Backyard beauty

Have you seen these jellyfish washing up on BC beaches this summer? We saw this one on Calvert Island. They’re called By-the-wind-sailor, sea raft, purple sail, or little sail – or by their scientific name Velella velella. They eat plankton and are eaten by nudibranchs. It looks like just one individual but it’s actually a whole colony of all-male OR all-female polyps! Some polyps are in charge of reproduction while others are for protection.