Editing Mermaid (section)

== Reported sightings ==

=== Roman Lusitania and Gaul ===
In his ''[[Natural History (encyclopedia)|Natural History]]'' 9.4.9–11, [[Pliny the Elder]], remarked that a triton (merman) was seen off the coast of [[Olisipo]] (present-day [[Lisbon]], Portugal),<ref name="ni_mheallaigh"/> and it bore the physical appearance in accordance with common notion of the triton, according to a deputation from Lisbon who reported it to Emperor Tiberus. One nereid was sighted earlier on the same (Lisbon) coast. Pliny remarks that contrary to popular notion, the true nereids are not smooth-skinned in their human-like portions, but covered with scales all over the body.{{Refn|Reads "the portion of the body that resembles the human figure is still rough all over with scales" ub Bisticj and Riley's translation.<ref name="pliny-hn-9.4.9-tr-bostock&riley"/> This is given as "bristling with hair", in Rackham's (Loeb Classical Library translation, but ''{{linktext|squama}}'' here is probably 'scales' and the emendation is given in Hansen's rendering.<ref name="hansen"/>}} Their mournful songs at death have also been heard by the coastal inhabitants. Also, multiple nereids had washed up on the shore according to the legatus/governor of [[Roman Gaul|Gaul]], who informed the late [[Emperor Augustus]] about it in a letter.<ref name="ni_mheallaigh"/>{{Refn|{{Verse translation
 | lang       =
 | italicsoff =
 | rtl1       =
 | <!--original text-->IV.<br />9 Tiberio principi nuntiavit Olisiponensium legatio ob id missa visum auditumque in quodam specu concha canentem Tritonem qua noscitur forma. et Nereidum falsa non est, squamis modo hispido corpore etiam qua humanam effigiem habent; namque haec in eodem spectata litore est, cuius morientis etiam cantum tristem accolae audivere longe; et divo Augusto legatus Galliae complures in litore apparere examines Nereidas scripsit.
 | <!--translation-->IV. Tritons, Nereid and aquatic monsters. <br />9 An embassy from Lisbon sent for the purpose reported to the Emperor Tiberius that a Triton had been seen and heard playing on a shell in a certain cave, and that he had the well-known shape. The description of the Nereids also is not incorrect, except that their body is bristling with hair {{sic}} even in the parts where they have human shape; for a Nereid has been seen on the same coast, whose mournful song moreover when dying has been heard a long way off by the coast-dwellers; also the Governor of Gaul wrote to the late lamented Augustus that a large number of dead Nereids were to be seen on the shore.
 | attr1      = Pliny, ''Historia Naturalis'' IX.iv.9<ref name="pliny-hn-9.4.9-tr-rackham"/>
 | attr2      = translated by Harris Rackham (1958)<ref name="pliny-hn-9.4.9-tr-rackham"/>
}}}}<ref name="hansen"/>{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Pliny follows with an account of a "sea-man" witnessed on the Gulf of Gades ([[Gulf of Cádiz]]).<ref name="pliny-hn-9.4.9-tr-rackham"/>}}

Sixteenth-century Swedish writer [[Olaus Magnus]] quotes the same passage from Pliny, and further notes that the nereid are said to utter "dismal moans (wailings) at the hour of her death<!--(cuius morientis etiam gannitum tristem acclae audiuere longe)-->", thus observing a connection to the legend of [[sea-nymph]]s<ref name="nigg"/> and the [[Moirai|sister Fates]] whose clashing cymbals and flute tunes could be heard on shore.<ref name="olaus"/><ref name="olaus-eng"/><ref name="nigg"/> Olaus in a later passage states that the nereids (tr. "mermaids") are known to "sing plaintively",<ref name="olaus2"/><ref name="olaus2-eng"/> in general.{{efn|i.e., not qualifying they do so at the hour of death.}}

It has been conjectured that these carcasses of nereids washed up on shore were "presumably seals".<ref name="ni_mheallaigh"/>{{Refn|Cf. the conjecture in the index to the Loeb Classics Library translation that Pliny's ''homo marinus'' (merman) may refer to "African manatee (?)".<ref name="pliny-hn-idx"/>}}

