Pictures of dead 'mermaid' in Zimbabwe?

http://nehandaradio.com/2010/11/26/pictures-of-dead-%E2%80%98mermaid%E2%80%99-in-zimbabwe/

Pictures of dead 'mermaid' in Zimbabwe?

http://nehandaradio.com/2010/11/26/pictures-of-dead-%E2%80%98mermaid%E2%80%99-in-zimbabwe/

Skeleton sits in for Copenhagen's travelling Little Mermaid

COPENHAGEN (AFP) – A skeleton briefly sat in for Copenhagen's beloved Little Mermaid, who left her spot in the harbour last week for China, the museum behind the April Fool's prank said Thursday.

"Copenhagen will be deprived of its Little Mermaid for six months, and we thought we should replace it. It's April Fools, after all!" Hanne Strager, the head of exhibitions at the Natural History Museum of Denmark, told AFP.

The replacement -- which even had a skeleton fish tail -- was placed in the same position as the Little Mermaid and sat in her vacant spot for two hours, to the delight of tourists.

"Half of the mermaid was built with a human skeleton, and the other with a swordfish" tail, Strager said.

"Many passers-by thought it was really funny and jumped in front of the mermaid to have their pictures taken," she added.

The real Little Mermaid statue left Copenhagen last week to be the centrepiece of the Danish pavilion at the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai until October 31.

It was the first time the iconic sculpture left her perch at the entry of the Copenhagen harbour since she was placed there almost a century ago.

Her skeleton replacement was introduced to the media in a prank statement that said the Little Mermaid "had returned".

The statement claimed it was the only remaining complete skeleton of a "Hydronymphus pesci", a species said to be extinct since the end of the 17th century.

It claimed to have acquired the remains at the beginning of the 18th century, and that the only other skeleton of the specimen, in Saint Petersburg's Hermitage museum, was "not as complete as Copenhagen's" because of its missing tail.

After basking in the Copenhagen sun for two hours, the fake skeleton was returned to the museum where it would be displayed during the Easter holidays, Strager said.

The Little Mermaid statue is based on a character in an 1837 fairytale by author Hans Christian Andersen about a half-human half-fish legendary creature in love with a human.

Edvard Eriksen's 1913 sculpture, measuring 125 centimetres (50 inches) and weighing 175 kilos (385 pounds), is considered a national treasure and one of the main tourist attractions in Denmark

Million-dollar reward helps mermaid lure tourists to Kiryat Yam

December 15, 2009

It is one of the uglier towns on Israel’s coast: boxes of Soviet-style housing projects jostle close to the shore and tankers plough the shipping lanes, heading for more important destinations to the south.

However, Kiryat Yam, a development town full of Russian and Ethiopian immigrants, has been galvanised by a claim that neither the busy port of Haifa to the south nor the walled crusader city of Acre to the north can match: according to the mayor, it has its own mermaid.

Tourists are stopping here to try to summon the elusive creature by blowing on a ram’s horn, a Jewish relic, and investors have expressed an interest in developing the almost deserted beachfront. Shmuel Sisso, the town’s mayor, has whipped up excitement by offering a $1 million (£615,000) reward for anyone who provides proof of the siren’s existence.

Oleg Borisov, 56, a market-stall holder, believes that he was the first to have contact with the creature a couple of years ago while he and his dog were having a night swim. “I was in up to my head when I felt something moving in the water,” said Mr Borisov, who moved here from Ukraine 20 years ago. “All of a sudden I felt as if somebody was spreading my legs and going right between them. My dog started barking and there was a loud splash on the water. I screamed and fled — I was stuttering I was so scared.”

He has never returned to the water at night. When Mr Sisso built a promenade along the shore this year, and people started reporting strange sightings in the surf, Mr Borisov made the connection. “For sure it was a mermaid,” he said, adding that he believes she must have a message to deliver. “There will come a time when she will appear,” he said. “The Messiah is coming soon, too, in 2012.”

On the jetty, alongside a small fibreglass statuette of a mermaid sprayed with gold paint, Mordechai, 57, a native of Kiryat Yam, prepared for his daily swim. He dismissed the story as nonsense. “I’ve been swimming here every day for 50 years and I didn’t see her,” he said. He conceded, however, that there was mention of sirens in the G’mara, a Jewish holy text. “If you believe in God, you believe anything can be created. And I believe in God.”

