Red Jellyfish?

We were in San Quintin a couple of weeks ago and saw muchos dead, red jelly fish on the beach. My kids were here this weekend in La Mision and said they saw a bunch of them here also. We were thinking it has something to do with the red tide. Does anyone know what they are and why they are here?k

Thanks Zac

What we saw was definitely the black ones not the purple stripe . They were on the beach everywhere from San Quintin to Soccoro,big blobs of blackish red goo, Glad I wasn't in the water then or I'm sure we'd have been stung. Quite a mess on the beaches. Thanks again for the story,k

We have them here in Rosariot too

and the water is unusually warm for here. Me thinks this has something to do with them being here.

A couple years ago, our beach was covered with small jellyfish that had a clear ridge on top of them. I called Scripps about them and found out they were called "By the Wind Sailors".
When I asked why they were on our beaches, the Scripps guy said it was because they couldn't tack!

Our red tide is back again. Something fishy is going on out there

About the Australian Box Jellyfish:

Mucho extrano aqui

Quote:

Originally posted by jrbaja and the water is unusually warm for here. Me thinks this has something to do with them being here. A couple years ago, our beach was covered with small jellyfish that had a clear ridge on top of them. I called Scripps about them and found out they were called "Sailors". When I asked why they were on our beaches, the Scripps guy said it was because they couldn't tack! Our red tide is back again. Something fishy is going on out there

We get the "sailors" here occasionally too. The water here finally got in sync with other years.

We have had hypoxia events (dead zones) which are very unusual events.
Typically, very cold water wells up along our coast and brings with it a huge biomass of nutrients. This fuels the dynamic food chain and is important for commerce.
Sometimes however and this year was no exception, the upwelling stalled out. Then when the waters are warmer a bloom of algae starts which gobbles up enormous amount of O2. Then if the upwelling resumes the new biomass completely denudes the area of oxygen.
The area is typically very narrow in width and parallels the coast. The area where it's extremely prevalant is where there can be dire consequences and kill off everything within that zone.
While talking to some divers and local marine biologists I was told an amazing story.

While the divers were not in the water other than for recreation the biologists were not. They were there to study the phenomenon I just described.
What they discovered was beyond belief. Along this division between the area with hypoxia and the unaffected adjacent reefs were thousands of fish all lined up resting aside and atop each other. A pile of living fish that resembled cords of wood stacked up 4-5 deep. What really amazed them was not just the numbers and arrangement but also the fact 6that there were a number of species involved but all appeared to be bottom fish, ling cod and sebastes sp.(rock fish) Smart fish seeking healthy water!

I have yet to hear if this years ocean behavior produced that scenario but we have had very odd things going on.

Keep watchin', what's next

Washed up Sailors with a bit of blue color - for the last 20 years we've been seeing a lot of them washed up on Pacific beaches at Pt. Reyes National Seashore and also in Sonoma County, each north of San Francisco. Once in a while we've even found some on beaches in Mendocino County.

My son used to "collect" them and we always called them Angel Wings.