=== Age of Exploration Americas and polar frontiers ===
In 1493, sailing off the coast of [[Hispaniola]], [[Christopher Columbus]] spotted three mermaids ({{langx|es|link=no|sirenas}}) which he said were not as beautiful as they are represented due to masculine features in their faces. He is widely believed to have seen [[manatees]], not mermaids.<ref>{{cite book|last=Sánchez  |first=Jean-Pierre |author-link=<!--Jean-Pierre Sánchez--> |chapter=Myths and Legends in the Old World and European Expansionism on the American Continent |title=The Classical Tradition and the Americas: European images of the Americas and the classical tradition (2 pts.) |publisher=[[Walter de Gruyter]] |year=1994 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I1LEmKPgJ8MC&pg=PA203 |page=203 |isbn=3-110-11572-7}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=National Science Research Council (Guyana) |title=An International Centre for Manatee Research: Report of a Workshop Held 7-13 February 1974 |publisher=National Academies |year=1974 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qz4rAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA5 |page=5}}</ref>

During [[Henry Hudson]]'s second voyage on 15 June 1608, members of his crew reported sighting a mermaid in the [[Arctic Ocean]], either in the [[Norwegian Sea|Norwegian]] or [[Barents Sea]]s.<ref name="hawks"/>

Dutch explorer David Danell during his expeditions to [[Greenland]] in 1652–54 claimed to have spotted a mermaid with "flowing hair and very beautiful", though the crew failed to capture it.<ref name="etting"/>

==== Colonial Brazil ====
[[File:Bartholin(Copenhagen1854)-Hist anat-p164a-siren-top.jpg|thumb|Bartholin's siren (1654). The bones of the "hand" in the drawings on the right correspond to the flipper of a manatee.]]

Danish physician and natural historian [[Thomas Bartholin]] wrote about a mermaid specimen caught in Brazil (probably a manatee<ref name="senter&snow"/>) and subsequently dissected at Leiden.<ref name="broedel"/>{{Refn|name="bartholin-brazil"|Bartholin: "prope Brasiliam.. captus suit homo marinus..",<ref name="bartholin(copenhagen)1654"/> but Webster: "a Sea-Man taken by the Merchants of the West-India Company..", the latter omits mention of Brazil.}} Though referred to in the text as a "sea-man" (''homo marinus'') from Brazil, the account was accompanied by an engraved drawing captioned "Sirene", whose appearance was that of a humanoid female with bared breasts (a mermaid).<ref name="scribner2020-bartholin-pic">{{harvp|Scribner|2020}}: "{{URL|1=https://books.google.com/books?id=fgrtDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT101|2='Sirene'.. with certain popular features of a mermaid (exposed breasts and a humanoid face.. odd, webbed hands, buttocks at the front)}}"</ref><ref name="bartholin(copenhagen)1654"/> The specimen's body was deformed and "without the sign of a tail",<ref name="bartholin-tr-webster"/> matching the drawing. And "a membrane [that] join [the fingers] together"<ref name="bartholin-tr-webster"/> is also reflected in the drawing as well (as her webbed pair of hands/forepaws).<ref name="scribner2020-bartholin-pic"/>{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Bartholin subsequently provides a textual description of a neckless siren with lactating breasts,<ref name="broedel"/> however, that is the description from an entirely different specimen caught in the River Cuama off the [[Cape of Good Hope]], quoted from Bernardinus Ginnarus.<ref name="bartholin-tr-webster"/>}}

The specimen's account and illustration was later reproduced by Linnaeus, who captioned the beast "Siren Bartholini",<ref name="linnaeus-1769"/><ref name="scribner2021"/> hence "Bartholin's Siren".

Bartholin was actually not the sole proprietor of the specimen, but he came into possession of its hand and ribs, which he also illustrated in his book (figures above).{{sfnp|Scribner|2020}}{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Bartholin describes in detail that it was caught off of Brazil by merchants of the (Dutch) [[Dutch West India Company|West India Company]], the GWC, and the dissection conducted in Leiden by Petrus Pavius ([[Pieter Pauw]]), attended by [[Johannes de Laet]] (who was director of the GWC); Bartholin was given a hand and few ribs from de Laet, as a token of friendship.<ref name="bartholin-tr-webster"/>}} Based on the illustration, the "hand" has been determined to be the front flipper belonging to a manatee by a team of researchers.<ref name="senter&snow"/>

