Even though hundreds of thousands of the creatures have washed up on our shores, scientists still have much to learn about them.
Carpinteria, California – Hundreds of thousands of shimmering indigo-blue sea creatures have washed up on the coasts of California, Oregon and Washington, captivating beachgoers and scientists with their beauty and ecology.
Douglas McCauley, director of the Benioff Ocean Initiative at the University of California, Santa Barbara, said “the ocean is full of gemstones,” but this jellyfish-like creature stands out.
Velera Velera, or more commonly known as the “Sailor of the Wind,” attracts attention not only for its bright blue-purple color, but also for its “sails,” which sparkle like diamonds on the sea surface.
When McCauley walked along the beach in late April for a great white shark viewing project, he was surprised to see velera stretching the entire length of the beach. When offshore winds shift in the spring, their flotillas often land on the Pacific coast, but recent coastal and offshore shoals have been denser, especially along the California coast.
“In all my years living in Southern California and working in marine science, I have never seen so much marine life piled up on our shores,” McCauley said.
The assemblage presents an exciting opportunity for citizen scientists to help researchers learn more about the creatures, two scientists who study wrasse told USA TODAY. They are calling on beachgoers and boaters to become part of lifeguards who will report exactly when and where sightings occur.
Stephen Haddock, a senior scientist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute and an adjunct professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, said wind sailors have been documented for decades, but scientists still don’t fully understand them. Part of the appeal, he says, is “just the pure spectacle.” “When people go to the beach, they see huge numbers washing up.”
Scientists hope to be able to predict when the Armada will appear, he said. One study conducted along the Washington state coast suggests that more Berellas may be found, especially after a warm winter. The study authors and Haddock say more research is needed, but the winter of 2025-2026 was a record winter in California, with intense marine heatwaves observed at sea.
Rebecca Helm, an assistant professor of environmental science at Georgetown University’s Earth Commons Institute, said velella can be found all over the world, but most commonly in large clusters off the U.S. Pacific coast and in the Mediterranean Sea.
Studies have shown that velera feed on zooplankton, fish eggs and krill, while sunfish, one of the ocean’s largest teleost fish, have been seen feeding on large fleets of velera at sea.
Helm said scientists still have much to learn about the billions of bubble-like shapes. They travel thousands of miles on the surface of the ocean, Helm said, using triangular “sails” propelled by sea breezes. “Who else is playing with them? Who is feeding them? Where are they eating?”
One of the mysteries, she says, is how they “survive wind and waves, can turn around, and seem to be able to successfully launch themselves every time.” “It’s a very unusual adaptation for marine animals to use the wind, isn’t it?”
She also notes a coating that repels water and helps keep the wrasse upright in the water. Try flipping your boat or kayak to get it going in the right direction again, she said. “They do it just fine. They don’t have paddles, they don’t have hands, they don’t have independence. And yet they always show up.”
Other aspects of the research are more complex. Scientists hope Berera will help oceanographers improve their understanding of spatial scales, from soccer field-resolution satellite imagery to aerial drone photography and millimeter-scale microscopic images, Haddock said. A group of Chinese scientists is researching imitating Berera as a prototype for an unmanned surface vehicle, and a group at Johns Hopkins University is collaborating with the military on modeling Berera to create low-cost ocean sensors.
What is “Sailor on the Wind”?
Researchers say trying to explain Berella’s ecology can be a bit difficult. Although closely related to jellyfish, they are not true jellyfish. They are hydrozoans and are part of the same phylum as jellyfish, Cnidaria.
Although some scientists describe them as floating colonies, Haddock said it’s generally easier to understand each raft, which fits in the palm of a human’s hand, as a single organism. Each is its own separate community, a collection of polyps with attached, integrated tentacles and triangular sail-like structures that help them float.
“If you flip them over, there’s a central mouth that looks like a volcano, and there are little noodles moving around the volcano,” Helm said. “Imagine a volcano tearing through a forest or trees, but each little noodle tree is a mouth in itself. There’s one big, unique mouth in the middle, surrounded by hundreds of other mouths, so it’s like they’re all eating.”
Helm said surface wrasses are part of a complex life cycle. Each individual can produce thousands of free-swimming, sesame-sized offspring “by growing apart from the body, like flowers on a tree.”
Haddock said if you pick one of the veleras off the beach and drop it into a bucket of seawater, you’ll see little yellow-gold dots flying around. They sink to the ocean floor and produce single cells that maintain the population. Eventually, they return to the surface as new floating colonies. The “ring” you can see in the photo holds bits of air that keep it suspended.
Haddock said there’s an added layer of complexity because individual species of algae live inside the wrasse and are passed on to each bud that swims away. “This photosynthetic algae lives inside the tissue, so it’s like a solar panel on the surface.”
Helping scientists track down ‘sailors on the wind’
Haddock said miles-long bands of velera may be floating in the open ocean, but people only notice them when the wind blows them ashore.
Scientists hope to involve crew onboard ships at sea to report sightings of vela veras and activate GPS to take photos so they can track exactly where the photos were taken. Bystanders and mariners who witness Berella or other marine life can report it through the iNaturalist app.
Dinah Boyles Pulver covers climate change, weather, wildlife and other news for USA TODAY. Contact dpulver@usatoday.com or @dinahvp on Bluesky or dinahvp.77 on X or Signal.
