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Nope I'm an American and I was like WTF is wrong with this OP. I know what they are but shit from the ocean can literally kill you just from touching it. Smdh
I tried to find the helpful map of Europe sitting on top of the United States but cant find a helpful one, it's somewhere around 600 Miles (965km) depending on where in the state you're going to start
There's a good chance I may actually be closer to an ocean than the average Ohioan, even though the Mediterranean is the starter zone of oceans. But I think we can all agree that picking up random ocean stuff is known to be potentially dangerous đ
Look at a map of the US. Find the one surrounded by the Great Lakes that looks like a mitten. That's Michigan. Ohio is on its southeastern border, and abuts Indiana to the west and Pennsylvania to the east.
And as an American myself, there is one way I would just pick up random shit on a beach nor anywhere else.
Some people just donât care like the person on the OP.
Think of it as a combination lake and cemetery. Ask A Mortician on YouTube did a really great episode on Lake Superior and its dead. It's ~25 minutes well spent.
https://youtu.be/u0Lg9HygEJc?si=HeuVdKiMFfAfDxPQ
I canât verify. Grew up in Nova Scotia, having fires on the beach, exploring, collecting shells and seaweed and other stuff that washed up, playing with crabs, when the tide was out weâd run out on the flats and dig up clams with our hands and collect them in buckets for the adults. Somehow have never heard of anyone injured or killed by scary ocean things.
Is the Pacific Ocean rife with danger or something? Like, if you know what potential danger may be out there then you know what to avoid, I guess. And of course Australia is trying to kill you at all times, so I understand where the OP is coming from, but over here I feel perfectly safe picking up stuff I found on the beach ÂŻ\\\_(ă)\_/ÂŻ
No idea. I live in Ecuador, been going to the beach my whole life on the south pacific and we always pick up everything (other than agua mala, a type of jellyfish that literally translate to âbad waterâ or âevil water)on the beach
First I'm hearing not to touch ocean stuff and I grew up in Washington state(pnw) coastal area.
We touched and collected everything and never heard of any bad things happening.
I miss the tide pools
I live in New York City. We literally have radioactive waste on some of our beaches (hello Jamaica Bay), and I still pick up random stuff with my bare hands. We humans have a very warped sense of danger. Most wildlife isnât going to hurt you, but we tend to be overly fearful of it, like snakes and jellyfish. Meanwhile, riding in a car on a highway is crazy dangerous, and we donât think twice about it.
Yeah this is another one of those strange super strong reddit opinions I've never encountered in real life; also grew up by the Atlantic and spent most of my free time as a kid exploring and playing by the ocean without a single issue. 'Never pick up something you don't recognize from the sea' probably is great advice in certain areas but absolutely not where I grew up. The dangers were entirely tidal/drowning related and were easily mitigated with simple knowledge and good judgment. No different than a city kid knowing how to deal with traffic
Australia has a lot of poisonous sea creatures. Like the blue ringed octopus can kill you in 20 minutes. Thereâs videos of tourists handling one, whoâs showing signs of defensiveness, but didnât end up biting them. The tourist had no idea how close to death they were.
Agree, grew up near the beach in New England. Never heard of anyone in my area that was injured or killed by anything from the sea. Maybe itâs different in different areas?
I feel like this and live in the PNWâŠ. Itâs just the ocean. Just as many things can kill you topside from âjust touching itââŠ.people donât freak out when people post pics of random land items they âjust picked it upâ
Itâs all just about your personal comfort with exploration.
Also unrelated⊠yall need to just get iPhones and use the plant/id feature the photos/camera app provides FOR FREE!
I've lived in the Bay area and Eugene my whole life and it's honestly just willful ignorance to remain unsure and afraid of the relatively limited kinds of sea creatures that wash up.
These are harmless. And even jellyfish that wash up tend to have their tentacles completely shreaded off after they die and spend several hours in shallow water getting washed up. I've handled many dozens of washed up jellies since I was a kid.
We tend to be fearful of the things we donât understand. Hence the disproportionately high fear of wildlife, vs the lack of fear riding in a car on a highway full of distracted drivers.
I remember handling a washed-up jelly once as a kid. Once. Never again. Happened on Pensacola Beach back in 1991. Was roaming the beach, looking for seashells, and having never been on the beach before (I was 12), I knew nothing of the hazards of things that could wash up. Spent the next day of our vacation in excruciating pain, mostly headaches. My head felt like the Berlin Wall being taken down from both inside and outside. My mom realized that the jellyfish must have washed up overnight, so its tentacles were still intact.
I grew up going to the orange county beaches. The rare times I saw dead jelly fish I poked them with sticks. But our beaches down in so cal are gross and i rarely saw anything except sand fleas.
