Blue, but not bottles

According to Mike Cleeland, our resident expert on all strange beach finds, these small blue creatures washed up at Cape Woolamai over the past week are Velella – also known as the By-the-Wind sailor (not to be confused with blue-bottles).

Velella typically live in open ocean waters and get distributed by the wind, but because they can only sail downward, or at a slight angle to the wind, they can get blown ashore in very high numbers.

They’re not dangerous to humans.

Want to know more? www.jellywatch.org/velella