Mermaids on Animal Planet: What’s Myth? What’s Real?

Mermaids: The Body Found, begins with a horrific mass stranding of whales and dolphins off Washington state. The film’s focus is on the discovery of another beached “body” that appears half-human, half-merperson — a body that is “disappeared” and covered up by the Navy. Who knows if that mermaid discovery is factual? Or if the show’s fascinating glimpse into Aquatic Ape Theory, now gaining prominence in evolutionary science, is true. What we know is real about the Animal Planet show, is that all over the world, military sonar is actually killing all species of whales in rising numbers. And the U.S. Navy has just been given permission by our government to deafen, harass, and “take” (kill) thousands more–if we don’t limit them.

Maybe we’re asking the wrong question by just focusing on whether these haunting CGI merpeople are real or myth. The real question is: Why are we making our oceans too dangerous to sustain all life? That’s the message of the Animal Planet mermaid series. We don’t seem to pay much attention when our whales and dolphins are beaching on our shores because of the lethal military sonar. But we really tune in when half-human sea creatures, so much like us, are also dying.