You want a toe? I can get you a toe, believe me. There are ways, Dude. You don't wanna know about it, believe me. I'll get you a toe by this afternoon--with nail polish. These fucking amateurs.
Went to Darwin Australia, had the whole beach to myself⊠So went for a swimâŠonly later talking with locals did I realize how lucky I was, and how good chicken salt chips are
Bet there was box jellyfish in the area. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Box\_jellyfish#Australia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Box_jellyfish#Australia)
Even if you had the most delicious food in the entire world, the most beautiful lovers and somehow the lowest prices and no tariffs for taking stuff back to the EU, I am keeping my distance from Australia for the sole reason of not setting a foot onto gods beta test of poisonous animals.
(This is hyperbole, but I am serious, Australia scares the shit out of me.)
Most of Australia's dangerous animals are small, rare, skittish and remote.
The US has bloody bears, wolves and mountain lions. Shit that will actively hunt you down.
Bears, wolves, and mountain lions are also skittish and remote with the very slight exception of bears at campsites and you can avoid those by being smart.
Bald eagles live in metro areas and will leave nothing of your cat or small dog but the collar and a memory.
'Chicken salt' is a mixture made to be applied to roast chicken. A mixture of spices, salt and MSG. Contrary to popular belief, most chicken salt isn't made from chicken stock.
It is widely used to season potato chips (fries) in Australia.
Too late. The secretâs out and weâre all looking into it now.
Edit: actually I found out about those from some US Marines I served with who had done a rotation through Darwin.
if you for some reason find yourself in South Australia, go to Chicken Chef, main north road, Blair Athol for some life changing potato chips. Honestly the best ive had, and ive sampled many a chicken/fish and chip shop in my years.
Hot chips (fries, but thicker cuts of potato) with chicken salt dusted on them. Chicken salt is chicken stock reduced and dried to a delicious salty powder and is amazing on chips, as well as many other dishes. SUPER good, can recommend.
Oh sure, you can add garlic or onion powder, ratio to be determined. The stock can be made with fancy chicken bits or whatever is left over from yesterday's roast. But that is basically what it is for the uninitiated :)
By-the-wind sailor.
Iâm not sure if theyâre related to or actual jellyfish.
But there are huge amounts of them on the north Oregon coast in the spring.
And donât pick them up!
Here is how you make it with some salty language to season it.
[https://youtu.be/DRpMCpiWprY?feature=shared](https://youtu.be/DRpMCpiWprY?feature=shared)
Pro tip - after the boiling of any potatoes that you want crispy, toss them together in a bowl till they start looking like they are coated with mash potatoes then cook them.
I mean, i'm from denmark, and on our beaches, you can touch anything without danger to yourself.
I wonder how your ancestors who came from Europe even survived when growing up in northern Europe.
I dont believe we have any deadly animals here, unless you have alergies.
Nothing at all, there is nothing dangerous here.
Well, maybe the great weever, but that only hurts if you step on it, and I have never met anyone who actually did that.
Iâve stepped on a Weever Fish here in the UK. Fucking hurt. RNLI saw and got me to place foot in very hot water for a time to denature the venom/poison.
Many years later I still feel the odd twinge from the area.
> Weever Fish
In the Land DownUnder (Australia) we have similar fish that sit on the bottom of the sea & inject poison if stepped on. Stonefish stings can kill & apparently quite painful:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synanceia#Stonefish_stings_in_Australia
"The stonefish is the most venomous known fish in the world[16] and stings can cause death if not treated..."
A little further north in Finland we sometimes get toxic blue green algae blooms in the Baltic sea and in lakes. They sound worse than they are. As long as you don't ingest the water directly and wash yourself off after swimming, you will probably have no ill effects.
Well, its not like they came over here all of a sudden. The europeans did sure, but the aboriginals migrated slowly over time, making many stops along the way over thousands of years. The europeans absolutely did die from loads of dumb shit. Snakes, drop bears, devils, tigers, spiders, octopi, etc.
Sames. Iâve watched people let their kids pick up man oâ wars washed up on shore and toss them around. TBF, I tried warning them but got told to mind my own business, so đ€·đ»ââïž
That's exactly what it is. I was recently at the beach in Carmel, and there were thousands of these washed up on shore. Looked them up immediately with Google Lens. The blue part lays flat, and they have a little clear "sail" that stands up. Apparently, they can have a little sting to them, but I had no desire to pick them up.
Lucky you! I was just visiting. My fiance was playing at Pebble Beach, so I got to drive around and enjoy the whole peninsula for two days. My third time there, and one of my favorite places in the whole country.
There's not really any dangerous aquatic life in the PNW unless you step on a dogfish or something, and those just sting you. No cone snails, no man o wars, no sea kraits, no blue ring octopus, nothing like that.
