Velella at Abalone Cove, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA

Around a hundred stranded on the beach. The water was full of what seemed like green algae, or maybe phytoplankton, to the extent that the green stuff would show at the edge of the sea froth and bubble on the sand. The green matter sometimes dried in their thick bubbles leaving dark, round circular marks upon the sand.
The velella themselves were not round like in the pictures, but a bit crumpled-looking, like the round, but oblong shape of a big, relaxed rubber band. Some of their sails were down, others were still upright. At first we thought they looked like shreds of a torn-up plastic bag, but there were too many of them in the same shape to be plastic bags.