A video of fishermen in Russia pulling what seemingly looked like a mermaid onto their boat caused a huge stir over social media recently.
The short clip revealed a creature with the upper body of a person and the tail of a fish being hauled from the water, feeding into myths about merfolk that date back centuries. The dramatic footage went viral and ensured immediate, intense reactions from viewers globally.
Do Mermaids Really Exist?
But despite the popularity of that video, the scientific answer to whether mermaids are real is an unequivocal no. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, has succinctly said no evidence of aquatic humanoids has ever been found.
For centuries, stories of mermaids most likely came from the misunderstanding of real-life marine animals, such as manatees or dugongs often referred to as “sea cows” by sailors from a distance. These gentle mammals have human-like faces and bodies that taper into a tail, which could easily fire the imagination of tired travelers at sea.
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Public Reaction to the Viral Video
The video created a split reaction online. While many people, fascinated by the prospect of the mythical creature being real, shared the video widely across platforms with genuine shock and wonder, just as many viewers responded with skepticism and humor on hand.
Sarcastic comments and jokes about the quality of the video and the likelihood that such a discovery was real quickly followed; many remarked that it was, without a doubt, a hoax or an elaborate digital editing job designed to trick the viewer.
Mermaid Folklore in India
While the viral video came from Russia, the idea of half-human and half-fish is deeply rooted in Indian folklore. Stories of creatures like the ‘Matsya Kanya’ or, literally, ‘Fish Maiden’ or ‘Jalkanya’ have existed in coastal areas like Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Bengal for centuries.
Unlike the Western version, often found luring sailors, the Indian ones are associated with protection, fertility, or sometimes acting as warnings about the dangers of the sea.
This clip, like many others showing mythical creatures, is almost certainly an AI-generated or digitally edited video, created purely to capture attention and make the audience laugh by playing on our universal fascination with the mysteries of the deep sea.
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