Mermaids and the Men Who Love Them.

Mermaids have been such an iconic part of the crypto zoological world since man had a fascination with the sea. There are many tales of sailors seeing half fish and half male/female like creatures in their travels. Even in ancient mythology it talks about Neptune and his mer-people.

What is the fascination with mermaids? Well it starts with the fact that people didn’t know the vast amount and types of fish there were in the sea. And some of these creatures could quite easily be confused with mermaids based upon quick glimpses and lack of knowledge.

However there are some famous mermaids out there and Im not talking about Madison from the movie Splash or Ariel the Little Mermaid from Dsiney. I am talking about two stories that have gripped the world with mermaid possibilities. The first one starts of many years ago and involved Mr. PT Barnum of the famous Barnum and Baileys Circus. He was a collector and most importantly a showman. He knew what could draw the people in and he knew what those people would pay money to see. One of his exhibits was the infamous Figi Mermaid.

This is, at the time, took the world by storm. The fact that there was real evidence of a mermaid made all those sea stories become reality. Well it would have, had it not been completely fabricated by Mr. Barnum for the pure joy of satisfying people’s curiosity and for money. He eventually admitted years later after the newness of the exhibit wore off that he paid to have it made. It just showed though that even then mermaids were a draw.

 

The other story is a much more recent one. It was a video shot off the coast of Australia in which it showed a mermaid swimming away from the camera. Now I am big into scuba diving and if I came across this in real life I would’ve needed a new wetsuit I can assure you of that. However the video, which can easily be found on YouTube, is very easily to replicate. So the authenticity of such a video capture leads me to believe that it was in fact staged.

 

Are there creatures in the sea we have not yet found, abso-freakin-lutely. The ocean is one of the great mysteries of the world and because of its enormous depth and risk level we can’t explore much f it at a time. I feel someday we will better explore the ocean, but not without some serious technical ability.

Be safe and I wonder if mer-people taste like chicken or tuna,

Jon Bolton