In his office, Mr Sisso grinned at all the attention that his mermaid has attracted. He said that at least two witnesses claimed to have seen the creature, and he produced two snapshots from a British amateur photographer showing a yellow discoloration in the surf at sunset. Vince Palmer, from East Sussex, said in an accompanying letter that the pictures proved the mermaid’s existence — and he enclosed, helpfully, a self-addressed envelope for the $1 million cheque. “Before this picture she performed many tricks but I’m afraid I missed these with my camera,” he wrote.

The mayor’s reward offer has sparked the threat of international legal action from an American group called the Mermaid Medical Association. They wrote to Mr Sisso, telling him that they were “shocked about your decision to pay a reward of one million dollars to those who will hunt the mermaid. “Therefore if you don’t declare in a period of ten days that you withdraw from your decision we intend to approach the International Court of Justice and to ask for its interference,” said the group’s director, Jeff Lerman.

Mr Sisso was not intimidated. Nor has he been forced so far to come up with the reward money: he is too busy dreaming up mermaid-themed costume parades and more hotels to worry about such trivialities.

Fishy tales

Mermaids are mentioned in One Thousand and One Nights in tales including Abdullah the Fisherman and Abdullah the Merman, in which a fisherman discovers a society under the ocean

A Cornish legend tells of the Mermaid of Zennor, who was entranced by the singing of Matthew Trewhella, a local man — so much so that she walked on land to seduce him and took him back with her into the sea

A mummified object was put on show around the United States in the 1840s by the showman P. T. Barnum. The creature is believed to have been made from the tail of a fish, the torso of a baby orang-utan and the head of a monkey. It convinced thousands oe people that mermaids were real

In 1967 ferry passengers in British Columbia, Canada, reported seeing a mermaid sitting on rocks at the entrance to Active Pass, Victoria. She was blonde with the lower body of a porpoise

Milagros Cerrón, 5, was nicknamed Peru’s Little Mermaid when she was born with the rare condition sirenomalia (mermaid syndrome) in which the legs are fused and the feet form a V. Doctors performed risky surgery to separate her legs so that she could walk

Source: British Columbia Folklore Society

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6956546.ece

(Submitted by Lindsay Selby)

Million-dollar reward helps mermaid lure tourists to Kiryat Yam

December 15, 2009

It is one of the uglier towns on Israel’s coast: boxes of Soviet-style housing projects jostle close to the shore and tankers plough the shipping lanes, heading for more important destinations to the south.

However, Kiryat Yam, a development town full of Russian and Ethiopian immigrants, has been galvanised by a claim that neither the busy port of Haifa to the south nor the walled crusader city of Acre to the north can match: according to the mayor, it has its own mermaid.

Tourists are stopping here to try to summon the elusive creature by blowing on a ram’s horn, a Jewish relic, and investors have expressed an interest in developing the almost deserted beachfront. Shmuel Sisso, the town’s mayor, has whipped up excitement by offering a $1 million (£615,000) reward for anyone who provides proof of the siren’s existence.

Oleg Borisov, 56, a market-stall holder, believes that he was the first to have contact with the creature a couple of years ago while he and his dog were having a night swim. “I was in up to my head when I felt something moving in the water,” said Mr Borisov, who moved here from Ukraine 20 years ago. “All of a sudden I felt as if somebody was spreading my legs and going right between them. My dog started barking and there was a loud splash on the water. I screamed and fled — I was stuttering I was so scared.”

He has never returned to the water at night. When Mr Sisso built a promenade along the shore this year, and people started reporting strange sightings in the surf, Mr Borisov made the connection. “For sure it was a mermaid,” he said, adding that he believes she must have a message to deliver. “There will come a time when she will appear,” he said. “The Messiah is coming soon, too, in 2012.”

On the jetty, alongside a small fibreglass statuette of a mermaid sprayed with gold paint, Mordechai, 57, a native of Kiryat Yam, prepared for his daily swim. He dismissed the story as nonsense. “I’ve been swimming here every day for 50 years and I didn’t see her,” he said. He conceded, however, that there was mention of sirens in the G’mara, a Jewish holy text. “If you believe in God, you believe anything can be created. And I believe in God.”

