Thousands of Blue Sea Creatures Wash Up on Local California Beaches

Social media is teeming with pictures of small bright blue sea creatures washing up all over California beaches, with sightings reported in Humboldt County, Monterey and Ocean Beach.

Despite being described as "strange," "bizarre," "mysterious," and even "aliens," it turns out these creatures have a name.

Marine researchers are calling it Velella velella, a name the Santa Cruz Sentinel wrote sounds "like a nominee for the Best Foreign Language Film."

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"Some people call them jellyfish, but they are in fact only distantly related and only superficially similar," said Rich Mooi of the California Academy of Sciences.

The small delicate-looking marine invertibrates are commonly called "by-the-wind sailor." They are 40 to 80 millimeters long as adults and are characterized by a clear, chitinous semicircular sail sticking above water.

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Velella can be found floating at the sea surface. They feed on zooplankton and fish and their predators are snails. They generally float offshore but can be blown onshore in large numbers.

Nobody knows for sure why so many are washing up this late in summer.

Although they are related to the Portugese man-o'-war -- notorious for its stinging ability -- Mooi said the creatures are completely harmless to humans, though he doesn't recommend eating them.

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Washed-up Cnidarian, Santa Cruz pic.twitter.com/LrZ13NvN4I — Paul Jimerson (@pauljimerson) July 29, 2014

Amazing sight off BC coast, millions of Velella on their way to nowhere in particular #CMEClab http://t.co/WeWNjVDXM0 pic.twitter.com/Wks04kFhtJ — Ross Whippo (@RossWhippo) July 27, 2014

Velella velella. The local beach was covered with these strange cnidarians. pic.twitter.com/6Iz1gw4Dp8 — Paul Jimerson (@pauljimerson) July 29, 2014

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Velella velellas are onshore right now pic.twitter.com/ODOXsMEXqn — Cordell Bank NMS (@CordellBank) July 26, 2014

It's #WildlifeWednesday w/ By-the Wind Saliors or Velella velella. Learn more: http://t.co/KwOU3uRnWN pic.twitter.com/UJWn2H9p0e — PRNSA (@PRNSA) July 30, 2014

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