More than 10,000 jellyfish, each about the size of a dinner plate, washed up on Ocean Beach, in San Francisco, last Friday, November 12.
According to experts, they are probably moon jellies, which have a pinkish hue and leave intricate, flowerlike imprints in the sand when they dry up.
Unlike the Portuguese man o' war, whose stings can be fatal to humans, moon jellyfish are so mild the toxins rarely penetrate human skin.
Apparently this is nothing to be alarmed about. Jellyfish tend to congregate in groups, and tides, the wind, ocean swells and currents can combine to send the groups ashore. Jellyfish have been washing ashore around San Francisco Bay for at least 500 million years, said Mike McGill, a marine biologist at the Aquarium of the Bay.
And the California coast is home to about 20 species of jellyfish, all of which are thriving.
I went to see them on Saturday and the high tide had washed most of them back out to sea!
Check out the sight on Friday here:
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