In this day & age....

[Delphine]

Good morning, mers! As a continuation of my research for my Project Delphine I have another question for you to think upon. Please, feel free to elaborate any of your responses--I wholeheartedly encourage this! I am trying to understand other people's relationship with merfolk, from people who are fans (you, awesome people), down to the everyday Andrew and Ana. And of course, in this process, I'm finding out what merpeople mean to me and how to get them to resonate with people worldwide. :mermaid kiss:

<3Delphine

[First Question]
http://mernetwork.com/index/showthread.php?3775-Why-are-Merfolk-important-to-YOU
[Project Delphine]
http://mernetwork.com/index/showthre...on-Kickstarter (http://mernetwork.com/index/showthread.php?3769-Project-Delphine-An-Artist-s-transformation-from-Girl-to-Mermaid-on-Kickstarter)

[AptaMer]

Well I voted no, I wouldn't be shocked, because it seems likely there are mermaids in various places.

I would be surprised if scientists ever discovered them, though. That's because scientists have a set of rigid preconceptions (often termed Scientism) that don't permit them to consider certain things unfearingly (is that a word?)

Anyhow, I think we may be surprised some day. I also think the day is coming when there will be either hardware technologies or biotechnology developments that permit people to really become one with the underwater environment and live there just like we conecive of mermaids doing.

9665

[Mermaid Annariea]

i voted both no and unsure, because while it wouldn't necessarily be too much of a shock to discover they exist, it would be surprising to me that they would announce it. it just doesn't seem like the sort of thing that scientists and governments would announce.

but there are just too many stories from so many different areas of the world for merfolk to not hold some sort of truth.

[Mermaid Dottie]

Annariea pegged it. No government would ever let public know about other forms of sentient life, no matter the origin.

[Arella]

Maybe some sort of mammalian whale/person creature would be found but not a fish/person creature.

[Lois]

Whilst there are certainly large areas of the ocean which are unexplored, you would think that with recent technological advances such would have made sonar so accurate that if there was anything resembling a human in the ocean it would have been picked up by now. But I agree with Annariea, if something had been discovered the government wouldn't want to expose it in-case it was dangerous. That being said, the myths must have come from somewhere so perhaps there is or was something out there....

I read online somewhere that the Nazis were conducting medical experiments with mermaids as they thought it would have potential for defense/attack...but I've studied the history of medical ethics and i'm pretty sure that if anything was happening historians would have exposed it by now

[Nyx]

@Lois surprisingly enough, even with all the technology we have, only recently have scientist found new species of whales. A much smaller animal like a mermaid, and probably intelligent enough to know better than to be seen, would do a very good job at hiding.

Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if it was a mammalian/dolphin type mermaid
if it was actually half fish though, that would be a whole different story XD

[Usagi]

I also think the day is coming when there will be either hardware technologies or biotechnology developments that permit people to really become one with the underwater environment and live there just like we conecive of mermaids doing.

9665
Kind of random, but there was an issue of an Archie comic where it was in the future and they were living in a dome underwater because they polluted the earth so much..but then some of them decide to go to the surface and they had left it alone for so long that it was full of life. Haha but yeah

[Ashe]

I voted unsure. If they found a mermaid-like thing that resembled a human in some way and had arms plus the tail, but with fins and gills and un-intelligent, probably no. I sorta believe in the aquatic ape theory. But, If they literally found a mermaid as Disney and old folktales depict, hell yeah! That would be weird :O

[Alveric]

I voted other. While I believe Merfolk probably exist, they would be in the realm of the Sidhe in the Otherworld, beyond the objectively real.

[Joy&RaptorsUnrestrained!]

Alveric, while I agree that the existence of merfolk is probably limited only to another realm, I'm loathe to place them in the same realm as sidhe or traditional fairy domains. I think the fact that merfolk have their own royalty and domain makes them outside the seelie or unseelie courts, and the lack of illusions and child-stealing and shapeshifting makes them unlikely to be the same kind of creatures as the fae.

