Have you been to Coronado beach near The Del all the way to dog beach lately? Have you seen the blue purple creatures that kind of look like blue purple glass stones from a distance, but as you get closer they are not? Folks have been reporting sighting of these all over San Diego. I went to investigate.
Sure enough, they entire beach on the edge of water is covered by them. They are called Velella velella or ‘by-the-wind sailors.’ Have no fear. Though they get mistaken for Portuguese Man of War, they are harmless, according to the Scripps Institute.
Scripps recently published some fun facts about velella velella. They are not jellyfish. They can float. When you go check them out on the beach, you will notice the top part of their bodies sticks out like a sail. They eat zooplankton and fish eggs. Pelagic snails and nudibranchs are their natural predators. They can be found all over the world in temperate and tropical seas. The last part is somewhat interesting considering the last few months it’s been colder than normal. No one knows exactly why ‘by-the-wind sailors’ are all over our beaches right now. Did they set their navigation off course and got lost on their way to Hawaii? Who knows. Just like the flowers blooming everywhere, go see them before they all disappear again.