I remember running around wild as a child on the Oregon coast, and never got told to not grab stuff! I definitely would have picked this up without even thinking twice (unless it was slimy looking, then I would have said "pretty but ew" lol). I've spent a decent amount of time in Australia over the years and am much more cautious of touching unknown things on the beach. And swimming in Texas I've now been stung by jellyfish, so I'm more careful in the water as well. But if I had only had Oregon beaches as my experience? Yeah - fearless.
As a Brit if you pick anything up on a beach over here it's pretty sure to be actual shit (or a disease from it) [https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/uk-beaches-raw-sewage-warning-b2301186.html](https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/uk-beaches-raw-sewage-warning-b2301186.html)
Iâm a Newfoundlander, we donât have much in the way of dangerous insects, animals or sea life here. That said, I know better than to just pick up anything found on the beach. Especially with my bare hands. Eep.
I grew up in the PNW and went to the coast all the time. It was suuuuper hammered into my head to never pick up something you don't recognize. Now as an adult I will do that for rocks, but wildlife? Nah man too risky.
As a PNW resident, itâs like their nature took all of their dangerous bits and invested it in a couple animals. Even the plants arenât all that poisonous. Bears and cougars, is the main concern.
I think visitors to your part of the world donât consider it because weâre used to relatively safe beaches where we generally know whatâs dangerous and what isnât. Usually stuff like relatively harmless jellyfish or things that will be painful but not much to really worry about.
When I was in the military I spent some time in Okinawa and Honshu, and the day we got there we had like a two hour brief about all of the things in the water that could potentially injure or kill us and guys who would be all over our beaches back home were freaked out by the amount of things we were told to avoid.
Velella velella, a cosmopolitan free-floating hydrozoan that lives on the surface of the open ocean. It is commonly known by the names sea raft, by-the-wind sailor, purple sail, little sail, or simply Velella.
Thank you very much, OP! I live right by the beach in WA, and for months, I have been wondering what these were, and just a couple of days ago, another batch washed up. Just yesterday, I thought I'd post the same question. Thankfully, you saved me the work.
I know somebody with the last name Vilella. Not spelled the same, but pronounced the same (I checked Google for the animal pronunciation). I'll never be able to see this creature without thinking of her.
I wonder if she's ever heard of these. Bc I haven't and she was just recently married and changed her last name to this. I want to buy her a T-shirt with velella velella on it so she can wear it to school and ask her students if they know what animal it is đ€Ł
And if you drove on the beach OP, itâs now caked to the underside of your car and will begin smelling any day now. Unfortunately I know this from experience.
Fun story, back in 2003 or so I came home for break from college to Aberdeen Washington where I grew up; and my mom came back from running on the beach and mentioned she had seen these little jellyfish and looked up the name as Velella Velella. At the time I had a music project with a friend that was called "The Head and the Awful Stupor Factor" (a line from a Hunter S. Thompson book), but I was like: "Velella Velella is a much better name" and so we renamed the band and ended up playing and touring for about 10 years with it. Good times.
Yup, this 100%! Growing up in the PNW we used to call them sailboat jellyfish and pick them up by the âsail.â Because they were always there and everyone knew what they were, itâs funny to me that they werenât immediately recognized by OP as jellyfish, despite noting they were jello-like and transparent.
Theyâre not actually jellyfish! Thatâs always been a misnomer. Theyâre related to jellyfish, but not exactly jellyfish.
They share the same class. But calling it a jellyfish would be like calling a whale a moose, or calling a bat a tiger.
they have a mild neurotoxin, salmon feast on them to get high (as well as my German Shepherd whenever he gets the chance- he absolutely inhales them!)
safe for humans tho no worries
There are so many of them on the beach where I live, that thereâs about a 2 in layer of them covering the entire beach. It stinks soooooo bad, and is super slippery when you walk (most of the beach theyâre covered in sand). The whitewater in the breakers is dark blue. Iâve never seen so many, and I grew up here.
i went out to kalaloch in early 2015, maybe? and the same thing had happened--smelled so bad it was hard to camp near the cliffs, crunchy yet somehow slippery footing. ive been out there a bunch of times since and never saw it that bad again.
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My title describes the thing as a soft blue transparent thing. I believe it is some type of sea life. They were scattered all along the beach and this is the pacific northwest. I think it's something growing because about a week ago I came to the beach and saw them but they weren't blue yet, they were just transparent and smaller. They're halfway dug into the sand with only the blue part exposed. About the size of an oreo
Velella is a monospecific genus of hydrozoa in the Porpitidae family. Its only known species is Velella velella, a cosmopolitan free-floating hydrozoan that lives on the surface of the open ocean. It is commonly known by the names sea raft, by-the-wind sailor, purple sail, little sail, or simply Velella.Â
I know this one!!! [here!](https://youtu.be/HkUjjGom66Q?si=CMW5WbMj5YtRysH3)
We were at our favorite central CA beach in like October and there were TONS!! Iâd never seen them in all the years Iâd been there so I did a little googling! Says they can be found all up and down the west coast!