In his office, Mr Sisso grinned at all the attention that his mermaid has attracted. He said that at least two witnesses claimed to have seen the creature, and he produced two snapshots from a British amateur photographer showing a yellow discoloration in the surf at sunset. Vince Palmer, from East Sussex, said in an accompanying letter that the pictures proved the mermaid’s existence — and he enclosed, helpfully, a self-addressed envelope for the $1 million cheque. “Before this picture she performed many tricks but I’m afraid I missed these with my camera,” he wrote.

The mayor’s reward offer has sparked the threat of international legal action from an American group called the Mermaid Medical Association. They wrote to Mr Sisso, telling him that they were “shocked about your decision to pay a reward of one million dollars to those who will hunt the mermaid. “Therefore if you don’t declare in a period of ten days that you withdraw from your decision we intend to approach the International Court of Justice and to ask for its interference,” said the group’s director, Jeff Lerman.

Mr Sisso was not intimidated. Nor has he been forced so far to come up with the reward money: he is too busy dreaming up mermaid-themed costume parades and more hotels to worry about such trivialities.

Fishy tales

Mermaids are mentioned in One Thousand and One Nights in tales including Abdullah the Fisherman and Abdullah the Merman, in which a fisherman discovers a society under the ocean

A Cornish legend tells of the Mermaid of Zennor, who was entranced by the singing of Matthew Trewhella, a local man — so much so that she walked on land to seduce him and took him back with her into the sea

A mummified object was put on show around the United States in the 1840s by the showman P. T. Barnum. The creature is believed to have been made from the tail of a fish, the torso of a baby orang-utan and the head of a monkey. It convinced thousands oe people that mermaids were real

In 1967 ferry passengers in British Columbia, Canada, reported seeing a mermaid sitting on rocks at the entrance to Active Pass, Victoria. She was blonde with the lower body of a porpoise

Milagros Cerrón, 5, was nicknamed Peru’s Little Mermaid when she was born with the rare condition sirenomalia (mermaid syndrome) in which the legs are fused and the feet form a V. Doctors performed risky surgery to separate her legs so that she could walk

Source: British Columbia Folklore Society

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6956546.ece

(Submitted by Lindsay Selby)

‘Dead mermaid’ hoax spreads like wildfire

Published: Wednesday October 7, 2009 MYT 7:16:00 PM

By MUGUNTAN VANAR

KOTA KINABALU: Talk of a dead “mermaid” found on the beach of an island off Sabah’s northern Kudat district is spreading like wildfire among people in the state.

The talk was further reinforced by a short video clip of the purported mermaid lying dead on the shores of the island.

The clip has been on YouTube under the heading “Dead mermaid at Balambangan island” since Oct 3, but tales of the mysterious find had begun much earlier.

“It is a hoax, someone is playing the fool,” Kudat police chief Deputy Supt Dawi Ossen said when contacted on Wednesday.

He said they too had got wind of such talk spreading around Kudat town earlier this week, and had checked with the villagers of Pulau Balambangan where the “mermaid” was found.

“There was no such thing; neither had any body been washed ashore,” he said, explaining that the video clip did not show the island’s surroundings as claimed.

Dawi added that a resort operator there had told police nothing unusual had been found on the island in recent weeks.

“I hope people don’t get taken in by the video clip, it is totally baseless. Most likely, it’s someone playing a trick,” he added.

Initially when the rumours spread, police assumed that a human body had been found on the island.

They were prompted to check the rumours because of concern that people might not have reported finding a dead body.

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/10/7/nation/20091007191959&sec=nation

‘Dead mermaid’ hoax spreads like wildfire

Published: Wednesday October 7, 2009 MYT 7:16:00 PM

By MUGUNTAN VANAR

KOTA KINABALU: Talk of a dead “mermaid” found on the beach of an island off Sabah’s northern Kudat district is spreading like wildfire among people in the state.

The talk was further reinforced by a short video clip of the purported mermaid lying dead on the shores of the island.

The clip has been on YouTube under the heading “Dead mermaid at Balambangan island” since Oct 3, but tales of the mysterious find had begun much earlier.

