Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

'Hanna the mermaid' at the Mermaid Lagoon at Sydney Aquarium. We think there might be something fishy about that 'tail'... AP Photo/Rob Griffith/PA Wire
or do they?

Mermaids don't exist: official line from US government

…Or rather they say that there is “no evidence” that they exist. Which might mean that they just haven’t yet found the evidence…

THE OFFICIAL US government website for its National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has made a brave declaration: there is no evidence that mermaids exist.

Or as it puts it more snappily in the headline:

No evidence of aquatic humanoids has ever been found.

While the NOAA confirms that a “belief in mermaids” has been around since “the very dawn of our species” pointing to Stone Age paintings of mythical female figures, it says that no evidence has been found that such a creature exists.

The department then poses itself the question:

Why, then, do they occupy the collective unconscious of nearly all seafaring peoples? That’s a question best left to historians, philosophers and anthropologists.

Well, that’s not a very satisfying answer, is it?

We believe in Ariel…

(via disneyanimation/Youtube)

And mermaid hairdos…

(via bebexo/Youtube)

But we’re a little bit scared by the mermaids from the Pirates of the Caribbean (skip to the very end of the vid):

(via udappkumara/Youtube)

Your Voice
Readers Comments
33
    Submit a report
    Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
    Thank you for the feedback
    Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.