Mermaids
Definition: A mermaid is, “a legendary marine creature with the head and torso of a woman and the tail of a fish.” These maidens of the sea are typically portrayed as female but the lesser known masculine equivalent is known as a merman.
Even though intellectually we know mermaids probably do not exist, their legend is alive and well today. They appear in paintings, books, songs and movies and perhaps live on in our psyche to remind us of our watery beginnings.
Fish Tails
Mermaid Movies
1. Night Tide
Early Dennis Hopper plays a man tormented by the idea that his girlfriend may be a killer mermaid.
2. Sea People
Family film about a husband and wife who are “mer-people” living in Nova Scotia.
3. Mermaidia
Animated movie aimed at 12-year old girls in which Barbie and a mermaid rescue a prince. Girl power!
4. Splash
Romantic comedy in which a mermaid arrives on the shores of Manhattan.
5. The Little Mermaid
Disney animated feature film loosely based on the Hans Christian Andersen tale.
Just Where Did these Mermaids Come From?
Many cultures around the world have a similar legend about a mermaid-like creature, so the mermaid’s exact provenance is sketchy. Stories of these half-human, half-fish beings have circulated for millennia, but the official explanation seems to be that manatees or dugongs are the reality behind the mermaid. Both manatees and dugongs are large, gentle aquatic mammals that use their tails to move their bodies through the water and have two front limbs to steer, gather food and even cradle their young. In the 16th century, Christopher Columbus possibly spotted one of these two ocean dwellers when he logged in his journal that he had seen mermaids on his journey to the new world, but was disappointed they were not better looking. The general thinking is that sailors seeing manatees or dugongs for the first time mistook them for a type of human and the mermaid legend was born. Lonely sailors with more active and desperate imaginations than Columbus no doubt added the elements of beauty and sensuality for which mermaids are famous.
Mermaids in British Columbia: The Mermaid of Point Grey
A newspaper clipping dated from the 1870s or 1880s describes three local men fishing with a native guide off Point Grey in British Columbia (current place University of BC location) when they saw a mermaid with yellow hair and brown skin raise her upper body above the water’s surface and stare at them very close to the boat. The article concluded that there was no reason to disbelieve these gentlemen as they were well-respected around town.
The Mermaid of Active Pass
In 1967, BC Ferry passengers saw what they claimed to be a mermaid sitting on rocks at the entrance to Active Pass (outside Victoria, BC). According to reports and a Times-Colonist newspaper article, the mermaid had long blonde hair, the lower body of a porpoise and was sitting on rocks eating a salmon. A photographer in an aircraft had photos to corroborate the passengers’ story and description.
