

These critters resemble small sailboats. On average, the flattened oval creatures are 2 inches long with a relatively large and stiff translucent, angled sail. However, not a lot is known about the details of their life cycle. They seem to live less than a year and can reproduce quickly.

Many marine biologists believe Velella velella are a colony of specialized zooids, related to the Portuguese man of war. Thankfully, Velella don’t sting humans like the Portuguese man of war can. I was actually stung by a man of war off the coast of Florida while on a swim. It felt like a white-hot sharp piece of barbed wire wrapped around my right shoulder and arm. It left visible marks along my torso for months afterward.

The latest research indicates that Velella are a single animal and not a colony. If you handle by-the-wind-sailors, don’t touch your face or eyes, since irritation may result.

By-the-wind-sailors glide along the surface of the ocean and feed generally on tiny fish larvae and zooplankton that they capture with their dangling stinging tentacles below their gas-filled bodies. But that’s not their only source of nutrition. If you look closely, you can see brown microalgae that exist in a symbiotic relationship inside their bodies, providing an additional source of food.

If you’ve spent any time out at sea, you can sometimes see millions of these creatures clustered closely in mile-long rows that resemble oil slicks.

Some marine biologists believe there are two forms of Velella velella that exist in the North Pacific Ocean. The Velella found along our coast have a sail that is angled 45 degrees along the creature’s centerline to take advantage of winds that predominantly blow from the north to the south along West Coast of North America. Therefore, the angle of the sail, much like a sailboat, helps to steer these critters out to sea.

On the other side of the Pacific, the winds often blow from the south to the north. Hence, the sails of the Velella that live in the western Pacific are angled in the opposite direction; therefore the sail functions to keep these animals offshore and off the coast of Korea and Japan.

When there is a change in the winds, for example out of the south along the Central Coast, these southerly winds can drive millions of these creatures to our shoreline.

Earth Day cleanup

In honor of National Volunteer Month in April, PG&E in partnership with the California State Parks Foundation will anchor Earth Day cleanup and restoration projects throughout Northern and Central California, including Montaña de Oro State Park. Join us on April 16 to celebrate Earth Day at Montaña de Oro State Park.

Please register at the State Parks website, http://bit.ly/22B5fZK. Rangers will provide tools and supervision.

This story was originally published April 6, 2016 at 10:23 AM with the headline "Tiny, jellyfish-like Velella invade Moonstone Beach."