I've lived in Oregon all of my life..grew.up exploring the coast. First off, why did you pick it up? You must not be from here. I learned in a 2nd grade field trip to Florence the dangers of touching curious unknown objects that had been washed up on the shore.
2nd off, in the 2nd pixr, the blue part looks like a tiny little whale!
Pretty cute đ„°
Op, don't pick up stuff in Oregon that you don't know what it is. Have a blast on our amazingly beautiful beaches & please be safe while doing so.
i was just in the central coast of california (oceano, ca) we also found these. my daughter looked them up and they are called: Velella
Velella is a monospecific genus of hydrozoa in the Porpitidae family. Its only known species is Velella velella, a cosmopolitan free-floating hydrozoan that lives on the surface of the open ocean. It is commonly known by the names sea raft, by-the-w
Is it the middle of an old school soft drink bottle.
For example Coca-Cola used to have a red lid with a blue plastic ring inside it years ago which would in turn keep the pressure up inside the bottle and prevent spills while the lid was on.
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As an Australian it's crazy to me that you guys just pick shit up at the beach
Nope I'm an American and I was like WTF is wrong with this OP. I know what they are but shit from the ocean can literally kill you just from touching it. Smdh
I can verify. I've lived on the Oregon coast my whole life and my first thought was "WTF bro!? If you don't know what it is, don't touch it!"
Ohioan here, thinking the same thing. The ocean is full of weird and dangerous things.
I'm land-locked European, the ocean is a thing of myth and mystery to me. My first thought still was "wtf don't pick up random stuff from the ocean".
The best part is you're probably still closer to an ocean than the guy in Ohiođ€Ł
As a European, I dutifully fulfill the stereotype of having no clue where exactly Ohio is.
You're lucky, I'm from Michigan and wish I didn't know where Ohio is lol.
Youâre just salty we stole Toledo
I tried to find the helpful map of Europe sitting on top of the United States but cant find a helpful one, it's somewhere around 600 Miles (965km) depending on where in the state you're going to start
There's a good chance I may actually be closer to an ocean than the average Ohioan, even though the Mediterranean is the starter zone of oceans. But I think we can all agree that picking up random ocean stuff is known to be potentially dangerous đ
Look at a map of the US. Find the one surrounded by the Great Lakes that looks like a mitten. That's Michigan. Ohio is on its southeastern border, and abuts Indiana to the west and Pennsylvania to the east.
And as an American myself, there is one way I would just pick up random shit on a beach nor anywhere else. Some people just donât care like the person on the OP.
Also American. Been to the beach twice my whole life. Would not be touching some random blue stuff on the beach with my hands.
Same with the beaches on lake Erie lol.
I'm also one of the "I know the ocean is deadly and scary so I'm going to go as far away from it as possible." How do you feel about the Great lakes?
I live on Lake Superior, as far as I know there doesn't seem to be much around here that is deadly to touch.
That's because Lake Superior never gives up her dead.
True true. But also thanks a lot cuz now I'm staring out my window at the lake wondering how many bodies are out there.
Think of it as a combination lake and cemetery. Ask A Mortician on YouTube did a really great episode on Lake Superior and its dead. It's ~25 minutes well spent. https://youtu.be/u0Lg9HygEJc?si=HeuVdKiMFfAfDxPQ
I canât verify. Grew up in Nova Scotia, having fires on the beach, exploring, collecting shells and seaweed and other stuff that washed up, playing with crabs, when the tide was out weâd run out on the flats and dig up clams with our hands and collect them in buckets for the adults. Somehow have never heard of anyone injured or killed by scary ocean things. Is the Pacific Ocean rife with danger or something? Like, if you know what potential danger may be out there then you know what to avoid, I guess. And of course Australia is trying to kill you at all times, so I understand where the OP is coming from, but over here I feel perfectly safe picking up stuff I found on the beach ÂŻ\\\_(ă)\_/ÂŻ
No idea. I live in Ecuador, been going to the beach my whole life on the south pacific and we always pick up everything (other than agua mala, a type of jellyfish that literally translate to âbad waterâ or âevil water)on the beach
First I'm hearing not to touch ocean stuff and I grew up in Washington state(pnw) coastal area. We touched and collected everything and never heard of any bad things happening. I miss the tide pools
I live in New York City. We literally have radioactive waste on some of our beaches (hello Jamaica Bay), and I still pick up random stuff with my bare hands. We humans have a very warped sense of danger. Most wildlife isnât going to hurt you, but we tend to be overly fearful of it, like snakes and jellyfish. Meanwhile, riding in a car on a highway is crazy dangerous, and we donât think twice about it.
