![]() ![]() ![]() Sometimes, they were just plain monsters. Valentijn’s “monster” title alludes to the fact that merpeople were not always represented in a sensual light. He claims that this “monster resembling a siren” was captured on the coast of Borneo. Francois Valentijn included a copy of Fallours’ mermaid in his publication on the East Indies, entitled Natural History of Amboina (1727). The official painter of the Dutch East India Company, Samuel Fallours, included a tantalizing mermaid within his 1718 drawing depicting the assortment of exotic biodiversity found around the islands. 1883.īy the eighteenth century, many believed that mermaids inhabited the seas surrounding the Dutch East Indies. Mermaid of the type inhabiting the Dutch East Indies. From the naval upwards, she was like a woman, with long, black hair, but she had a tail like a porpoise. In 1608, during an expedition to discover the Northwest Passage, Henry Hudson claimed that several crewmembers spotted a mermaid. In the centuries that followed, many people claimed to actually see mermaids. Tritons, or Nereids, the merpeople of the Greeks and Romans. Ashton, John. “And as for the Mermaids called Nereides, it is no fabulous tale that goeth of them: for looke how painters draw them, so they are indeed: only their body is rough and scaled all over, even in those parts where they resemble a woman.” According to Philemon Hollands’s 1601 translation ( 1634 edition in BHL), Pliny stated, Pliny the Elder, who lived in the first century CE and had quite a lot to contribute to the discussion of mythical beasts, asserted that mermaids were real. 1890.īy the Common Era, mermen and mermaids had made their way into the accepted zoological canon. Also in classical antiquity, the goddess Atargatis, chief goddess of northern Syria, was depicted as a fish-bodied human, thus constituting the first known representation of a mermaid.Īncient god Oannes, perhaps first representation of a merman. John Ashton, author of Curious Creatures in Zoology, proposes that this is the first depiction of a merman. The myth of a marine human extends as far back as 5,000 BCE, when the Babylonians worshipped a fish-tailed god named Oannes. On January 9, 1493, near the Dominican Republic, Columbus spotted three “mermaids.” How did he describe them? “They are not as beautiful as they are painted, since in some ways they have a face like a man” ( ). Instead, he found a whole “New World”…and something altogether more mysterious. The bottom line is that we've given manatees a little wiggle room.In 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed out from Spain with a mission to find a western trade route to Asia. Threatened simply means they're likely to go extinct at some point in the future. Fish and Wildlife Service downgraded them to "threatened." It's an improvement but not much of one.Įndangered animals are those which are likely to go extinct now if immediate measures aren't taken. Then, in 2017, their status changed as the U.S. Manatees were classified as "endangered" under the Endangered Species Act in 1967. That's quite a happy jump from the paltry 1,267 estimated in 1991, when the first aerial surveys were taken. A survey in early 2019 estimated at least 5,700 living in Florida waters. This brings out the "aBut where to find them? I'm pleased to report it shouldn't be hard. They have no natural predators, but being herbivores, they're also predators to none. Manatees are known to be very sweet and gentle giants. View Gallery: Photos: Manatees of Florida ![]() > Red tide algae: Pensacola, look out for manatees affected by toxic red tide algae > At Pensacola Beach: Rare manatee sighting at Pensacola Beach caught on camera: 'I thought it was a walrus' Swimming with manatees is even on my bucket list. It doesn't mean however that I don't value them. You can't tell me I'm wrong, because you know I'm not. They look like blobs of discolored and under-cooked dough bob, bob, bobbing along in Florida spring waters and rivers. Yes, manatees are adorable in an aquatic teddy bear way, but let's face it. He may have been showing some Old World humor when he wrote they weren't "half as beautiful as they are painted." I'm going with the second, because there's no way he thought he saw women, even ugly or fishy ones. I've seen it surmised in more than one source, a prominent one being the History Channel's website, that he actually mistook manatees for mermaids.Įither Columbus had horrible eyesight or he simply had women on his brain. Watch Video: Record sightings of manatees, Florida’s gentle giantĬhristopher Columbus wrote about seeing three mermaids near the Dominican Republic, where he was sailing in 1493. ![]()
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