beachstars

navigate by keyword : alone ashore background bay beach beachstars blown blue calm close coast coastline commonly current danger day drift drifted environment family fish found freefloating genus horizontal hydrozoa hydrozoan jelly known lives macro marooned monospecific nature objects ocean open oregon porpitidae purple raft sail sailor sand sandy sea sealife simply stars sting surface tentacles that velella velellan washed wind

Found washed ashore on the Oregon coast, the Velella is a monospecific genus of hydrozoa in the Porpitidae family. It is a free-floating hydrozoan jelly fish that lives on the surface of the open ocean. It is commonly known as blue sail, sea raft, by-the-wind sailor, purple sail, little sail, or simply Velella.