Mermaid remains in St. Petersburg, FL?
What is a mermaid? There are depictions of what the mythical creature could look like, for example, Ariel from Disney’s the Little Mermaid, the logo on the Starbucks that you purchased this morning, or the mer-woman plastered in the front of old ships. All of these depictions convey a beautiful young woman, but what if that’s wrong? Perhaps what is typically shown is to soften the blow of the reality that mermaids are sharp-toothed sirens of the sea, ready to drag a victim to their doom. Take the image above of this washed-up creature, images surfaced online in 2006, claiming this some sort of mer-creature was seen in a few different locations around the world such as Mexico, South Africa, the Philippines, and Swaziland. With multiple claims such as this, it must be true.
Even with multiple sources claiming the image true, the image is part of a group of photos of a mock-up of a mermaid-type creature by artist Juan Cabana. The photos were a part of an auction to sell the mock-up mermaid with an elaborate story back story of how the creature was encountered, on Desoto Beach, in St. Petersburg, Florida, according to fact-checking resource, Snopes.com.
Although mermaids or “merfolk” are proven to be mythical, the idea of mermaids has been around for many years living on through folklore from different cultures. For instance, one of the earliest appearances of a mermaid was a Syrian Fertility Goddess called Atargatis, in 1000 BC. See the reference image below.
Although there is not any concrete proof of these creatures, there has to be a sliver of truth out in the world, masquerading as misinformation about a species we have not fully encountered or researched. The ocean is vast, and not all of it has been explored, so who really knows what lies below?
Mermaids have not been proven to actually exist, but it does not hurt to keep an open mind.
Work Cited:
“On the Origin of Mermaids.” Mermaids of Earth, 20 Feb. 2021, https://mermaidsofearth.com/on-the-origin-of-mermaids/.
Mikkelson, David. “Was a Mermaid Discovered in St. Petersburg, Florida?” Snopes, Snopes.com, 22 Jan. 2021, https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/mermaid-in-florida/.