There is no evidence that mermaids exist, a US government scientific agency has said.
The National Ocean Service made the unusual declaration in response to public inquiries following a TV show on the mythical creatures.
It is thought some viewers may have mistaken the programme for a documentary.
"No evidence of aquatic humanoids has ever been found," the service wrote in an online post.
The National Ocean Service posted an article last week on its educational website, Ocean Facts.
Images and tales of mermaids - half-human, half-fish - appear in mythology and art from across the world and through history, from Homer's Odyssey to the oral lore of the Australian aboriginals, the service wrote.
The article was written from publicly available sources because "we don't have a mermaid science programme", National Ocean Service spokeswoman Carol Kavanagh told the BBC.
She said that at least two people had written to the agency asking about the creatures.
The inquiries followed May's broadcast of Mermaids: The Body Found, on the Discovery Channel's Animal Planet network.
The programme was a work of fiction but its wink-and-nod format apparently led some viewers to believe it was a science education show, the Discovery Channel has acknowledged
Doesn't the US government have more important things to do? Like creating a universal healthcare plan or something?
"There are two wolves and they are always fighting. One is darkness and despair. The other is light and hope. Which wolf wins? Whichever one you feed." - Casey Newton, Tomorrowland
estefan wrote:Doesn't the US government have more important things to do? Like creating a universal healthcare plan or something?
It does have something better to do but then again this is the US government we are talking about.Their pirorities seem to be sometimes out of wack.The again this does give me a chance to laugh at them for their stupidity.
...well, in their defense, it's not like it was an edict handed out from the west wing or something, it was just the National Ocean Service. And I mean, what else do they have to do? We've already found all the oceans.
"Ta ta ta taaaa! Look at me... I'm a snowman! I'm gonna go stand on someone's lawn if I don't get something to do around here pretty soon!"
...Let me rephrase that, I've already found all the oceans, including the Iowan, the Hyperpacific, and the Great Moon Sea. And thirty-six new colors that only I can see.
"Ta ta ta taaaa! Look at me... I'm a snowman! I'm gonna go stand on someone's lawn if I don't get something to do around here pretty soon!"
I was fooled. Have any of you actually seen the "documentary"? I did a few weeks back, it seemed real to me. I know they do fake ones on dinosaurs, but the way they were talking about mermaids seemed perfectly plausible, even if there was some laughable over the top moments.
(the narrator asks about what somone discovered)
"Hands. *excesively long dramatic pause* They were hands"
I didn't see the very beginning but they don't make it clear that its all just a work of fiction, even if I did have a skeptical mind throughout the thing.
Kyle wrote:I was fooled. Have any of you actually seen the "documentary"? I did a few weeks back, it seemed real to me. I know they do fake ones on dinosaurs, but the way they were talking about mermaids seemed perfectly plausible, even if there was some laughable over the top moments.
(the narrator asks about what somone discovered)
"Hands. *excesively long dramatic pause* They were hands"
I didn't see the very beginning but they don't make it clear that its all just a work of fiction, even if I did have a skeptical mind throughout the thing.
I had heard that it was done to seem like a real documuntary, so yea, I could see lots of people going 'What, really?" when catching just bits of this thing.
