* The authors are part of the community of La Vanguardia readers
The velellas visit us again, taking over the beaches, especially on the coast of Girona and Barcelona, as on the Garraf coast, as can be seen in these photographs in The Photos of the Readers of La Vanguardia.
Invasion of velella jellyfish, for example, in the Platja del Far in Vilanova i la Geltrú. A long line of hundreds of velella jellyfish specimens has appeared along the entire coastal strip.
This small, blue species of jellyfish does not represent a threat. Bathers, despite it not being a particularly hot day and with the sea quite rippled, do not deprive themselves of their sea bathing.
It is said that the cause of this irruption of velellas is due to the excessive salinity of the water, caused by the lack of rain, although it is not uncommon for them to become stranded on the shore due to the characteristics of their locomotion system, at the mercy of the currents and the winds.
Also known as sea sail or purple sail, they are like tiny soft-shell mussels. Its scientific name is Velella velella, also the popular name is barqueta de Sant Pere (little boat of San Pedro), since that is when they usually arrive at the end of June, between San Juan and San Pedro, but in this case they have been brought forward to April , as we can see.
