Mermaids: Why they really are a myth Part 3: How they became a myth

In a previous blog article concerning the Discovery Networks Mermaids: The Body Found I discussed how highly improbable it would be for mermaids to remain hidden for so long, and in another previous blog article I discussed how it was highly improbable that such a creature could even evolve from humans (especially concerning the short frame of time the show gave for mermaids to have evolved from one of our ancient ancestors).

Now despite this, many of you are probably wondering why there are so many stories about mermaids around the world, yet such creatures can not exist?

The most likely reason behind why the mermaid myth even got created in the first place isn't because someone actually saw a real mermaid, it's because some one saw something they couldn't explain, and they told other people what they saw, and the myth spread, which is how I mentioned in another previous blog article about how myths get started in the first place

Most likely what happened was that someone from inland who isn't near any deep bodies of water traveled to either a lake, or a large river, or to the sea, and saw someone swimming. Now for us we would see someone swimming in the water and we would probably think "oh that person is swimming", but for a person that does not swim, and doesn't even know that people can swim, that person just might think "that person must have a fish tail" or "that person must be part fish". This person goes and tells their people what they saw, and thus the myth gets spread. This scenario probably happened all over the world as well, which is why the myth is so wide spread.

This is somewhat similar to how the myth about the centaur got started as well. Someone back thousands of years ago saw someone riding on top of a horse, and because they didn't know that people could ride on horses, and had never seen something like that before, they jumped to the conclusion that the person was half man, half horse.

Now I know that it sounds silly today that a person would think that, but back thousands of years ago when these myths got started we weren't that rational, and we were prone to superstition, and when we saw something that didn't make sense to us, we would make stuff up and jump to a conclusion about what it was instead of trying to figure out just what we saw. Heck, we do that even today!

Now I won't say that this is actually got started in the first place, in fact there are probably a bunch of variables concerning how this myth got started, but the fact remains is that this is a myth that will live on in our hearts and our stories... and Disney movies.

Mermaids: Why they really are a myth Part 1: Why they can't hide

Recently the Discovery Networks produced a fictional movie in the form of a documentary called Mermaids: The Body Found. While the movie was indeed a work of fiction, many people thought it was real, and it attempted to present that mermaids could theoretically be real.

The reality is that mermaids are not real. If they were indeed real, we would have known about them by now, despite the fact that they would be close to intelligent as us, if not as intelligent as us.

Mermaids would most likely be sea mammals, and despite the fact sea mammals can often stay under water for long periods of time, they would still need air to breath, and thus must come up to the surface occasionally.

Mermaids would also require a viable breeding population in order to keep the species going. Even endangered animals are occasionally seen in the wild. This includes sea creatures who would have a easier time staying hidden. Sea mammals especially, because as I said before hand, sea mammals must come up air, making it harder to hide from us if they intended to do that. The amount of ships on the oceans, and even the great deal of the population that lives along coast, would make it even harder for an sea mammal to remain hidden.

Another reason why mermaids most likely do not exist is because no bodies have ever been found beached.

Sea mammals occasional swim up onto beaches and usually die for various reasons. This has been going on for as long as we can remember, and most likely even longer then that. Despite this there has never been one recorded instance of a mermaid ever beaching itself.

Also, considering how common it is to have a camera, the ability of the government to keep mermaids a secret if one or two were to ever beach themselves would be very difficult. This ability would go down year after year as more and more buy mobile devices that have inbuilt cameras that can upload photos to the internet.

Another thing to consider is that they would most likely eat fish, same as we do. They would probably even hunt for fish in the same areas as we do. It's highly unlikely that such creatures could exist into the 21st century and never been caught in a fisherman's net.

Dolphins, which are suppose to be the smartest creatures in the oceans, are caught in fisherman's nets all the time, so even a mermaid should at least occasional get caught. With the increase of commercial fishing throughout the past few decades the odds of a mermaid never being caught decrease year after year.

While there have been many alleged "sightings" of mermaids they have been few and far between, and are most likely the result of mis-identification, mass hysteria, or an outright hoax. In fact most alleged mermaid sightings occurred before the 20th century. People back then usually misidentified things if they didn't know what they were looking at, same as they do today. People also tended to embellish things back then, same as they do today.

The fact remains is that such a species, no matter how intelligent they are they are, can not remain hidden for this long of a time.

And one more thing: Our oceans have a lot trash in it. Won't an intelligent species like a mermaid have tried to do something to get us to stop polluting their homes with our garbage?