Blue drift lines

  

Looking north along Salmon Creek Beach, with drift lines of By-the-wind Sailors (Velella velella).  There were so many Velella washed up tonight (14 March 20205), the beach looked blue as far as you could see. Here are a couple more views showing the high densities of Velella:

 

 

 

You can probably see that there were a variety sizes, anywhere from ~1 mm long to 70 mm long.  Below, a photo of small-medium Velella:

 

 

 

And, a couple of tiny (hard-to-see!) Velella. The first is at the end of Eric's fingertip for scale:

 

 

And the next one is so small its sail is barely visible:

 

 

If you've been to the beach lately, I'm guessing you're seeing Velella, too?

P.S.  For an introduction to Velella, see "Below the water line" on 18 March 2014.