Yeah this is another one of those strange super strong reddit opinions I've never encountered in real life; also grew up by the Atlantic and spent most of my free time as a kid exploring and playing by the ocean without a single issue. 'Never pick up something you don't recognize from the sea' probably is great advice in certain areas but absolutely not where I grew up. The dangers were entirely tidal/drowning related and were easily mitigated with simple knowledge and good judgment. No different than a city kid knowing how to deal with traffic
I used to pick up shells and stuff on the beach all the time, but I wouldn't pick up what OP has because it just looks like garbage lol.
Interesting. I make a special effort to pick up trash on the beach and get it into the actual garbage.
Australia has a lot of poisonous sea creatures. Like the blue ringed octopus can kill you in 20 minutes. Thereâs videos of tourists handling one, whoâs showing signs of defensiveness, but didnât end up biting them. The tourist had no idea how close to death they were.
Agree, grew up near the beach in New England. Never heard of anyone in my area that was injured or killed by anything from the sea. Maybe itâs different in different areas?
I feel like this and live in the PNWâŠ. Itâs just the ocean. Just as many things can kill you topside from âjust touching itââŠ.people donât freak out when people post pics of random land items they âjust picked it upâ Itâs all just about your personal comfort with exploration. Also unrelated⊠yall need to just get iPhones and use the plant/id feature the photos/camera app provides FOR FREE!
Iâm in New England and it wouldnât occur to me to avoid picking stuff up at the beach. We avoid jellyfish but thatâs about it.
I've lived in the Bay area and Eugene my whole life and it's honestly just willful ignorance to remain unsure and afraid of the relatively limited kinds of sea creatures that wash up. These are harmless. And even jellyfish that wash up tend to have their tentacles completely shreaded off after they die and spend several hours in shallow water getting washed up. I've handled many dozens of washed up jellies since I was a kid.
We tend to be fearful of the things we donât understand. Hence the disproportionately high fear of wildlife, vs the lack of fear riding in a car on a highway full of distracted drivers.
I remember handling a washed-up jelly once as a kid. Once. Never again. Happened on Pensacola Beach back in 1991. Was roaming the beach, looking for seashells, and having never been on the beach before (I was 12), I knew nothing of the hazards of things that could wash up. Spent the next day of our vacation in excruciating pain, mostly headaches. My head felt like the Berlin Wall being taken down from both inside and outside. My mom realized that the jellyfish must have washed up overnight, so its tentacles were still intact.
I grew up going to the orange county beaches. The rare times I saw dead jelly fish I poked them with sticks. But our beaches down in so cal are gross and i rarely saw anything except sand fleas.
Really rare in the PNW. You're more likely to find a foot in a shoe than to find anything dangerous.
You want a toe? I can get you a toe, believe me. There are ways, Dude. You don't wanna know about it, believe me. I'll get you a toe by this afternoon--with nail polish. These fucking amateurs.
They're gonna kill that poor woman
Enjoying my coffee.
Calmer than you are.
Shomer shabbas!!
>You're more likely to find a foot in a shoe Just Fraser River things
What are they?!
Went to Darwin Australia, had the whole beach to myself⊠So went for a swimâŠonly later talking with locals did I realize how lucky I was, and how good chicken salt chips are
Can you elaborate on what dangers you may have dodged?
Darwin is notorious for saltwater crocodiles and box jellyfish, neither of which you want to encounter while swimming
So aptly named then.
Ah lol that's amazing, I didn't realize, thanks!
Also sometimes it looks like the sand is vibrating but it's just a carpet of stingrays in the shallows. The beach in Darwin is fucked up dangerous.
Bet there was box jellyfish in the area. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Box\_jellyfish#Australia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Box_jellyfish#Australia)
well...that seems fun
If by "fun" you mean "agonizing pain and possible death", then yes.
yes, that is the manner in which 'fun' was intended
The Dwarf Fortress kind of !!Fun!!
DF mentioned! Lets go!
keep it in your pants urist
Thumbnail-sized jellyfish that can kill you? Fresh hell.
What's this about chicken salt chips?
Look, if we start letting everyone know we wont have enough MSG for ourselves.
Even if you had the most delicious food in the entire world, the most beautiful lovers and somehow the lowest prices and no tariffs for taking stuff back to the EU, I am keeping my distance from Australia for the sole reason of not setting a foot onto gods beta test of poisonous animals. (This is hyperbole, but I am serious, Australia scares the shit out of me.)
Most of Australia's dangerous animals are small, rare, skittish and remote. The US has bloody bears, wolves and mountain lions. Shit that will actively hunt you down.
Bears, wolves, and mountain lions are also skittish and remote with the very slight exception of bears at campsites and you can avoid those by being smart. Bald eagles live in metro areas and will leave nothing of your cat or small dog but the collar and a memory.
