le Sirène. L’Homme marin. Paris 1757
Many tourists and locals are claiming to have witnessed a “mermaid” in Kiryat Yam, Israel. Off the Haifa bay.
We have all heard of these mythological creatures from our own folklore or stories told about the nearby seas. What seems like myths and legends to most of us, many claim that real “merbeings” do exist. Modern day stories can be found in many publications such as this account that was published in the book “Great Southern Mysteries”:
Location. Several miles of the coast of Florida, Atlantic Ocean
Date: 1988
Time: afternoon
Professional scuba diver Robert Froster was diving alone looking for mysterious undersea formations, when he noticed a disturbance in the water. When he turned to look, he saw a vague, shadowy figure slashing toward him. All around him the water had begun to churn wildly, and clouds of sediment were swirling. As the creature rushed toward him, it appeared to undulate, rather than glide. When the fast moving form got to within 20 yards of him, he noticed something odd about it. Appendages like arms, seemed to be reaching out toward him, and the end of each arm appeared to be sharply talon hands. He then saw the creature in full view. He saw an unmistakable pair of breasts, long flowing hair, smooth skin, and scaled tail from the waist down. It appeared to be half woman, half fish. Froster said, “I’ve never seen such evil hate in the eyes of any human or animal before.” Before the creature could reach him, Froster shot up toward the surface and was able to scamper over the side of his craft to safety. He never saw the creature again.
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Source: E Randall Floyd, Great Southern Mysteries
I like a good “strange humanoid” story as much as the rest of you out there, but as far as the mass sightings of merbeings off the coasts of Israel being real, I’m more inclined to say this is a misidentified creature following by mass hysteria.
Locals and tourists in the Israeli town of Kiryat Yam have been flocking to the coast in hopes of glimpsing a creature that most people believe only exist in fairy tales.
An alleged mermaid, said to resemble a cross between a fish and a young girl, only appears at sunset. It performs a few tricks for onlookers before disappearing for the night.
One of the first people to see the mermaid, Shlomo Cohen, said, “I was with friends when suddenly we saw a woman laying on the sand in a weird way. At first I thought she was just another sunbather, but when we approached she jumped into the water and disappeared. We were all in shock because we saw she had a tail.”
The sightings apparently began several months ago.
$1 million reward
The town’s tourism board is of course delighted with their newfound fame and local mystery fauna. Taking a cue from the town of Inverness, Scotland (on the shore of Loch Ness), the Kiryat Yam government has offered a $1 million reward for the first person to photograph the creature. Town spokesman Natti Zilberman thinks the reward money is well-spent. “I believe if there really is a mermaid then so many people will come to Kiryat Yam, a lot more money will be made than $1 million.”
Of course, if the mermaid does not exist — perhaps it is a hoax, an optical illusion, or a simple misperception of a known animal — then the town’s reward money will remain safe and unclaimed, while the economy benefits from the influx of tourists vying to get a photo that will leave them set for life.
It’s not clear what people are seeing, though the power of suggestion and imagination can be strong. Identifying animals in water is inherently problematic, since eyewitnesses by definition are only seeing a small part of the creature. When you add in the factor of low light at sunset and the distances involved, positively identifying even a known creature can be very difficult — to say nothing of a mythological one!
Full source: LiveScience
As for me, the only mermaid I’ll be seeing next, looks something like this:
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