On its Ocean Facts page, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently made the startling assertion that “no evidence of aquatic humanoids has ever been found.” “Why would NOAA bother to pour cold water on mermaids? After all, there are many mythical things that the government doesn’t explicitly deny exist. The United States Bureau of Mines doesn’t issue statements clarifying that no dragons or trolls have been discovered in underground caves or mines, for example” (source).
“Credit (or blame) Animal Planet (a branch of Discovery), which aired [May 27] a TV show called ‘Mermaids: The Body Found.’ It was a documentary-style show that ‘paints a wildly convincing picture of the existence of mermaids, what they may look like, and why they’ve stayed hidden…until now,’ according to the show’s press Web page. Indeed, it says, ‘Mermaids: The Body Found’ makes a strong case for the existence of the mermaid…Though the filmmakers acknowledged that the film is science fiction, for many people it was indeed ‘wildly convincing’” (Ibid.)
NOAA set things straight by stating: “Mermaids — those half-human, half-fish sirens of the sea — are legendary sea creatures chronicled in maritime cultures since time immemorial. The ancient Greek epic poet Homer wrote of them in The Odyssey. In the ancient Far East, mermaids were the wives of powerful sea-dragons, and served as trusted messengers between their spouses and the emperors on land. The aboriginal people of Australia call mermaids yawkyawks – a name that may refer to their mesmerizing songs.
The belief in mermaids may have arisen at the very dawn of our species. Magical female figures first appear in cave paintings in the late Paleolithic (Stone Age) period some 30,000 years ago, when modern humans gained dominion over the land and, presumably, began to sail the seas. Half-human creatures, called chimeras, also abound in mythology — in addition to mermaids, there were wise centaurs, wild satyrs, and frightful minotaurs, to name but a few.
But are mermaids real? No evidence of aquatic humanoids has ever been found. Why, then, do they occupy the collective unconscious of nearly all seafaring peoples? That’s a question best left to historians, philosophers, and anthropologists.”
“I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each. I do not think that they will sing to me.” – T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
