Imagine walking down this gorgeous Malibu beach and coming across THIS??!?!?!?

No, it’s not a space “Alien”, although the bottom looks EXACTLY like the creature that attacked the crew in that movie…instead, it’s a unique jellyfish with a name like a hipster pop band:

The “Velella Velellas!”

We were in Malibu over the weekend and witnessed this invasion close up!

As the Orange Country Register reported:

“Bright blue jelly-like creatures sailed to shore, creating wonder for those who came across the exotic “by-the-wind sailors” at beaches from Oceanside to Pismo, over the past week.”

I’m so glad they reported on it, because we had NO idea what they were….let me show you: we walked the beach on Saturday morning, and here’s what it looked like at low tide:

As you can see, the beach was smooth as silk.

Then we walked the beach again on Sunday morning, and here’s what we saw instead:

The “Velella Velellas” Were Everywhere!

Yes, the beach was littered with them – literally everywhere you looked…so of course Alex picked one up so we could get a better look – and yes, she lifted it up “by the sail”:

Now, let me say that I offered to pick it up first, but Alex is fearless, so she held it up so I could get shots of it from all angles – and she of course posted it on her Instagram, as it WAS “breaking news”:

Now, was Alex in any real danger? No!

As the Orange County Register later reported:

“They won’t bother anybody. They are just small bluish animals, really hard to spot, people probably won’t even notice them,” said Jeff Landesman, chief aquarist for the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium in San Pedro, who noticed a handful washed up dead near the aquarium. “They aren’t harmful or anything.”

That said, Alex held them up BEFORE reading his article!

Amazing “By The Wind” Sailors!

The “by-the-wind” sailors don’t actually swim, they just “sail” on the ocean’s surface, and when the tide comes in, so do they!

The clear part, the “sail”, that’s actually a structure the organism secretes. And the sticky blue part is actual flesh and tissue. They were literally everywhere not he beach, so I took a ew more shots to capture their unique look and color.

“By-the-wind” sailors do have venom, but their stings generally aren’t harmful to humans. They sure did get out attention!

Maybe that’s what this guy was looking at as well:

You never know who’s going to pop up out of the water in Malibu, especially if you are out on a boat fishing:

We saw so much incredible sea life here – and you can to by clicking on my story:

https://johnrieber.com/2019/04/23/malibus-watery-residents-dolphins-seals-fish-pelicans-hanging-out-with-nature-at-the-pacific-oceans-edge/

So: how would you react if you came across this at the beach?

Categories: Exotic Travel, Los Angeles, Memoirs, nature, Travel, Travel Adventures, Travel Memoir, Uncategorized, Wacky Food

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