[SeaGlass Siren]

i voted "other"

IF they found evidence of the existence of merfolk... i'd probably YELP for joy and do cartwheels around the room.
Would i be shocked? MAYBE, but "shocked" to me in this situation is more like...

"HALLELUJAH PRAISE THE LAWWWD AWWWMIGHTEH"

but then thats not really being shocked is it? its more like "not surprised" because you've always believed, but "now there's evidence"

... and by evidence i mean ANY sort of evidence.

If they were aquatic apes, if they were indeed really half fish-half mammal, if they actually resembled cetaceans (tail lower half, human on top but still all mammal), if they were to find those sailor-moon mermaids, if they found evidence of elves/fairies and mermaids were magically in that category.... yes.

[Alveric]

I don't believe Merfolk are Fae, just that they belong to the same world.

I don't think of them as 'limited' to the Otherworld, since they can and, from much evidence, do interact with this world.

[Delphine]

I think the fact that merfolk have their own royalty and domain makes them outside the seelie or unseelie courts, and the lack of illusions and child-stealing and shapeshifting makes them unlikely to be the same kind of creatures as the fae.

Hi Joy, I just wanted to point out that while merpeople may have their own society, inside or outside the faerie courts there are a few legends & tales about merfolk shapeshifting, such as selkies (the seal-people of Ireland). Some merfolk can, according to some stories, gain legs on land & return to their tailed-form in the sea. As for the child-stealing, I am unsure if that is an occasional trend for merpeople. I've not read much about that in my current merfolk research. Just adding another perspective. :)

[Joy&RaptorsUnrestrained!]

Merfolk shapeshifting tends to be limited to turning tails into legs. Fairy shapeshifting can be ANYTHING... animals, people, the viewer himself/herself, inanimate objects, etc. It's kinda the difference between a baby crawling and an Olympic runner... basically a whole different breed of shapeshifting. Merfolk "shapeshifting" barely deserves the title at all, being relatively little in the body area.

And it is fairies who steal children and babies, not merfolk (the one possible exception is the Nixie in the millpond, and she might just be a water fairy rather than a mermaid at all). The idea seems to be that fairies need babies and steal them for some reason. Mermaids do have some stories where they try and spirit away would-be lovers, but more mermaids and mermen seem to drown people than actually enable them to survive underwater with them, and regardless, there doesn't seem to be the same desperate need fairies have.

I guess that fairies come across as essentially inhuman when viewed as a species rather than individuals, while merfolk are more often examples of human emotions highlighted and enhanced. This suggests that the two are very different, and therefore, should come from different origins and realms. After all, why limit yourself to just ONE alternate world?

[Delphine]

As for the legs, yes that's not much of a transformation. The Selkie's morphing from Seal to Human is pretty cool. Though finding a deflated-looking seal skin on the rocks would be rather startling! Yes, the mermaid of millpond did steal.. though the baby was an adult when he was stolen, & his wife (& that mysterious older lady) saved him. Haha, if I had my choice it would definitely be multiple worlds.I find it interesting the topics that have come up from this poll: Scientists & governments confirming vs. hiding merfolk existence, whale & dolphin-based merpeople vs. fish-based merpeople. I hadn't expected them to come up here, when I asked this particular question, though I've thought about them. Keep it up, guys!

[MerAnthony]

I voted I would not be surprised. Our world is 2/3 water and so much has not yet been explored. An now they are finding whales that are smaller an they thought never lived. So I think it is plausible they do exsist somewhere. An why I say this is that there are so many cultures of the world that have mermaids around the planet in some way or another. Even though the goverment says they do not exsist, it is because they can not prove that they do. So who knows? They do an they are not showing themselves not yet or we are not ready for them to show themselves to us. As a species humans are unpredictable and judgemental an for that reason we are not ready to see something that boggles the mind in a real sence.

