Millions of small sea creatures are once again washing up
on Southern California shores.
They look like tiny jellyfish,
but they go by another name.
KTLA 5's Orange County Bureau chief,
Chip Yost is live in Newport Beach with the details.
Yeah, Glenn and Lou didn't take us long to find
some of those little sea creatures.
We were told that there were some at Southern California
beaches.
So we just picked Newport Beach here at random,
came down and found some pretty quickly.
Here's some video we took a little bit earlier there.
These things, you probably seen them before.
It seems every year or so we do stories about
these little creatures showing up on the beach.
You see they have what look like little sails on
them.
Well, that's because they float on the surface of the
water and kind of get blown around by the wind.
They kind of go where the wind takes them.
And in this case, they've been taking along the beaches
along Southern California.
They've been spotted all around the place.
That we talked to some of the folks at Davies
Locker and Newport Landing,
the whale watching folks. They were some of the first
people to put the word out that these sea creatures
were back.
Here's a little bit of what they have to say
about them.
So these are Vallela, Valella.
It's a fun, scientific name for by the wind sailors,
which they look like little jellyfish and they float across
the surface of the ocean.
They're normally seen very far offshore in pelagic waters and
often we'll see them maybe once a year if that.
And if you encounter them along the beaches,
it's a bite that you don't really want to pick
them up because they are related to a jellyfish.
They're actually more closely related to Portuguese man of war.
It's not an individual animal,
it's actually. Many, many animals are what we call colony
of animals living together.
Underneath that little sail, if you flip them over,
you'll see tentacles. And those tentacles you have stinging cells
or pneumaticists that can sting your hands.
But it's a very mild thing,
so usually our skin is too thick for that thing
to really penetrate.
So technically you could, but who would advise,
you know, not picking them up if you do see
them on the beaches?
Now, yeah, we're at Newport Beach by the pier,
but there have been reports of these little guys all
over the place,
all over Southern California. So probably you go to any
beach you might run into them.
For now, reporting live here in Newport Beach,
I'm Chip Yost, KTLA 5 News.