Sea creatures that resemble a type of jellyfish are washing ashore on beaches up and down the Central Coast.
“Right now, it’s like an iridescent blue, like a clear iridescent blue. Purple too,” said Kate Rarey, who was visiting Morro Bay on Tuesday.
According to California State Parks, these sea creatures are known as velella velella or by their nickname, by-the-wind sailor. They are related to jellyfish and have recently been found in places like Cayucos and the Sandspit at Montana de Oro State Park.
"There were probably thousands of them. They were covering the beach even more than here today. It was all the way to the water's edge, all the way up the shore,” Rarey said.
Rarey was at Morro Strand State Beach on Tuesday with her daughter and says the first thing she noticed was the smell.
"It smells very fishy. We noticed it when we walked up. I know by the ocean it smells like fish usually but it's extra fishy here,” Rarey said.
Velella velella use their stinging tentacles to paralyze plankton or food and spend most of their life coasting on the surface of the ocean, riding with the wind and currents.
“I remember going out on the water in the fall time and they were floating on the surface of the water everywhere and I loved scooping them up and looking at them when they were alive,” said Victoria Pond, Los Osos resident.
State Parks says by-the-wind sailors are colonial, floating together in large numbers on the open sea and often washing ashore due to the wind and ocean currents. By-the-wind sailors are harmless to most humans and State Parks says it is best to only look as they can irritate your skin if touched.
