Thousands of By-the-wind Sailors (Velella velella) were washed up on the beach tonight (21 March 2024), and this time they were much larger. We measured some that were ~8-9 cm long.
With south/southwest/west winds coming during the next couple of days, we could see even more Velella in drift lines on local beaches.
Our family was out at Schoolhouse Beach on the 12th of this month, as the tide was going out in the evening, and we were surprised to see for our first time thousands of Sailors in broad rippled bands across the beach and filling the tidepools. They were not that large, though!
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