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[Merged] Mysterious electric blue sea creatures


FollowTheTrail

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''Thousands of mysterious, electric blue sea creatures have washed ashore at several beaches along the Northern California coast as of late, and scientists speculate as to what has brought them to the surface...''

http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/8333/20140731/mysterious-electric-blue-sea-creature-washes-ashore-in-the-thousands.htm

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They look just like blue bottle jellyfish?

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They look just like blue bottle jellyfish?

They are, I dont see what the mystery about them is supposed to be.

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They are, I dont see what the mystery about them is supposed to be.

Maybe they are not normally seen in that area? Im not sure, differently not an mystery creature as the title seems to

suggest.

Edit to say, Dont stand on him, they give you a hell of a shock lool

Edited by The Id3al Experience
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We've had a couple waves (pun intended) of these little guys here in Oregon. They come north in the summer due to warmer water, and the westerly winds can blow large numbers of them ashore.

They look like this...

seaside_velella2.jpg

When they've been on the beach for a while. I can't imagine anyone thinking this is an oil spill. So many idiots out running around I guess....

http://www.livescien...ash-ashore.html

http://www.beachconn...c080214_406.php

Nope, it's a combination of westerly winds and a lot of phytoplankton flooding the environment and influencing things. In fact, it's a sign of a really healthy ocean.
Edited by DieChecker
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Having no means of locomotion, V. velella is at the mercy of prevailing winds for moving around the seas, and are thereby also subject to mass-strandings on beaches throughout the world. For example, most years in the spring, there is a mass stranding that occurs along the West Coast of North America, from British Columbia to California, beginning in the north and moving south over several weeks' time. In some years, so many animals are left at the tide line by receding waves, that the line of dying (and subsequently rotting) animals may be many centimetres deep, along hundreds of kilometres of beaches. Mass strandings have been reported also on the west coast of Ireland.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velella_velella

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  • 3 weeks later...

Thousands of strange sea creatures are washing ashore on California beaches, puzzling tourists and thrilling scientists quick to explain the phenomenon.

"The scientific name is Velella velella," said David Bader, director of education at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California. "They're jelly-like creatures, but they're not exactly jellyfish."

Also known as "by-the-wind sailors," the creatures have a clear, distinctive fin sticking up from a blue, oval body no larger than the palm of a hand.

http://www.keyt.com/news/weird-sea-critters-invade-west-coast-beaches/27610732

BEST - Ron

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My minions have arrived, but on the wrong coast.

Darn it!

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Bad sign...something is coming up... Earthquake ... Magnetic poole change ?

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The species--last I checked--was called the Portuguese Man of War. Stepped on the stinging tentacles of one, once. Was an unforgettable experience.

Edited by John Wesley Boyd
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Hmm, considering their shape i wonder if someone will use those as replacement for silicon implants, beauty stuff you know.

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The species--last I checked--was called the Portuguese Man of War. Stepped on the stinging tentacles of one, once. Was an unforgettable experience.

These are a related species. I stomped on hundreds of them about a month ago at the Oregon beach. Not a single sting.

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I stomped on hundreds of them about a month ago at the Oregon beach.

That has got to be a man thing. :P

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Why do half the threads in this subforum start with the word "mysterious"?

A: Because the other half is reserved for rhetorical questions.

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That has got to be a man thing. :P

Grossed out the wife and kids. HA Ha ha... :w00t:

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The species--last I checked--was called the Portuguese Man of War. Stepped on the stinging tentacles of one, once. Was an unforgettable experience.

These are a related species. I stomped on hundreds of them about a month ago at the Oregon beach. Not a single sting.

Both the Sailor-by-the-Wind (Vellela) and the Portuguese Man o' War (Physalia) are drift animals, specialized creatures that live at the sea surface and are drift with wind and ocean currents. They are both colonial animals, not a single organism. I have always wanted to see Vellela but never have. We have a related animal called the Blue Button (Porpita) which is not nearly as spectacular and supposedly has a mild sting. The Man o' War is an infrequent and unwelcome visitor to our area, I have been stung several times as a child by them when picking through seaweed looking for marine life. Very nasty sting! I have screamed at many a tourist who was about to pick one up! The float itself does not sting, but these things are definitely better left alone.

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Wonder what they taste like?

Harte

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It's just the Vella Family Outing. Even animals have their get-togethers.

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Is there not ONE person thinking that perhaps Fukushima radiation has anything to do with all the die offs and animal sickness?

It will catch up with humans too.

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Is there not ONE person thinking that perhaps Fukushima radiation has anything to do with all the die offs and animal sickness?

It will catch up with humans too.

I didn't think it, but I was sure that someone else would and would bring it up.

I wasn't about to start that crap myself.

Harte

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Is there not ONE person thinking that perhaps Fukushima radiation has anything to do with all the die offs and animal sickness?

It will catch up with humans too.

I asked a Ph.D Chemist about this and he said, "In one word I can tell you why it will not be a problem: dilution." He went on to say, given the size of the Pacific Ocean it will be a negligible rise in background radiation. Now he did say that you would not want to eat seafood coming out of the bay where the radioactive water is pouring in, but he said what makes some of these elements dangerous is not the radiation but the toxicity. Plutonium is highly toxic, not just radioactive. But he went on to say that the heavier elements don't just float around in sea water and circle the globe; they settle out, combine with other elements and sink to the bottom where they are covered with sediment. There will undoubtedly be damage to sea life locally, but not globally due to this accident.

All this is not to say that this isn't a disaster, it is, but it's difficult to blame everything on Fukushima. The starfish die off on the west coast of the U.S. happened before any of the radioactive seawater reached our shores and is likely a virus. Viruses do pop up from time to time and decimate populations of living organisms (think Ebola). Perhaps it is as simple as ships discharging their sea water ballast that was picked up in another part of the globe, and inadvertently releasing a disease organism into a new environment.

Drift animals like Velella are at the mercy of wind and currents. They have no eyes to warn them of impending danger, no fins to swim away, no means of propulsion other than their sails, when they are near shore and the wind is blowing landward they wash in, it's really that simple.

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