A couple of weeks ago, John and Sarah Kay Reneau, with their friends Jason and Malinda Wilson, were out on the water headed for Sunday Beach. They spotted what appeared to be an oil slick near the old Coast Guard station.

On the beach, at the surf, they saw what looked like “tar balls” rolling in with the incoming waves and covering the beach for several hundred yards. Upon closer inspection, they discovered these were very small jelly fish. John thought they looked like they were related to the Portuguese Man-O-War, which made him very cautious.

After returning home, he checked it out on the internet and discovered that they are indeed related, but they don’t sting. They can, however irritate your skin when touched.

Velella Velella, also known as “By the wind sailor”, have an overall diameter of three inches or less. They are a beautiful deep blue color and have a very unusual small sail which is rather stiff and is used to catch the winds in order to propel the jellyfish over the surface of the water. In rough wind conditions these “by the wind sailors” can end up stranded in the thousands on beaches. They are solely at the mercy of the winds, which means they have little or no control over their direction and are prone to being stranded.

These jellyfish are carnivores and catch their food, which is usually plankton, by using their poisonous tentacles which hang down in the water below them. These toxic tentacles are harmless to humans.

These creatures live throughout the world, predominantly in warm ocean waters.

So, next time you think you see an “oil slick”, check it out, you may get a close-up look at the Velella Velella.