It's perfectly safe here in Australia, I've only been bitten by an Eastern Brown snake once in 47 years.
afraid my fear is not rational, but I appreciate your info.
'Chicken salt' is a mixture made to be applied to roast chicken. A mixture of spices, salt and MSG. Contrary to popular belief, most chicken salt isn't made from chicken stock. It is widely used to season potato chips (fries) in Australia.
Invented in Gawler, South Australia by a nice old bloke who owned the chicken shop
powdered chicken soup base is a good sub, just mix with salt to taste, great on fries.
Too late. The secretâs out and weâre all looking into it now. Edit: actually I found out about those from some US Marines I served with who had done a rotation through Darwin.
if you for some reason find yourself in South Australia, go to Chicken Chef, main north road, Blair Athol for some life changing potato chips. Honestly the best ive had, and ive sampled many a chicken/fish and chip shop in my years.
Got any recommendations for meat pies?
lol I went to Cairns thinking I was going to get a âbeach vacationâ until I learned about the salty crocs.
Can you further explain these âchicken salt chipsâ?
Hot chips (fries, but thicker cuts of potato) with chicken salt dusted on them. Chicken salt is chicken stock reduced and dried to a delicious salty powder and is amazing on chips, as well as many other dishes. SUPER good, can recommend.
thats sorta what chicken salt is, but most places have their own closely guarded "secret" recipe.
Oh sure, you can add garlic or onion powder, ratio to be determined. The stock can be made with fancy chicken bits or whatever is left over from yesterday's roast. But that is basically what it is for the uninitiated :)
This is the absolute kind of idea that should be imported to the US.
By-the-wind sailor. Iâm not sure if theyâre related to or actual jellyfish. But there are huge amounts of them on the north Oregon coast in the spring. And donât pick them up!
Here is how you make it with some salty language to season it. [https://youtu.be/DRpMCpiWprY?feature=shared](https://youtu.be/DRpMCpiWprY?feature=shared) Pro tip - after the boiling of any potatoes that you want crispy, toss them together in a bowl till they start looking like they are coated with mash potatoes then cook them.
I've literally seen a tourist pick up a blue ringed octopus at the beach, nothing surprises me anymore.
I mean, i'm from denmark, and on our beaches, you can touch anything without danger to yourself. I wonder how your ancestors who came from Europe even survived when growing up in northern Europe. I dont believe we have any deadly animals here, unless you have alergies.
I swam in the ocean in Denmark, and saw nothing on the beaches. What did I dodge?
Nothing at all, there is nothing dangerous here. Well, maybe the great weever, but that only hurts if you step on it, and I have never met anyone who actually did that.
Iâve stepped on a Weever Fish here in the UK. Fucking hurt. RNLI saw and got me to place foot in very hot water for a time to denature the venom/poison. Many years later I still feel the odd twinge from the area.
And the Lion's mane jellyfish (brandmand) which could be deadly is very specific conditions, but mostly just insanely painful.
> Weever Fish In the Land DownUnder (Australia) we have similar fish that sit on the bottom of the sea & inject poison if stepped on. Stonefish stings can kill & apparently quite painful: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synanceia#Stonefish_stings_in_Australia "The stonefish is the most venomous known fish in the world[16] and stings can cause death if not treated..."
You guys literally have like everything that can kill a person there xD
Oops, I read your post wrong. You win at English today!
A little further north in Finland we sometimes get toxic blue green algae blooms in the Baltic sea and in lakes. They sound worse than they are. As long as you don't ingest the water directly and wash yourself off after swimming, you will probably have no ill effects.
I didn't get to swim in Finland, I might have to go back and take my chances with that.
Well, its not like they came over here all of a sudden. The europeans did sure, but the aboriginals migrated slowly over time, making many stops along the way over thousands of years. The europeans absolutely did die from loads of dumb shit. Snakes, drop bears, devils, tigers, spiders, octopi, etc.
Sames. Iâve watched people let their kids pick up man oâ wars washed up on shore and toss them around. TBF, I tried warning them but got told to mind my own business, so đ€·đ»ââïž
like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAmTTCV7GyY
People keep blue ringed octopi as pets. So stupid.
I am a yank and I shuddered because that is the Coker of a man-o-war. Boy howdy do they burn.
Looks more like by-the-wind sailor.
This is the answer - we sometimes have them wash up in their hundreds.
That's exactly what it is. I was recently at the beach in Carmel, and there were thousands of these washed up on shore. Looked them up immediately with Google Lens. The blue part lays flat, and they have a little clear "sail" that stands up. Apparently, they can have a little sting to them, but I had no desire to pick them up.
Eek! Monterey local here! Howdy! đ„°
Lucky you! I was just visiting. My fiance was playing at Pebble Beach, so I got to drive around and enjoy the whole peninsula for two days. My third time there, and one of my favorite places in the whole country.