Bartholin himself had argued that it was a sea mammal closely related to seals (''phocae'').<ref name="bartholin-tr-webster"/><ref name="broedel"/>{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Bartholin writes [[Phoca]]e,<ref name="bartholin-tr-webster"/> which is the genus, but perhaps he intended [[pinnipeds]]<ref name="broedel"/> more broadly.}} His rationale was that since there are several marine counterparts to land mammals e.g. "sea-horses",{{efn|A "sea-horse" in reality was either [[walrus]] or sea-unicorns/[[narwhal]]s, both sources for marine ivory. For water-horse as sea-unicorn, see {{harvp|Francisci|1668}}, opposite p. 1406, {{URL|1=https://books.google.com/books?id=i-RTAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA1407 |2=Plate XLVII}}.}} the possibility of a marine creature with striking likeness to humans could not be ruled out,<ref name="bartholin(copenhagen)1654"/> though they should all be classified among seal-kind.<ref name="bartholin-tr-webster"/>

Erasmus Francisci ([[Erasmus Finx]], 1668) associated this Brazilian specimen with the local native lore of the "Yupiapra" (Ipupiara).{{efn|cf. [[#Iara and Ipupiara|§Iara and Ipupiara]], supra.}}<ref name="francisci"/><ref name="jcb-library"/>

=== Dutch Formosa ===
According to [[Frederick Coyett]], the last [[Taiwan under Dutch rule|Dutch governor of Formosa]] (aka [[Taiwan]]), many people saw mermaids appearing in the waters near the [[Fort Zeelandia (Taiwan)|Fort Zeelandia]] during [[Koxinga]]'s 17th-century [[Siege of Fort Zeelandia|attack on the Dutch]]. The Dutch came to the waterways to search carefully, but they were gone. It was regarded as a sign of imminent disaster.<ref>{{cite web|title=人魚出沒台灣 不幸災厄跟著來 |url=https://www.nownews.com/news/5623154 |website=NOWnews|accessdate=2023-10-11 |language=zh-tw |date=2018-07-04 |archive-date= |archive-url=}}</ref>

=== Colonial Southeast Asia ===

==== Seventeenth-century Visayas ====
[[File:Jonston1657-Tab-XL-piscis-anthropomorphos.jpg|thumb|300px|'''Anthropomorphos'''{{right|{{small|―Johannes Jonston ''Historia naturalis'' in Latin, 1657<ref name="jonston1657-latin"/>}}}}]]
A type of mermaid referred to as "'''anthropomorphus'''"<ref name="jonston1660-nl"/> or "woman-fish" ({{langx|es|'''peche mujer'''}}<ref name="ojeda"/>) allegedly inhabited the Spanish-ruled [[Philippines]], particularly in the waters around the [[Visayas|Visayan Islands]], according to contemporary writings from the seventeenth century.{{Refn|The incidents of capture and localities are as follows (the actual sources/authors will be elaborated in the citation footnotes to follow.):
* In Kircher and Jonston's writings, the place of capture is given as the Insulas Pictorum near the Visayas,<ref name="kircher-magnes"/><ref name="jonston1657-latin"/> namely, the "Island[s] of the Artist[s]".<ref name="jacob"/> A group of islands within the Visayas (including e.g. ([[Mindoro]]) was known as the ''Islas de los Pintados'' ('Islands of the Painted People').<ref name="prichard"/> Therefore referring to the locality as somewher within the present-day Visayas<ref name="ojeda"/> The Dutch translation rendered the islands, not as "the Islands of the Painted/Painters", but as "the Picten Islands", in turn understood to mean "the Islands of the Picts".<ref name="jongh"/>
* Colin identified the habitat as the Philippine waters and Malacca ([[Strait of Malacca]]).<ref name="colin"/>
* Nvarette while visiting Mindro (aforementioned island),<ref name="braeunlein&lauser"/> writes of the abundance of fish and the presence of "woman-fish" under the heading o NanboanNanboan<ref name="navarrete-tr-churchill"/> (namely [[Naujan|Nauján]]).<ref name="navarrete-tr-cummins"/>).}}

The accounts are found in several books, on various topics from magnetism, to natural history, to ecclesiastical history.{{Refn|[[Athanasius Kircher]]  ''Magnes sive De arte magnetica'' (1641),<ref name="kircher-magnes"/> whose account is reiterated in [[Johannes Jonston]] ''Historiae naturalis de piscibus et cetis libri 5'' (in Latin, 1657; Dutch translation ''Beschryvingh van de Natuur der Vissen en bloedloze Water-dieren'', 1660).<ref name="jonston1660-nl"/> Also {{interlanguage link|Francisco Colín|es}} (1663) ''Labor evangelica'',<ref name="colin"/> [[Domingo Fernández Navarrete]] ''Tratados historicos, politicos, ethicos, y religiosos de la monarchia de China'' (1676).<ref name="navarrete-tr-churchill"/><ref name="navarrete-tr-cummins"/>}}

