Name This? Part 2
- Thread starter sarita75
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Ben_ca
Contributor
Here's my guess:
By-the-wind sailor (Velella velella)
More info
By-the-wind sailor (Velella velella) floating in a pool
Photograph by Malcom Lee
By-the-wind sailor (Velella velella)
More info
By-the-wind sailor (Velella velella) floating in a pool
Photograph by Malcom Lee
Yep, sure looks like Velella velella. We don't get them very often down here in SoCal, but they do often get cast ashore in large numbers elsewhere.
OP
sarita75
Guest
That does look like them! Great. I was really perplexed as to what they were since their bodies do appear jellyfish-like. Thank you all.
OP
sarita75
Guest
I was really amazed at the sheer numbers of them. They were all over the water line. Really pretty blue color. The photo does them no justice.
The original picture is a very small one. Usually they are about an inch or a little bigger.
Peter_C
Contributor
You went to the beach when it was that windy? No wonder it was empty LOL
These pictures are from the Lost Coast. Had to add in some other wild life.
These pictures are from the Lost Coast. Had to add in some other wild life.
OP
sarita75
Guest
I didn't know that they got bigger, although these ones were SMALL -- the one I picked up to photograph was actually a pretty big one. I have since had a friend/colleague at my job who has advised me that he did a night dive where the top 2-3" of water was just completely packed by them.
Benthos
Contributor
We see huge mats of them offshore in Marin and Sonoma. That lovely blue pigment that you described will actually turn some animals that eat them that very same color. Sarita75 you actually look just like this girl I used to work with who started to feed her dead V.velella's to a giant green anemone that had escaped an experiment I was doing. The anemone started out bleached white but 4 weeks later it turned blue. It was rather exciting, for reasons I wont go into. That sail on their back is at an angle and shaped for propulsion. That sail angle is genetically adapted to the region the sailor is located. South of the equator the sail points the opposite direction. I knew a guy who did his entire thesis on the genetics/ selection of sail angles of these little guys. Yes he is crazy, about cnidarians I mean.
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