Saturday Morning Beach Report: Many Musings

It was all shimmer and shine this morning, the clouds in the distance as thick as marshmallows. Next to the water the sand was scooped low and a companion mountain of sand hid the houses. I'm on a deserted island, I told myself. No one lives here.

Farther along the sand was etch-a-sketched with giant drawings, silty black debris tracing out mountain ranges.

The debris line was full of shell and stones and charred-looking pieces of wood. This couldn't be from the fires, I thought to myself. There's been no rain to wash it into the ocean.

But the water itself was, in places, inky black with it--whatever it is. I have seen the beach like this at times in the past, but maybe even then it was airborne fire debris from somewhere.

2017 changed the landscape of this beach I walk on. The giant wall of rock that forms harbor mouth is no longer a wall from the beach side. The lower 90% of the wall is now covered by sand, and the sign (if it's not buried too) that proclaims Danger! No Climbing! would seem ridiculous since you can now just walk onto the top of the wall. There's a metaphor in there somewhere, (sandstorm of fake news, erosion of decency, buried alive by stupidity and cruelty) but I'm too busy thinking that I'd like to have a job some day naming things. If there's a new pink lipstick for 2018, I'd like to call it Godwit Pink.

It's a pity I'm not a real photographer, but if you look closely, maybe you can see the pink of this bird's beak. It's just so darn pretty.

Monday Beach Report

The by-the-wind sailors have arrived.  No longer bright shiny blue, the beaches are covered with the fading dead, still pretty in a way with the blue of their bodies casting a sort of pale turquoise light on their cellophane sails.

There must be tens of thousands of them. What are these creatures like when they're alive?

I read a bit about them last summer when they arrived. And here's what I've found today at http://jellieszone.com/velella.htm: 

     Springtime visitors to much of the coast of California are frequently mystified by the appearance of long bluish rows consisting of jellyfish-like creatures that litter the beaches.  These are actually masses of thousands of unusual mobile hydroids that normally travel at the surface with the aid of buoyant float tissue.  Propelled by winds that act on a somewhat rigid triangular sail held above the float, Velellanormally inhabit open ocean waters.  The sail is made of a chitinous material and has a distinctive cellophane-like texture.  Wind patterns in spring and early summer may cast thousands of these long-distance wayfarers onto beaches all along the U.S. West Coast.  Individuals with two types of sails that are mirror images of each other exist in a population - they are thus pushed in opposite directions by the wind.  Although previously classified in the Order Chondrophora, recent considerations indicate an alliance with the anthomedusae.  

    The float and surrounding tissues are endowed with an attractive deep blue pigment.  The float contains a series of sealed air chambers that provide buoyancy.  Total width of the floating polyp is usually less than 6 cm.  Beneath the float is a grouping of several types of zooids, colored brown by the presence of zooxanthellae.  A large central mouth is surrounded by shorter reproductive stalks with mouth openings that bud tiny adult medusae that produce eggs and sperm.  Multitudes of tiny brownish-green medusae that never grow to more than 3 mm tall are cast off (last photo).  These then release the eggs and sperm that produce free-swimming larvae which eventually develop into more floating polyps.  It's not known if a planula larva is produced initially, but during the early stages oil droplets are formed that bring the young Velella to the surface.  Dangling beneath the rim of the float are hollow tentacles that ensnare fish and invertebrate eggs, copepods and appendicularians.  Velella is found in warm and temperate seas throughout the world.  Although not dangerous to people, it's best not to handle them or touch your face or eyes if you've been touching beached individuals since some irritation may result.

What I don't know never ceases to amaze me.

Here's a photo of some living things: Marbled godwits, I believe.