These books refer to the mermaid/merman as "''piscis anthropomorphos''" ({{langx|nl|Anthropomorphus}}),{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Kircher's Latin text actually resorts to writing out "piscis ανθρωπόμορφος" partly in Greek ([[Greek ligatures|Greek ligature]] is used for the final omicron-sigma).<ref name="kircher-magnes"/> Jonston's Latin version uses "anthropomorphos"; the Dutch translator changed this to "-morphus" in the text, though the caption remained "-phos" in the engraving.<ref name="jonston1660-nl"/>}} and emphasize how human-like they appear in their upper bodies, as well as providing woodcut or etchings illustrating the male and female of the part-human part-fish creature.<ref name="kircher-magnes"/><ref name="jonston1660-nl"/>

The "woman-fish" (or {{lang|es|peche mujer}} in modern Spanish<ref name="ojeda"/>){{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|In the primary sources, variously spelt in
[[Middle Spanish]] as {{lang|es|peche muger}},<ref name="kircher-magnes"/> {{lang|es|pez muller, pexe muller}},<ref name="colin"/> etc.}}) was the name given to the creature among the Spaniards, but the sources also state it was called "duyon" by the indigenous people.<ref name="kircher-magnes"/><ref name="jonston1657-latin"/>{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|The word is "duyong" in the Ilongo ([[Hiligaynon language|Hiligaynon]]) or [[Palawano language]] of the Bisayans.<ref name="polistico"/>}} and it is assumed the actual creature was a dugong (according to modern translators' notes).<ref name="navarrete-tr-cummins"/><ref name="navarrete-tr-blair&robertson"/>{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|According to Navarrete, an indigenous man had confessed to having nightly sexual intercourse with a ''piscis mulier'' or ''pexemulier '' "said to resemble a woman from the breasts down" .<ref name="navarrete-tr-churchill"/><ref name="navarrete-tr-blair&robertson"/>}}

Several of these sources mention the medical use of the woman-fish to control the flow of blood (or the [[four humours]]). It was effective for staunching the bleeding, i.e., effective against hemorrhages, according to Jonston.{{Refn|Appropriating "remedy for hemorrhages" which is Castiglioni's paraphrase{{sfnp|Castiglioni|2021|p=22}} of {{interlanguage link|Ōtsuki Gentaku|ja|大槻玄沢}} writing {{nihongo|shiketsu|止血/血を止む|extra='stop the bleeding'}} in his Japanese translation of Johnston.<ref>Otsuki Gentaku (1786) ''Rokumotsu shinshi'', fols. 24–[https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/2555433/28 25]</ref>}} Other sources mention the ability to stop bleeding, e.g. Colín,<ref>{{harvp|Cummins|2017|p=82}}, footnote.</ref> who also thought that the Philippine woman-fish tasted like fatty pork.{{Refn|Colín, on the "Pez Muller" (marginalia) or "Pexe Muller/Duyon" (text): "me pareciò su carne como de torcino gordo"}} The bones were made into beads (i.e., strung together), as it was believed effective against {{linktext|defluxion}}s (of the humours).{{Refn|Navarrete, Cummins tr.: "{{URL|1=https://books.google.com/books?id=-gckDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT129 |2=singular virtue against Defluxions}}".<ref name="navarrete-tr-cummins"/><ref name="navarrete-tr-churchill"/>}}

==== Eighteenth-century Moluccas ====
{{multiple image
 | align     = right
 | direction = vertical
 | header    = Renard's illustrated book of marine life
 | width     = 300
 | image1    = Renard-2nd-ed-1754(Mich U)-Pl057-n240-monstre-ou-sirenne.jpg
 | alt1      = Mermaid in Renard's marine animal book
 | caption1  = "Monster or Siren (mermaid)"{{sfnp|Pietsch|1991|p=7–9}}{{right|{{small|―Louis Renard ''Poissons, ecrevisses et crabes.. autour des isles Moluques et sur les côtes des terres Australes'', 2nd edition, 1754}}<ref name="renard-2nd-ed-1754"/>}}
 | image2    = Renard-2nd-ed-1754(Mich U)-Fol034-n180-dugong.jpg
 | caption2  = A dugong (ditto book)
 | alt2      = Mermaid in Renard's marine animal book
}}