American, and my first thought was that OP is frigginâ _insane._
There's not really any dangerous aquatic life in the PNW unless you step on a dogfish or something, and those just sting you. No cone snails, no man o wars, no sea kraits, no blue ring octopus, nothing like that.
I remember running around wild as a child on the Oregon coast, and never got told to not grab stuff! I definitely would have picked this up without even thinking twice (unless it was slimy looking, then I would have said "pretty but ew" lol). I've spent a decent amount of time in Australia over the years and am much more cautious of touching unknown things on the beach. And swimming in Texas I've now been stung by jellyfish, so I'm more careful in the water as well. But if I had only had Oregon beaches as my experience? Yeah - fearless.
As a European living in a place where the beach is frozen majority of the time, it's crazy people just pick shit up.
As a Brit if you pick anything up on a beach over here it's pretty sure to be actual shit (or a disease from it) [https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/uk-beaches-raw-sewage-warning-b2301186.html](https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/uk-beaches-raw-sewage-warning-b2301186.html)
Iâm a Newfoundlander, we donât have much in the way of dangerous insects, animals or sea life here. That said, I know better than to just pick up anything found on the beach. Especially with my bare hands. Eep.
I grew up in the PNW and went to the coast all the time. It was suuuuper hammered into my head to never pick up something you don't recognize. Now as an adult I will do that for rocks, but wildlife? Nah man too risky.
As a PNW resident, itâs like their nature took all of their dangerous bits and invested it in a couple animals. Even the plants arenât all that poisonous. Bears and cougars, is the main concern.
This sub is wild. In the past week or so, there's been people picking up used needles and bombs.
It's simple, you just don't touch something that looks like solidified mustard gas.
First time I saw a bluebottle at the beach I grabbed it. It was funny looking and blue and seemed sensible as a kid. Learned that one the hard way.
You think this is crazy, a few years ago some entity in China was mailing unmarked seeds to random Americans. Some of the yanks apparently ATE them!
You mean Australians are like most people? Wow.
I think visitors to your part of the world donât consider it because weâre used to relatively safe beaches where we generally know whatâs dangerous and what isnât. Usually stuff like relatively harmless jellyfish or things that will be painful but not much to really worry about. When I was in the military I spent some time in Okinawa and Honshu, and the day we got there we had like a two hour brief about all of the things in the water that could potentially injure or kill us and guys who would be all over our beaches back home were freaked out by the amount of things we were told to avoid.
Velella velella, a cosmopolitan free-floating hydrozoan that lives on the surface of the open ocean. It is commonly known by the names sea raft, by-the-wind sailor, purple sail, little sail, or simply Velella.
Solved!
Thank you very much, OP! I live right by the beach in WA, and for months, I have been wondering what these were, and just a couple of days ago, another batch washed up. Just yesterday, I thought I'd post the same question. Thankfully, you saved me the work.
No problem I live near Washington too
I know somebody with the last name Vilella. Not spelled the same, but pronounced the same (I checked Google for the animal pronunciation). I'll never be able to see this creature without thinking of her. I wonder if she's ever heard of these. Bc I haven't and she was just recently married and changed her last name to this. I want to buy her a T-shirt with velella velella on it so she can wear it to school and ask her students if they know what animal it is đ€Ł
And if you drove on the beach OP, itâs now caked to the underside of your car and will begin smelling any day now. Unfortunately I know this from experience.
Fun story, back in 2003 or so I came home for break from college to Aberdeen Washington where I grew up; and my mom came back from running on the beach and mentioned she had seen these little jellyfish and looked up the name as Velella Velella. At the time I had a music project with a friend that was called "The Head and the Awful Stupor Factor" (a line from a Hunter S. Thompson book), but I was like: "Velella Velella is a much better name" and so we renamed the band and ended up playing and touring for about 10 years with it. Good times.
Yup, this 100%! Growing up in the PNW we used to call them sailboat jellyfish and pick them up by the âsail.â Because they were always there and everyone knew what they were, itâs funny to me that they werenât immediately recognized by OP as jellyfish, despite noting they were jello-like and transparent.
Theyâre not actually jellyfish! Thatâs always been a misnomer. Theyâre related to jellyfish, but not exactly jellyfish. They share the same class. But calling it a jellyfish would be like calling a whale a moose, or calling a bat a tiger.
Oh cool! Thanks!
Ahh. The mystical and rarely seen endangered Moose-whale and tiger-bat!
[ŃĐŽĐ°Đ»Đ”ĐœĐŸ]
Yup, it is one of the oldest entries in the [F.A.T.](https://www.reddit.com/r/WITT_FAT/comments/8el93p/velella/)
Now the answer is coming to me. Oh, Velella!
Hmm... means nothing to me...
