Here’s an interesting article that I thought you might enjoy.
‘Blue tide’ returns to the Oregon coast, as countless jelly-like creatures wash ashore
Images of a previous years’ event show countless velella velella on a north Oregon coast beach.
The end of spring on the Oregon coast brings three reliable sights: great weather, throngs of tourists and “blue tide.”
The tide is made not of water but of countless blue creatures called velella velella, which wash ashore in droves this time of year. The Oregon Coast Aquarium announced Friday that the jelly-like organisms have already arrived on Oregon beaches, in some places covering the sand in a carpet of blueish purple.
Visitors should expect to see them for the next few weeks, the aquarium said, though they’ll soon begin to decay and turn translucent, creating a foul smell on the beach.
Also known as “by-the wind sailors,” the jelly-like organisms utilize clear, triangular sails to travel across the surface of the ocean, drifting where the breeze takes them. While they always aim to be blown away from shore, stronger winds in spring and summer months tend to strand them on land.
Velella velella were originally classified as a jelly, but researchers have since recognized the creature as a unique species of hydrozoan, a class of predatory salt water animals. The tiny sailors are found in every ocean on the planet and have no independent form of movement.
Each apparent individual is actually a complex colony of all-male or all-female polyps, connected by a canal system that transports food and waste. As they drift across the surface of the ocean they feed on plankton, stinging them with barb-tipped cells inside their tentacles.
The venom is generally too weak to pose a threat to humans, but the aquarium cautioned beach-goers from touching the velella velella – or any jelly-like creatures for that matter – as some people have a stronger reaction to the venom than others.
–Jamie Hale | jhale@oregonian.com | @HaleJamesB
Shoreline Education for Awareness, Inc. 
Actually, the hydroids pose no threat to humans by touch. The amount of venom is micromiligrams. Only enough to stun microscopic plankton. Kissing one, may cause an irritation. One of your locals, Teague Mercer, shared these with me last Sunday for my talk at the library.
Fawn Custer CoastWatch Marine Educator 541.270.0027 fawn@oregonshores.org POB 90, Seal Rock, OR 97376 https://oregonshores.org/ https://www.facebook.com/OregonShoresCW/
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Hi,
Are you going to post this on facebook? I’d like to share it on my facebook page. Thanks! Laurel
> WordPress.com
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I don’t use FaceBook myself, but I will get it to the person who manages our FB page and ask her to do it. Thanks for your help in disseminating this.
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