Hundreds of blue by-the-wind sailors wash ashore on Cumbria beach

Hundreds of blue by-the-wind sailors washed ashore on St Bees beach in Cumbria, prompting experts to warn beachgoers not to touch them. Although resembling jellyfish, the Velella velella are colonial hydrozoans whose stinging cells can irritate skin. They arrived after strong westerly winds pushed them from the open sea. Mass strandings, known as blue tides, occur naturally and are not pollution. Similar events were seen this year in Wales and the western United States.