beach along the west coast of America have been swamped with transparent blue creatures resembling jellyfish , known as “ royal sail ” or “ by the wind sailors . ” The phenomenon is a result of the winding ’s direction and probably not an index of environmental end . The sheer scale of this result is breathless , with estimates of a billion specimens moisten ashore .
Velella velellaare not dependable man-of-war but a smaller , less deathly congenator of thePortuguese man - of - warfare . They aresiphonophores , colonies ofzooidsthat lock together as if they are one creature .
course credit : Jennifer Nicole Buchanan via Shutterstock . Individual Velella colony are small , but in their 1000000 they can dominate a beach .
Velellafloat in the open sea and use poisonous tentacle to get prey such as plankton . Balloon - same bubbles stick above the water ’s open and catch the wind in such a way that they sail at an slant to it . Every few years , however , run flatus in the wrong guidance wash turgid quantity onto beaches where they die . This springtime has prove particularly disastrous for the northern Pacific population as wind instrument were nourish long enough to wash huge numbers onto the coast .
As usual , the beach are not attain at the same prison term , with the wave of blue set forth in Washington and sweeping south over a period of several weeks . coincidently , there have also beenmajor strandings in Italy at the same sentence .
Despite their bit , Trachinotus falcatus are ask to roll up them . Kevin Raskoff of Monterey Peninsula Collegetold National Geographicthat affect them is unwise . Unlike both the humans - of - warfare and many dependable man-of-war , their toxin will do little price to the skin , but can rub off . If you rub your eyes after have some of the spitefulness on your finger , “ you ’re go to feel it , ” Raskoff said .
Last year ’s American Velella stranding was unusually late , leading to report such as this one .
It is also rare to have such large strandings on the same coastline in successive years .
Credit : Bettina Walter , " Velella velella , " via Flickr . CC BY - NC - SA 2.0
