A mermaid is an oceanic creature with the head and upper body of a human but the bottom half of a fish with a tail. Some people believe that mermaids are authentic. Mermaids were first discovered in Assyria now known as Syria when the goddess Atargatis jumped in the lake causing her bottom half to grow a tail. There have been plenty of movies and t.v. shows made that portray mermaids to be real and that we just haven’t seen them because they live deep down in the ocean. Some t.v shows or movies that portray these ideas are The Little Mermaid, Aquamarine, and Scales: Mermaids Are Real.
I believe that mermaids are not real. Mermaids aren’t real because no evidence proves that they are. Although some people have alleged that they have seen mermaids, we don’t know this for sure. This is questionable because if a mermaid’s upper body is part human and its bottom is part fish, how do they breathe underwater for so long? Because the upper part of a mermaid is human they have noses and they breathe through their lungs. Eventually, they would run out of air and if they kept holding their breath they would die like a human. Mermaids have been said to only exist in fairy tales and mythology. Until I see a mermaid with my own eyes that I think is real, I won’t believe that mermaids are real. But still what if I’m wrong and mermaids are real?
According to history.com, on January 9, 1493, while sailing Christopher Columbus said he saw three mermaids jump out of the water. Researchers say that what Christopher Columbus was or may have been seeing were manatees. Christopher Columbus stated that the “mermaids” weren’t as beautiful as they were described to be in stories. This supports the idea that maybe the “mermaids” that Christopher Columbus was seeing may have been manatees after all.
In 2012 Zimbabwe dam workers were on a job installing a water pump. The pumps were blocked so local divers were hired to see what was blocking the pipes. When the divers were down in the waters they saw something that terrified them so bad they decided that they would never go back into the waters again. They stated that they had “seen mermaids”. The people that live there think that there are real mermaids in the waters. The government did not believe the divers and just hired new people to explore the problem. Unexpectedly the new workers faced the same scare and also said that they would never go back in the waters. The dam still isn’t finished today.
In conclusion, mermaids are not real. Mermaids only exist theoretically in folklore. There is no actual logical proof that they are real. I don’t think that mermaids are real and I won’t believe it until someone can prove it to me. No one has ever actually proven that there are real mermaids to anyone. Therefore I don’t think people should believe that mermaids are real. But if you believe that mermaids are real, if you like it I love it.
Jaylin Easton
De La Salle Institute – DMSF Class of 2026
Image by Stefan Keller from Pixabay