Thousands of tiny ‘alien’ blobs washed ashore, and the photos are incredible

A trip to the beach is supposed to be a relaxing way to catch some rays and, if you're lucky, reconnect with nature without too many other obnoxious beachgoers around. One beach in the UK was most certainly not inviting this week as visitors witnessed the sand covered in strange transparent blobs that looked otherworldly in their weirdness. As WalesOnline reports, swimmers in the area noticed a large stretch of the sand was covered in the small blobs and didn't quite know what to make of them.

As photos and eyewitness accounts of the sighting began to circulate on social media, those with knowledge of the marine life in the region identified the blobs as a type of jellyfish called a comb jelly. Comb jellies get their name from the frilly comb-like plates that move in sequence and allow the creatures to navigate their ocean home. The species of the comb jellies that now cover the sand is Pleurobrachia pileus, and this is not the first time a massive group of them has washed up on a beach. These jellies are often called by their nickname, sea gooseberries.