Mermaid Sightings: Are They Real?

If you follow this blog, more than likely you're a mermaid lover, but is there really such thing as mermaids? Most people think sailors mistook manatees for mermaids, but sailors who have been at sea for a long time have seen pretty much everything that is to see out there, and I'm positive they would have known the difference between a wrinkly, gray sea cow and a naked fish-tailed woman. Here's a few accounts of purported mermaid sightings all over the world.

The first comes from explorer Henry Hudson, and here's his account in his journal about what his crew supposedly saw:
"This evening (June 15) one of our company, looking overboard, saw a mermaid, and, calling up some of the company to see her, one more of the crew came up, and by that time she was come close to the ship's side, looking earnestly on the men. A little after the sea came and overturned her. From the navel upwards, her back and breasts were like a woman's, as they say that saw her; her body as big as one of us, her skin very white, and long hair hanging down behind, of colour black. In her doing down they saw her tail, which was like the tail of a porpoise, speckled like a mackerel. Their names that saw her were Thomas Hilles and Robert Rayner."

Another sighting hails from the Scottish Highlands, in which a mermaid supposedly washed ashore and died. The townsfolk felt so much pity for the dead creature, they ordered her a coffin and buried her in the nearby cemetery, and to this day she is supposedly still buried there atop a hill. (What do you think is actually buried there? Something that would change everything?)


Also, Captain John Smith (yes, of Pocahontas fame) was exploring the West Indies when he spied a beautiful woman in the water. He instantly felt attracted to her, but then noticed that "from the waist down the woman gave way to the fish...and her long green hair...(was) by no means unattractive."

Even Christopher Columbus, who sailed the ocean blue in 1492 and is credited with discovering America, encountered mermaids and said this about them: "Three sirens...came up very high out of the sea: but they were not as beautiful as they were painted."

But mermaid sightings have continued even into the modern day. In Kiryat Yam, a city in Israel, locals claim there is a mermaid who dives in and out of the water at sunset. The mayor of the town is so adamant that a mermaid lives in their waters that he offered a million dollar prize to anyone who could catch a photo of the elusive creature. A television crew for the show Destination Truth featured an episode where the hunted for the mermaid, and they did catch a humanoid figure on video. Was it a mermaid? The world may never know.

So, after the claims of all these respected men and entire towns of people who insist the mermaid exists, ask yourself: Do you believe in mermaids?