"How unusual": Swarm of alien-like creatures wash up on Tofino beach
Some recent photos circulating on Facebook have left people stumped after some alien-like creatures were spotted in Tofino earlier this week.
As one commenter perfectly summarized, “How unusual.”
Julianne Kierulf Pe/Facebook
But if you were worried that the creatures mark the start of an alien invasion, we can clear things up for you. Experts at the Vancouver Aquarium told Daily Hive that the creatures are actually called Velella Velella, or more colloquially, by-the-wind sailors.
The creatures are considered “cousins of jellyfish” and fall under the category of gelatinous zooplankton. They also eat plankton by using their tentacles to sting them.
According to the experts, they “float with the wind and ocean currents, so they will end up on the beaches sometimes depending on what the currents are doing.”
While the creatures might be chilling on the beach just like everyone else, Vancouver Aquarium said that people shouldn’t touch the creatures and then touch their eyes. Better to keep our hands to ourselves.
Julianne Kierulf Pe/Facebook
Despite the surprise from some people at seeing the jellyfish cousins, it turns out that it’s not a new sighting for many Tofino locals, with one user writing, “they wash up in bigger numbers once every few years.”
However, others noted that they usually wash up later in the year.
“That is definitely early,” another Facebook user wrote. “[I] have seen them during other El Niño years, but only in the Summer months.”
We wonder what other creatures might be spotted in Tofino this summer.