Unsolicited Comments? Legitimate Interest?

They are quite likely spam. Are you using Akismet and/or another anti spam comments plugin? Are you allowing anyone to comment (i.e. not just registered users)?

Yeah, it’s SPAM. You need an anti-SPAM plugin and a CAPTCHA plugin. That ought to cut it down a bit.

Can you recommend free plugins to handle the spam?

This site is for 300 members and maybe 500 regional visitors

Is there a plugin that would force the members/visitor to log in with email address to make a Blog comment?

https://lasalleyachtclub.com/

You can set that under Settings > Discussion – to only allow registered users to comment:

https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Comments_in_WordPress

For spam, definitely use Akismet – it’s free for non-commercial sites or quite affordable otherwise and well worth it.

See:

https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/akismet/

Also:

https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/cookies-for-comments/

There are many others – search the plugins page and look at ratings/reviews/support.

Thank you for info, very helpful

If looks like these comment spams are not attached to a blog post even though they are associated blog in Dashboard, Comments.

What is the difference in Dashboard, Comments. Mark as Spam or Move to Trash?