Allegedly captured in the Moluccas in the seventeenth century was the so-called "Amboina mermaid" (after the then Dutch [[Governorate of Ambon|Province of Ambon]]),<ref>e.g. {{harvp|Carrington|1957|pp=xi, 11}}</ref>{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Later it was no longer a Dutch Province. Bassett (1892) renamed her the "Molucca siren",{{sfnp|Bassett|1892|p=191}} but that name does not seem to have wide circulation.}} which its leading researcher has referred to as Samuel Fallours's "Sirenne", after the man who came into possession of it and made an original painting of it in full color.{{sfnp|Pietsch|1991|pp=12–13}}

The painting was reproduced by Louis Renard on the "Fish" of the region, first published in 1719,{{Refn|Louis Renard(1678/79–1746).<ref name="burr"/>''Poissons, ecrevisses et crabes, de diverses couleurs et figures extraordinaires: que l'on trouve autour des isles Moluques et sur les côtes des terres Australes'' ('Fish, [<!--Crayfish-->Lobsters], Crabs, in Various Colors and Extraordinary Shapes, as Found in the Moluccas and on the Coasts of Australia', first edition 1719, second edition 1754.{{sfnp|Pietsch|1991|pp=5, 7}}{{Refn|name="hayward-fallours"|Hayward (2018), pp. 93–94,<ref name="hayward2018-ch05"/> citing {{harvp|Pietsch|1991}}}}{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|color illustrations engraved copper plates, [[Hand-coloring|hand-painted in color]].}} of various marine organisms of the Moluccas region, including this mermaid.{{sfnp|Pietsch|1991|pp=5, 7}}}}

It was supposedly caught by Boeren in Ambon Province ([[Buru]], in present-day [[Maluku (province)|Maluku Province]]),{{sfnp|Pietsch|1991|pp=7, 13}} presumably around the years 1706–1712,{{Refn|name="hayward-fallours"}} or perhaps the year 1712 precisely.{{Refn|name="valentijn-apud-pietsch"|According to Valentijn/Valentyn (1726), ''Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indiën'', '''3''', Part 1, pp. 331–332<ref name="valentyn-deel3-1726"/> quoted in English translation in {{harvp|Pietsch|1991|p=7}}.}} During this period, Fallours served briefly as soldier for the VOC ([[Dutch East India Company]]) starting June 1706, but turned associate curate (Krankbezoeker) for the Dutch Reformed Church (September 1706 to June 1712).{{sfnp|Pietsch|1991|pp=1, 15}}

Fallour's mermaid with additional details were described by [[François Valentyn|François Valentijn]] in a 1726 book.{{Refn|François Valentyn, ''Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indiën'', vol. 3.<ref name="valentyn-deel3-1726"/>}}{{Refn|group="lower-alpha"|Valentijn was also a minister of the church, mostly in the employ of the VOC; he was minister in Ambon at age 19 from 1685 for a decade, and was stationed again in Java 1705–1714.<ref name="suarez_t."/> but was minister in Dorchrecht, Netherlands by 1916 when Renard corresponded with him seeking help for his book,{{sfnp|Pietsch|1991|p=7}} and he compiled his own book while in the Netherlands.<ref name="suarez_t."/>}}

The mermaid was 59 Dutch inches ({{lang|nl|[[wikt:duim|duimen]]}}) long, or 5 feet in Rhineland measures. She reportedly survived 4 days 7 hours in a water tank, and died after refusing food it was given, having uttered no intelligible sound,{{Refn|name="valentijn-apud-pietsch"}}<ref name="burr"/> or issuing sounds like screechings of a mouse.<ref name="renard-2nd-ed-1754"/> Something like a straw cape (Japanese ''[[mino (straw cape)|mino]]'') appears wrapped around her waist in the painting according to one commentator,<ref name="yoshioka1993-p38"/> but Fallours revealed in his notes that he lifted the front and back fins and "[found] it was shaped like a woman".<ref>{{harvp|Hayward|2018a|p=93}}; {{harvp|Pietsch|1991|p=5}}: "I had the curiosity to lift its fins in front and in back and [found] it was shaped like a woman. Mr. Van der Stel asked me for it and I gave it to him . I think he sent it to Holland". (English tr.)</ref>

