Blue Unusual sea creatures

[Rambo]

I saw these floating blueish clear creature in the ocean and thought what the heck are these? If you ever wonder, keep reading



http://www.ocregister.com/articles/c...lly-beach.html

Alyssa Jimenez didn’t panic when her 8-year-old daughter, Micaela, came to shore, nervous, after seeing strange blue jellyfish-like creatures dotting the water in Corona del Mar.
The biology professor at Cal State Fullerton used the unusual occurrence of the creatures washing up on shore at Corona del Mar State Beach this week as a teaching lesson.
“They were really cool. I felt bad for them, poor little sea creatures,” Jimenez said. “I’m a total nature freak ... they were really pretty, the blue was an intense color. We learned when we came home and looked it up that they weren’t poisonous.”
The invasion of the “by-the-wind sailors” has caused a buzz about the unusual sightings up and down the California coastline. Seen in masses weeks ago in San Francisco and Washington state, and more recently from north of Oxnard to San Diego, there are reports this week that they’ve floated onto Los Angeles and Orange County beaches.
The scientific name for the blue beauties is Velella velella, and they’ve been seen only a handful of times washed up on local shorelines in the past few decades, said Dennis Kelly, a retired Orange Coast College professor of marine biology.
Kelly said the creatures are usually found floating on the ocean’s surface in warm waters, off the coast of Baja California, but could be here because we’re experiencing a lot of “warm water intrusions” thanks to a possible El Niño on the way. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, there’s a 65 percent chance of El Niño this year, which brings warmer ocean temperatures to the area along with strong storms in fall and winter.
The creatures were carried here by current and the wind blew them on shore, Kelly said. They got their name because of a sail-like flap on the top of their blue bodies, which stands up straight, but puts them at the mercy of where the wind is blowing. When they dry out on land, they look like a piece of plastic.
“They’re harmless; they are just beautiful to look at,” Kelly said.
Though they look like jellyfish because they are gelatinous in nature, they are not, and don’t have the sting associated with the jellies.
They travel in groups, and can pile up to a foot high when they wash ashore. The first time Kelly said saw them coincided with the big El Niño in 1982 and 1983.
“They can come up abundantly,” he said. “They just float along and move with the currents and tides. And they are blown ashore if there is wind on the coast. It blows them away from the wind when it blows. They’re fascinating little animals.”
When he first saw the creatures in the ’80s, his team brought a few back to the lab to study. But keeping them alive was difficult.
“They need a lot of plankton, they only lived for a day or two,” he said. “They’re fairly delicate.”
The harmless creatures are eaten by sea turtles, fish and birds, though they don’t have a lot of nutritional value. Kelly heard of one person trying to make a soup out of it, and doesn’t recommend doing the same.
“I heard it turned out terrible,” he said.