On a morning walk on Gwithian beach yesterday we came across hundreds of mysterious-looking creatures washed up. From a distance they looked like mussels or jellyfish but on closer inspection they appeared like beautiful alien vessels. Small, maybe 6 or 7 cm across, oval shaped, a deep blue or purple in colour (presumably for camouflage purposes on the high seas), they were distinguished by their transparent fin or sail.

Though their scientific name is Velella velella, the creatures go by a variety of monikers, including by-the-wind sailor, sea raft, purple sail or sailors and Velella. Despite the similarities to jellyfish they are actually distantly related to the Portuguese man o’ war (mentioned on a previous post about a trip to the Isles of Scilly, where we saw several), due to the fact that each animal consists of a colony of creatures, rather than an individual, and thus are known as colonial hydroids and siphonophores.

Both are similar in texture and colour, and sting their prey using their tentacles which hang down under the sea. But whereas the Portuguese man o’ war’s tentacles can be up to 30 metres long and strong enough to kill fish and even humans in some cases, the purple sailors’ tentacles are very small and their sting is far less severe, being harmless to humans. They survive mainly on plankton and tiny fish.

Not a huge amount is known about the life of the beautiful and mysterious little purple sailors. Due to their size and sails, their lives are dictated by the wind and currents of the oceans, and they mainly spend their time floating far offshore on warm oceans. However they often find themselves blown off course, and thousands are found every year stranded on beaches in the UK and the States.

It was a beautiful, hazy sunny day. Many family’s were already out on the beach. There was an amusing sight of a group of hippies dancing to 1990s dance tunes. The purple sailors were an amazing sight, but of course I hoped they weren’t all dead. Ever the optimist — whenever a character is shot, knifed or blown up in a film or TV show I find myself saying out loud “He’ll be alright” — I’d read afterwards that the little sailors can survive up to a day being stranded on beaches. As the tide was rapidly coming in I hoped some of them had a good chance of survival.