Monday, June 30, 2014

Blue Jelly Fish with a Sail - Newport Oregon - Velella Jelly Fish


Anyone up for Jelly Fishing?

These little jelly fish have a sail that they use to travel.  They are called Velella Jelly Fish.  I had never seen one before, so I snapped a photo and did some googling.  No one else I ran into on the beach  knew what these were called.

These little jelly fishes are so obscure that they are NOT listed on Wikipedia.  But they are ever so cute and very well designed.  They go a little crazy during the "dating season," and sometimes bunches of them end up on the beach.  That's what I saw, hundreds of these little creatures covering the beach in Newport, Oregon.  Their little sails pointing toward the sky.

How did I identify this Pacific Ocean sea creature?  When my effort to identify it on Wikipedia failed, I went to some very simple googlings … like, "blue jelly fish with a sail on the oregon coast." But that failed as well.

I was pretty sure that it was a jelly fish, although the blue color made me think that it was a Portuguese Man of War.  Then I got lucky.

A friend recommended that I check a local news source at http://www.newslincolncounty.com and there I identified my jelly fish.  These jelly fish are called Velella Jelly Fish or Sail Jelly Fish.  
Mike McKenzie © 2014

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