“It is a hoax, someone is playing the fool,” Kudat police chief Deputy Supt Dawi Ossen said when contacted on Wednesday.

He said they too had got wind of such talk spreading around Kudat town earlier this week, and had checked with the villagers of Pulau Balambangan where the “mermaid” was found.

“There was no such thing; neither had any body been washed ashore,” he said, explaining that the video clip did not show the island’s surroundings as claimed.

Dawi added that a resort operator there had told police nothing unusual had been found on the island in recent weeks.

“I hope people don’t get taken in by the video clip, it is totally baseless. Most likely, it’s someone playing a trick,” he added.

Initially when the rumours spread, police assumed that a human body had been found on the island.

They were prompted to check the rumours because of concern that people might not have reported finding a dead body.

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/10/7/nation/20091007191959&sec=nation

Mythical Creatures - 16 June 2009

A set of six stamps depicting Mythical Creatures will be issued by Royal Mail this summer
Fantasy and myth are popular subjects for both films and books. Here fantasy artist Dave McKean (who worked on the Harry Potter movies) takes a look at some of the most popular and unusual creatures from legend. The UK has a rich and diverse folklore around mythical creatures: some famous nationally and others regionally. This set features: unicorn, mermaid - legends very common around UK coast inc northern isles of Scotland), Giant (inspired by Finn McCool associated with the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland), Fairy queen (in a chariot pulled by birds), Pixie (which feature in Cornish folklore), and Dragon (emblem of Wales).

http://www.norvic-philatelics.co.uk/2009/06a-mythical_creatures.htm

‘Mermaid’ found in Neg. Or. a hoax

BY JUDY F. PARTLOW

Reports that a mermaid had been found in San Jose, Negros Oriental turned out to be false but this did not stop people from flocking to the marine laboratory of Silliman University hoping to get a glimpse of the mythical creature.

Over the past three days, hordes of men, women and children in Dumaguete and nearby areas flocked to the marine laboratory, now called the Silliman University Institute of Environmental and Marine Sciences, after reports of the mermaid became widespread.

The news, which broke on Wednesday allegedly through at least two radio stations here, and through text messaging, attracted scores of people to visit the facility, paying the minimum entrance fee of P10 per person, despite being told by the security guards there was no mermaid to see.

SU-IEMS director and internationally respected marine scientist Dr. Hilconida Calumpong scoffed at the reports, saying these were “irresponsible”.

Calumpong said that where marine scientists are concerned, there are two kinds of mermaids: the mythological half human and half aquatic creature as popularized in fairy tales and movies, like “Ariel, the Little Mermaid”, and the endangered “dugong (sea cow)”, which many fishermen always mistake for a mermaid.

Mythical mermaids appear to have the torso of a woman and the tail of a fish, while the mermen are portrayed as ugly compared to their female counterparts, but with healing powers. Sometimes they carry a trident.

In Greek mythology, mermaids are said to enchant people with their lovely voices and distract men from their work on ships, causing them to drown.

Mermaids and mermen also proliferate in Philippine folklore, where they are known as “sirena” and “syokoy”.

The romantic appeal of these half human-half aquatic creatures is just too much to resist so, understandably, people could not wait for their chance to see a mermaid in real life, Calumpong said.

News of the discovery of the mermaid was immediately connected to the Feb. 7 disaster wrought by heavy rainfall and massive flooding as a result of a low pressure area in the Central Visayas.

Calumpong admitted that she got excited when she first heard the news, saying what first came to her mind was that a dugong had been stranded off the coast of Negros Oriental.

But, nobody contacted them regarding the discovery of the “mermaid” or stranding of an unusually large fish.

She said she was surprised to see so many people coming to the SU-IEMS facility, whose earnings from entrance fees were hiked up in just two to three days.

The dugong (spp. Dugong dugon) is a marine mammal listed under the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources as a species vulnerable to extinction.

In recent years, conservation efforts were launched in the north of Negros Island after reported sightings of dugong in Sagay, Manapla, Cadiz and other municipalities, said Dr. Calumpong.

Calumpong said fishermen who come across dugongs usually refer to them as “mermaids”, especially when seen with their suckling calves.

She appealed to the public to cooperate with authorities in reporting marine mammal strandings, and to the local media to practice “responsible journalism”.

*JFP