The mermaid was suspected to be a dugong in reality, even by contemporary scholars such as [[Georg Rumphius]], although Valentijn was unable to believe they were the one and the same.{{sfnp|Pietsch|1991|p=12}} Leading researcher Theodore W. Pietsch{{efn|And editor of the English edition of Renard's work.}} concurs with the dugong identification, but an ichthyologist has opined that "I could more easily accept a small oar-fish, or another eel-like fish, rather than a dugong as a partial basis for the drawing", noting that Renard's book carries an illustration of a plausibly realistic dugong as well.<ref name="burr"/>

=== Qing dynasty China ===
The ''Yuezhong jianwen'' ({{zh|t=粵中見聞|w=Yueh-chung-chieh-wen}}; "Seens and Heards", or "Jottings on the South of China", 1730) contains two accounts concerning mermaids. In the first, a man captures a mermaid ({{zh|海女|labels=no}} "sea woman") on the shore of <!--Namtao-->[[Lantau Island]] ({{zh|大嶼山|w=Taiyü-shan}}).<!--Styled as 大魚山 "Big fish mount" in orig. text--> She looks human in every respect except that her body is covered with fine hair of many colors. She cannot talk, but he takes her home and marries her. After his death, the mermaid returns to the sea where she was found. In the second story, a man sees a woman lying on the beach while his ship was anchored offshore. On closer inspection, her feet and hands appear to be webbed. She is carried to the water, and expresses her gratitude toward the sailors before swimming away.<ref>{{cite book|last=Dennys |first=Nicholas Belfield |title=The Folk-Lore of China, and Its Affinities with That of the Aryan and Semitic Races |publisher=Trübner and Co |year=1876 |url=https://archive.org/details/folklorechinaan00denngoog |pages=[https://archive.org/details/folklorechinaan00denngoog/page/n131 114]–115}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Fan |editor-first=Duan'ang 范端昂 |title=Yuezhong jianwen |script-title=zh:粤中见闻 |place=Guangdong |publisher=Guangdonggaodeng jiaoyu chubanshe |year=1988 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aT8yAAAAMAAJ |page=134|isbn=9787536100862 }}</ref>

=== U.S. and Canada ===
Two sightings were reported in Canada near [[Vancouver]] and [[Victoria, BC|Victoria]], one from sometime between 1870 and 1890, the other from 1967.<ref>{{Citation|url=http://www.tourismvictoria.com/Content/EN/747.asp |title=Myths & Legends |publisher=Tourism Victoria |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081016154451/http://www.tourismvictoria.com/Content/EN/747.asp |archive-date=16 October 2008 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://folklore.bc.ca/british-columbia-mermaids/ |title = Folklore Examples in British Columbia |publisher=Folklore |date=11 January 2009 |access-date=24 April 2012}}</ref> A Pennsylvania fisherman reported five sightings of a mermaid in the [[Susquehanna River]] near [[Marietta, Pennsylvania|Marietta]] in June 1881.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.yorkblog.com/yorkspast/2014/05/27/a-mermaid-in-the-susquehanna/ |title=A Mermaid in the Susquehanna |date=8 June 1881 |newspaper=York Daily |access-date=2 January 2016 |department=YorksPast |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150919101147/http://www.yorkblog.com/yorkspast/2014/05/27/a-mermaid-in-the-susquehanna/ |archive-date=19 September 2015 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

=== Twenty-first century ===
[[File:Mermaid skeleton.jpg|thumb|Reconstructed mermaid skeleton in [[Zoologisk Museum]]]]
In August 2009, after dozens of people reported seeing a mermaid leaping out of [[Haifa Bay]] waters and doing aerial tricks, the Israeli coastal town of [[Kiryat Yam]] offered a $1&nbsp;million award for proof of its existence.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1107034.html |title=Is a Mermaid Living Under the Sea in Kiryat Yam? |newspaper=[[Haaretz]] |date=12 August 2009 |access-date=22 September 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100107203643/http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1107034.html |archive-date=7 January 2010 }}</ref>

In February 2012, work on two reservoirs near [[Gokwe centre|Gokwe]] and [[Mutare]] in Zimbabwe stopped when workers refused to continue, stating that mermaids had hounded them away from the sites. It was reported by [[Samuel Sipepa Nkomo]], the water resources minister.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.voazimbabwe.com/a/zimbabwe-mermaids-problem-for-water-minister-138664059/1467126.html|title='Mermaid' Sightings in Zimbabwe Spark Debate Over Traditional Beliefs|date=3 February 2012|website=VOA |access-date=17 May 2020}}</ref>