IN IMAGES, IN PICTURES. Colonies of velelles, cousins ​​of jellyfish, wash up on beaches off the Mediterranean

Des vélelles s’échouent et envahissent les plages de Marseille à la Côte d'Azur. ILLUSTRATION MAXPPP – Val. C

Depuis le 21 mars 2024, de petits organismes bleus semblables à des méduses, s’échouent sur les plages de Marseille à la Côte d’Azur, il s’agit de "vélelles".

The Prado beaches are not only invaded by tourists. For more than a week, "velelles" in colony wash up on the beaches of Marseille and on the Côte d’Azur. These were calls from worried local residents, suspecting pollution of the sea, which led to this discovery.

Velellae, wrongly nicknamed blue jellyfish, are composed of a blue, oval-shaped cartilaginous ring with a translucent central part. They are cousins ​​of jellyfish.

A blue tide

The photographer and apnea instructor Karim Saari, presented by France info as a "passionate about the seabed" and "concerned about their preservation", posted this Monday April 1st on his X count of photos and videos of this blue tablecloth in Marseille.

🔵 Arrivée des Vélelles dans la rade marseillaise 🪼

▶️ pour en savoir plus sur l'espèce : https://t.co/dxnxp7sJ5T#Marseille#Environnement#biodiversité pic.twitter.com/3OXDY3MKQy

— Dark Massilia (@dark_massilia) April 2, 2024

The Port-Cros park Facebook page also shared photos of the velelles. The park warns that: "Almost every year in the spring, thousands of these little blue jellyfish wash up on our coast"

Not stinging to humans

The velella is a plankton animal. She floats on the surface, lives in the open sea, and drifts with the wind thanks to her sail. In the spring, the velelles come to the surface by the millions. They attract plankton-eating animals, notably sunfish. On these tentacles, cells armed with a harpoon inject a venom which paralyzes the small prey. The velella, however, is not stinging for humans.

Although rare on the Mediterranean coasts a few years ago, they are becoming more and more present, this could be one of the consequences of climate change.