Wednesday Beach Report

Mussel shells, I thought at first. Nope.

They're blue! And squishy! And there's a little cellophane thing poking up!

"Velella is a cosmopolitan genus of free-floating hydrozoans that live on the surface of the open ocean. There is only one known species, Velella velella, in the genus."  

From wikipedia

"And although they look a little like jellyfish, California Academy of Sciences scientist Rich Mooi says, they’re not closely related and aren’t even single organisms as jellyfish are.

“Velella is, in spite of its remarkable appearance as a working individual, actually a COLONY of individuals all of which work together to make up a kind of ‘superorganism,’” he wrote in an email to the Ocean Beach Bulletin."

From the Ocean Beach Bulletin

I'm not kidding when I say that every day on the beach is different. If I decided to take a walk this evening and there was a Spanish Galleon the sand, I'd say, "Wow, a Spanish galleon, how about that!" But I'd believe it. 

And do you want to know what the common name for these creatures is? By-the-wind sailors. Seriously.