By-The-Wind Sailors - Blue Jellyfish

This was a new one for me. I though all jellyfish were either some form of the deadly white ball without tentacles or the purple and white tentacled variety. I was wrong. There's a whole other kind that don't even resemble their well known cousins.

This is a By-The-Wind Sailor more formally known as Velella velella.  They're blue with a sail and go where the wind blows. Apparently that was to shore where slow death awaited them.

While still blue, the jellies can't survive long out of the water and as they die off, all the pigment leaves them till they turn to white. This one is still optimistic that a wave will sweep over it and take it back to sea.

Once the life has left the jelly only a white husk remains.  I read online that these jellies frequently wash up in the spring but I've never noticed them before. Maybe it's because the water was warmer than normal this year that they strayed in too close to shore. For good jellyfish facts go to http://jellieszone.com/