Mallorca beaches at Soller and Andratx covered by thousands of 'little sails'

On Saturday, the Repic beach in Puerto Soller was covered by thousands upon thousands of 'velella velella', a jellyfish-like hydrozoa species known in English, among other names, as 'little sail'. This is because of a sail-shaped membrane that is caught by the wind and propels them across the sea. But under certain wind conditions and because they exist in such vast colonies, they can be washed up in their thousands. Hours later it was a similar story on Andratx beach.

There was the same occurrence in Soller at exactly the same time of year in 2019. The spring is when the velella velella gets washed up. There was a similar invasion in Cala Millor a few weeks ago.

In Mallorca they are referred to as 'barquetes de Sant Pere', Saint Peter's sailboats. They are from the same family as the Portuguese man o' war, and so aren't strictly speaking jellyfish. Unlike the Portuguese man o' war they are pretty harmless.

But when they are washed up en masse like this, town halls have to get to work quickly. As they decompose, they start to smell and attract flies.