Mermaids do NOT exist, agency assures Americans after TV show prompts questions from viewers

The question as to whether mermaids are real or not was recently put to rest as a U.S. scientific agency confirmed the sea creatures do not exist.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have confirmed that there is no evidence that the half-human, half-fish beings are a genuine living species.

The agency made a statement last week clarifying that the sea species is not real after they received a few calls following a fictional Animal Planet show called Mermaids: The Body Found that confused some viewers as fact.


After the May airing of the fiction show, designed to have a format similar to a documentary, some viewers had called the NOAA to learn more about the creatures.The agency released a statement under its Ocean Facts section putting the theories to rest.

The agency said on its website: 'Mermaids - those half-human, half-fish sirens of the sea - are legendary sea creatures chronicled in maritime cultures since time immemorial.'The short piece continued: 'But are mermaids real? No evidence of aquatic humanoids has ever been found.'

The statement goes on to explain how 'magical female figures' were first found in cave paintings roughly 30,000 years ago.

The NOAA put together the statement through information already available to the public because the agency does not have a program dedicated to studying mermaids, spokeswoman Carol Kavanagh told the BBC.

The statement comes after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a statement last month saying that zombies are not real.

The CDC decided to weigh in on the zombie question in earnest following a vicious attack that happened in Miami on Saturday, when Rudy Eugene, aged 31, was shot and killed by police while devouring the face of Ronald Poppo, a homeless man.