[Delphine]

Hey, guys. Forum says 309 of you saw this. Any more voters? :)

[Mermaid Muir]

I don't know how I would feel. There is still lots of ocean to explore but on human look alike mermaids? I think that they would have to look closer to a fish then like one of us. It would undoubtalby have some gills or something like that. If they did find one it would be cool!

[Gem Stone]

I guess it would have to happen for me to really know how I would react, but I could just see myself in disbelief at first, then accepting the idea, and then wanting to meet one. but I can't see the government just saying "and in other news, mermaids were found in the gulf of mexico this weekend. back to Brenda with the weather"

[Nashoba]

I wouldn't be surprised, at all. I think this universe is full of things that we haven't discovered yet. It wasn't that long ago when we believed we had a geocentric universe.

[Aziara]

I voted yes, only because I would be shocked if 'scientists' announced it...As many videos, footprints, and photographs we have of bigfoot, he's still considered a hoax... Seriously, you think there's THAT MANY hoaxers out there? I agree some of them might be, but shear numbers says some have to be legit. For mainstream science to actually announce something, they'd have to capture one... If mermaids exist, they're obviously very good at keeping themselves hidden, so I doubt one would ever be caught... And can you imagine a scientist announcing he needs money to try to catch a mermaid? His colleagues would never take him seriously again, and from what I understand, there is a LOT of peer pressure among scientists. For example, any who don't believe in global warming are dismissed as 'not true scientists', even though they have some valid points.

[Delphine]

Great comments, mers! Love hearing your feedback. :)

[Seatan]

This is kind of late, but I have a slightly different perspective on the existence of mermaids. If merfolk are have intelligence equal to homosapiens, why wouldn't they be visible? What would the point be in hiding for tens of thousands of years? The sea would have been SOLELY their domain for a VERY long time before homo sapiens came up with basic ships, much less diving equipment and submarines, so why wouldn't they have flourished in the sea and developed their own communities?

It would be impossible for a mer to come onto land and miss the existence of humankind. I feel that if they are of similar intelligence and development, they would have flourished in their underwater worlds are created habitats that would be noticeable to sonar. Plus, our limbs evolved to swing through trees, so why would these traits have developed underwater? (Or, if we are using the terrestrial mammal became aquatic thing, why would they have KEPT these limbs?) They're not as good for swimming as fins, so I find it unlikely that a mermaid would really have a homosapien upper body. I would say that the closest thing to mermaids in the sea are cetaceans, such as dolphins, who are hyper-intelligent, possess social structure, communicate with one another, have personalities, have a sense of self, etc. I don't think the traditional human-esque mermaid lives in the ocean because I truly believe that they would have spread much like homosapiens did. It just seems illogical to me that they would have hidden all this time even though the sea was basically theirs.

I could believe it if somehow their structure let them live in the deepest parts of the ocean (with giant squid, etc) where we could not reach and that they are just as unaware of us as we are of them because they cannot surface without dying, but that would probably remove the human-esque part of them. So my answer is, yes, I would be very surprised to find a literal mermaid. Other highly intelligent life in the sea, no, I would not be surprised if we found it. But assuming that a mermaid's brain structure and functions would be similar to humans, I feel that they would have developed noticable communities. Heck, dolphins are highly intelligent and feel no need to hide from humans! Mermaids wouldn't know us as a "violent society" or whatever because they wouldn't know us at all, so why would they hide? I admit, I'm more of the scientist type than the magical, which despite what some people seem to think, is not necessarily a bad thing! Science is AMAZING to the point that it can seem MAGICAL, and science may someday find intelligent life in a place MORE amazing than any magical idea I could ever come up with. But no, I don't think human-esque mermaids exist and would be shocked to find they did.

[Echidna]

Heck, dolphins are highly intelligent and feel no need to hide from humans!
Yea, and see "The Cove" for what they get for that.

For the rest of what you said; check out the article in the thread "Origin of mermaid legends" in "Just Talk" (couldn't find a better fitting category).
As someone with a scientific mindset, you'll probably be as delighted by it as I was. :)