The beaches in Southern California are seeing thousands of creatures with stinging tentacles wash ashore. The creature's scientific name is Velella velella, but they are also known as by-the-wind sailors. Experts don’t suggest touching their tentacles.
Tiny invaders are storming the beaches in Southern California. No, this isn’t a horror movie. And these tiny blue visitors aren’t an alien life form.
The scientific name is Velella velella, but they are commonly known by the names sea raft, by-the-wind sailor, purple sail, little sail, or just Velella. They look like boats and when you touch them when they're upside down in the water, they like gooey and they have these little suction cups.
They are cousins to the Portuguese Man of War, and have still sails on the top in order to catch the wind and ride the ocean waves to their next location.
According to the Wildlife Trust, Velella use their “stinging tentacles to prey on young fish and other small animals while it travels.”
Winter Bonnin works at Crystal Cove State Park in Laguna Beach, California. She told KCBS thousands of the normally warm water creatures washed up on the shoreline in the last week.
"They are at the whim of the wind..so they did not swim...they came ashore with the wind," Bonnin said. "Why they get washed ashore, I don't really know, but when they do come ashore, we see them in these large quantities."
While the By-the-Wind Sailors have a sting that doesn’t hurt as much as a jellyfish, experts don’t suggest touching their tentacles.
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