For the first time after so many years, strange creature in the form of millions of small, bright blue marine dwellers akin to jellyfish has been washing up on the shores of Oregon and California. Quite a breathtaking, albeit puzzling, sight, the scene has attracted many visitors, some of whom travelled all the way from faraway places just to see them.
The strange creature in question, as reported by Tech Times, is a Vellela vellela. But what makes this specific type of hydrozoa unique aside from being the only species in its genus, is that it is not commonly seen. So spotting them by the millions, covering up a long line of shores and beaches running from one state to another is even far stranger.
This baffling incident prompted Tech Times to provide a short background on this bright blue strange creature that is actually a jellyfish relative. A small salt-water inhabitant, the vellela vellela is a meat-eater that belongs in the same class as the Portuguese man-of-war and freshwater jellyfishes.
According to Alaska Dispatch News, this marine animal is identified as "by-the-wind-sailors" and is nomadic by nature. Because it takes wind power to propel them across the ocean, observers noted that it must have taken powerful gusts of wind to drive millions of them to the shores of the aforementioned states.
However, Steve Rumrill, one of the experts in the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, told Reuters, as reported by the Alaska Dispatch News, that winds at this time of the year are unusual. Nonetheless, other experts surmise that this startling occurrence must have been influenced by massive climate change.
Other researchers and experts have offered another explanation. Kate Cummings, a naturalist and part owner of Blue Ocean Whale Watch in Moss Landing, California, shared her theory with the Santa Cruz Sentinel as reported by the Alaska Dispatch News, She said that warmer water temperatures reaching almost 65 degrees may have attracted the animals.
Vellela vellela cannot live out of water. With millions of them getting washed up on the beaches and being stranded there for a long time, most of them would have already died and became food for the sunfish or other animals.
