LA JOLLA, Calif. (KGTV) — Researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography are excited about the return of Velella, small blue sea creatures known as By-the-Wind Sailors, which have begun washing up on La Jolla beaches this spring.
Anya Stajner, a PhD candidate at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, urges beachgoers to exercise caution when touching or picking up these creatures due to their resemblance to jellyfish.
She also explained that studying the By-the-Wind Sailors is important since scientists can chart the unknown.
"There's lots of opportunity to learn about animals that affect our ecosystems in ways that affect us, um, that maybe have compounds that can be used for medicine, things like that. So you don't know what you don't know. And so it's important to just stay curious and invest," she says.
Stajner explained that in California, understanding the relationship between these organisms and commercially important species like sardines and anchovies is vital.
"Here in California, we have a lot of fisheries, and as you may be aware, there's this program that's run jointly between Scripps and NOAA, and they study the sardine and anchovy fisheries. And so understanding how these organisms affect abundances of commercially important creatures is also very important to us," she said.
Known by various nicknames like Purple Sails and Little Sails, Velella live at the air-sea interface with a sail-like appendage that sticks out of the water. These creatures can appear blue or as clear, crispy husks once washed ashore.
"We get to see them when they wash up on the beach, and so sometimes you'll get to see them, and they're blue, and other times you'll see them, and they're just sort of this clear little crispy husk," Stajner explained. "We never know when they're going to show up, and you actually have to have a few factors line up for them to wash up on the beach like this."
A considerable number of Velella normally gather offshore when there is an abundant food supply, combined with shoreward winds and currents, to drive them to the beaches.
"My housemate, who's a surfer, said to me, these are Velella winds, and it looks like he was right because, with the winds, they're all up on the shore now," Stajner mentioned.
According to Stajner, the presence of these creatures could impact local ecosystems.
"Scientists are really interested in food chains, right, because everything is connected, and as the ocean changes, there's going to be winners, and there's going to be losers, right? And so when we see a lot more of one particular animal, that's going to have cascading effects on the rest of the ecosystem," she said. "In the case of the Velella, that's moving a lot of nutrients and ocean resources straight to the beach."
Researchers are keen to investigate why these creatures are appearing now and what kind of impacts they have on the food web, as many questions remain unanswered.