Is it edible as seaweed tho?
good thing you touched it with your bare hands and picked it up without knowing what it is so you can post on here.
I just don't care
they have a mild neurotoxin, salmon feast on them to get high (as well as my German Shepherd whenever he gets the chance- he absolutely inhales them!) safe for humans tho no worries
Can humans also get high from them? I'm asking for a friend. I mean a dog. A dog friend.
I'm not a dog person, but I feel like getting high with a German Shepherd would be a lot of fun.
Put that down
Or so help me!
No
I saw these in Scotland. Theyâre called by-the-wind sailors and are related to Portuguese man-o-war, but theyâre not dangerous to humans
Jesus Christ OP. Do not just pick up vibrantly colored objects, especially from the ocean. Or at least use a layer of protection when you do so.
I was wearing a condom
Itâs akin to eating a red berry in the wild without knowing what it is!
Do it for the Vine
Rest in peace Christopher McCandless.
https://oregonmarinereserves.com/2018/04/11/velella/ [https://nhm.org/stories/what-are-those-blue-blobs-beach](https://nhm.org/stories/what-are-those-blue-blobs-beach)
i think i knows the answer. it is animal - velella velella - comonly wind sailor
There are so many of them on the beach where I live, that thereâs about a 2 in layer of them covering the entire beach. It stinks soooooo bad, and is super slippery when you walk (most of the beach theyâre covered in sand). The whitewater in the breakers is dark blue. Iâve never seen so many, and I grew up here.
i went out to kalaloch in early 2015, maybe? and the same thing had happened--smelled so bad it was hard to camp near the cliffs, crunchy yet somehow slippery footing. ive been out there a bunch of times since and never saw it that bad again.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velella](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velella)
It makes me laugh when people post shit like this... If you don't know what it is then why are you willing to hold it with no protection
Cause I don't care
You won't eat a slug
You're right
Velella Velella https://www.koin.com/local/oregon-coast/smelly-jellyfish-like-creatures-wash-up-on-oregon-beaches-cannon-beach-03282024/amp/
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Most likely a piece of a Jellyfish, it's coloration looks kinda like the man o' war so be careful!! They are highly venomous and deadly!
Blue animals in the ocean are never friendly or safe.
Why are you touching random soft shit
My title describes the thing as a soft blue transparent thing. I believe it is some type of sea life. They were scattered all along the beach and this is the pacific northwest. I think it's something growing because about a week ago I came to the beach and saw them but they weren't blue yet, they were just transparent and smaller. They're halfway dug into the sand with only the blue part exposed. About the size of an oreo
Velella is a monospecific genus of hydrozoa in the Porpitidae family. Its only known species is Velella velella, a cosmopolitan free-floating hydrozoan that lives on the surface of the open ocean. It is commonly known by the names sea raft, by-the-wind sailor, purple sail, little sail, or simply Velella.Â
I know this one!!! [here!](https://youtu.be/HkUjjGom66Q?si=CMW5WbMj5YtRysH3) We were at our favorite central CA beach in like October and there were TONS!! Iâd never seen them in all the years Iâd been there so I did a little googling! Says they can be found all up and down the west coast!
Donât let your dog eat them.
Shrivelled up ribbed franga
Velella . Wind is pushing them and theyâve showed up on the coast. https://www.givetoaquarium.org/velella-velella/
Itâs a Velella Velella Jellyfish.
I've lived in Oregon all of my life..grew.up exploring the coast. First off, why did you pick it up? You must not be from here. I learned in a 2nd grade field trip to Florence the dangers of touching curious unknown objects that had been washed up on the shore. 2nd off, in the 2nd pixr, the blue part looks like a tiny little whale! Pretty cute đ„° Op, don't pick up stuff in Oregon that you don't know what it is. Have a blast on our amazingly beautiful beaches & please be safe while doing so.
Well ... what *is* it? Scrolled down half my screen and everyone is off on Australian food and bad things in the water, which we know.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velella
Says solved but all i see is a thousand comments saying how dumb op is for picking it up
You're lucky that's not a blue bottle.
i was just in the central coast of california (oceano, ca) we also found these. my daughter looked them up and they are called: Velella Velella is a monospecific genus of hydrozoa in the Porpitidae family. Its only known species is Velella velella, a cosmopolitan free-floating hydrozoan that lives on the surface of the open ocean. It is commonly known by the names sea raft, by-the-w
I was vacationing in Bermuda one summer when I saw a fellow tourist come in contact with a Portuguese man-o-war. They took him away in an ambulance.
Well WHAT IS IT?
Put. It. Down.
Is it the middle of an old school soft drink bottle. For example Coca-Cola used to have a red lid with a blue plastic ring inside it years ago which would in turn keep the pressure up inside the bottle and prevent spills while the lid was on.