Mermaids have captured our imaginations for years now. From eerie stories about wild creatures luring sailors to their deaths to lovely fantasy tales about long-haired beauties grooming themselves on rocks, people can’t seem to get enough. When Animal Planet aired a documentary last year about a mermaid body being found inside a great white shark, viewers went nuts. And now, the Discovery channel has aired another special which shows what mermaids would look like if they were real.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association issued a statement last year declaring mermaids fictional creatures, just to be on the safe side.
“Mermaids – those half-human, half-fish sirens of the sea – are legendary sea creatures chronicled in maritime cultures since time immemorial. But are mermaids real? No evidence of aquatic humanoids has ever been found.”
The synopsis for the newest doc reads:
Once upon a time, there lived a little mermaid in an underwater kingdom. She ventured to surface, longing to communicate with people on land…
This is a fairytale told and retold to children everywhere; it’s a beloved story about a legendary creature that’s described in the mythologies of nearly every human culture in history. People across all continents who’ve had no communications with other societies have described the same half-man, half-fish anomaly – they’ve spoken about the same mythic animal.
What if there’s a kernel of truth that lives beneath the legend of the mythic mermaid? Now, in MERMAIDS: THE BODY FOUND, premiering Sunday, May 27, from 9-11 PM ET/PT, Animal Planet brings viewers into the world where the legend is real. The film blends real-life events and phenomena with the story of two scientists who testify they found the remains of a never-before-identified sea creature. Spectacular CGI animates a world where mermaids really do swim below the water’s surface, cooperatively hunt with dolphins and may continue to survive in an intricate society where they stay hidden in fear of their Earth-bound relatives.
They may not be real, but you can pretend they are while watching CGI versions on the show. Check out Monster Week until tomorrow, May 28th.