Rare Sea Snails Spotted Along San Diego Beaches

SAN DIEGO, CA — Shimmering purple shells have recently been spotted along the shore in San Diego.

Scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego identified the shells as janthina, a rare species of sea snail that packs a purple punch.

Scripps Oceanography PhD candidate Anya Stajner stumbled upon the marine gastropod mollusk on La Jolla Shores. The species, also commonly called bubble-raft snails, is known for its vibrant purple shells and bubble-like flotation system. They float at the air-sea interface thanks to their natural "bubble rafts."

"These purple iconic snails are rare among the shores," Stajner said in a Scripps Oceanography social media post. "In fact, I've never seen one on a walk until recently."

Janthina are typically found in sub-tropical to tropical seas, and their stranding along the Southern California coast is often linked to warmer offshore waters flowing toward the shore, a spokesperson for Scripps Institution of Oceanography told Patch.

The sea snails live at the surface in the pleustonic community, and will eat by-the-wind sailors, or velella velellas, which also washed ashore in San Diego in the winter and spring, according to the researchers at Scripps Oceanography's Pelagic Invertebrate Collection. They are also known to eat the Portuguese man o'war, a species of siphonophore, a group of animals that are closely related to jellyfish.

"While it's not unheard of for us to see janthina stranding on the beaches here in Southern California, it is rare," said Linsey Sala, manager of the Pelagic Invertebrate Collection at Scripps Oceanography.

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