March 10, 2026

Report Details

I walked on the SB state park beach from the disabled access platform area to the south jetty. I noticed a multitude of V. velella. Some were dark blue, others appeared to have a purple hue, a very few were bleached white. # of V. velellas dropped off sharply as I walked north & when I reached the northernmost trail (that ends at the park's campground) entry there were almost none in the then driftline & looking towards the jetty, it appeared that this continued until there were few to none in the driftline very close to the jetty. I attended the virtual seminar on V. velella, & based on what was stated re: determining if the individual was a "rightie" or "leftie" it seemed that most of those I saw were "lefties." Based on spot checks or sampling. However, while the speaker indicated that usually the shape of the bottom was narrower (at one end), I couldn't detect a smaller/narrower end for quite a few of the specimens I stopped to look at more closely. Based on those that did, I used the narrower end to determine whether the "sail" was a "leftie" or "rightie". I did see some specimens that appeared to be "righties" but most seemed to be lefties. This beach is not my coast watch mile. I went to SB state park today because, unlike my mile, I can walk at SB state park any time of the day, I don't have to track tides to make sure a high tide won't stop me from completing my mile/walk Instead, if there's a very high tide /storm surge and/or it's raining heavily and/or it's very windy, I can walk from the day use parking lot to near the south jetty, via the paved or unpaved trails which lie east of the foredune. Foredune really reduces wind speeds. When I got to the disabled access view platform, I could see there was plenty of beach to walk on so I walked down the foredune to the beach -and saw the masses of washed up V. velella in the drift line. I entered 4 pm where time of arrival (but not departure) not because that's when i arrived on the beach, I doubt if it was. But because I wasn't able to submit this form until I entered a time and how long it took me to complete the report, the time I entered is also wrong.