VIDEO. “Surprising and destabilizing”: boaters from Sète surprised by millions of velelles, cousins ​​of the jellyfish

Off the coast of Sète, the occupants of a sailboat came across several schools of what could be velelles, a cousin of the jellyfish, this Sunday, May 19.

"It’was at once surprising, magnificent and very destabilizing !"& nbsp;This Sunday, May 19, the occupants of a sailboat cruising off the coast of Sète found themselves among millions of "small jellyfish", forming banks in which the boat sailed on several occasions.

"We had the feeling that they were dead"

"It’was really impressive, even for my uncle, owner of the sailboat, who had already encountered such formations on the Balearic Islands but never in this sector", explains Marine, originally from Paris and on a weekend in Sète. "We had the feeling that these jellyfish were dead, and as the sea was loaded with plastics and tree trunks perhaps carried by the recent rains, we wondered if this could be bound."

Rather than jellyfish, it could be one of its cousins, the jellyfish. These small organisms equipped with a sort of sail can only move with the winds and currents. Much less stinging than certain Mediterranean jellyfish, they can wash up en masse on beaches during sea surges.

Also spotted in the Calanques natural park

This is what happened a few weeks ago, at the beginning of April, when the velelles were found en masse on the beaches of Sète and Frontignan. Same observation, at the beginning of the month, near Narbonne-Plage.

🔵 C'est le grand retour des Vélelles dans le @ParcCalanques 🪼🌊 #environnement #calanques #Marseille pic.twitter.com/oOQhklNStc

— Dark Massilia (@dark_massilia) May 20, 2024

On the Marseille side, a massive stranding was also reported in the Calanques natural park this Monday, May 20. Main disadvantage, they give off a strong odor once dead, when of their decomposition, sometimes forcing municipalities to intervene to clean the beaches.