1
00:00:03,800 --> 00:00:06,680
Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff

2
00:00:06,720 --> 00:00:13,880
Speaker 1: Works dot com. Hey, welcome to stuff to Blow your Mind.

3
00:00:13,920 --> 00:00:18,480
Speaker 1: My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Ariel. No you're not. Yeah, Oh,

4
00:00:18,960 --> 00:00:21,200
Speaker 1: was this an early influence on you? Mermaid wise very

5
00:00:21,280 --> 00:00:24,440
Speaker 1: all the Mermaid from Bttle Mermaid, Little Mermaid. Yeah, actually

6
00:00:24,440 --> 00:00:27,680
Speaker 1: from the hands Christian Anderson, the original tale. Oh you were,

7
00:00:28,080 --> 00:00:29,920
Speaker 1: of course you were. You were old school reading the

8
00:00:29,920 --> 00:00:33,120
Speaker 1: book as a kid, and then well, yeah, and out

9
00:00:33,200 --> 00:00:35,120
Speaker 1: you're harping on and being like, wow, it's not very

10
00:00:35,120 --> 00:00:37,720
Speaker 1: true to the original hands Christian, like, there's none of

11
00:00:37,720 --> 00:00:43,040
Speaker 1: the gore and the awfulness. The Sea Witch. She was

12
00:00:43,040 --> 00:00:45,640
Speaker 1: always my favorite. I think she was. What I remember

13
00:00:45,680 --> 00:00:49,919
Speaker 1: the most is that the Mermaid, whenever she tried to

14
00:00:50,680 --> 00:00:54,120
Speaker 1: walk on her her legs, her newly formed legs, it

15
00:00:54,120 --> 00:00:57,080
Speaker 1: would feel like daggers. Each step would feel like a dagger.

16
00:00:57,680 --> 00:01:00,000
Speaker 1: That really stuck with me. Yeah, that they didn't quite

17
00:01:00,120 --> 00:01:03,280
Speaker 1: captured that in the the actually animated film. My I

18
00:01:03,360 --> 00:01:06,319
Speaker 1: have two sisters, two younger sisters, so growing up they

19
00:01:06,319 --> 00:01:08,520
Speaker 1: were really into a Little Mermaid, and they were also

20
00:01:08,600 --> 00:01:14,400
Speaker 1: really into the movie Splash, Hannah. They loved Splash. Like Splash,

21
00:01:14,440 --> 00:01:17,840
Speaker 1: We splash must have been on our TV like every

22
00:01:17,920 --> 00:01:20,640
Speaker 1: day for like a year. There was a lot of

23
00:01:20,680 --> 00:01:24,039
Speaker 1: splash going on because that features of mermaid and was

24
00:01:24,120 --> 00:01:25,600
Speaker 1: right up their alley. And then there were the mermaid

25
00:01:25,680 --> 00:01:28,880
Speaker 1: barbies were everywhere. They were always hanging out like wet

26
00:01:28,920 --> 00:01:31,840
Speaker 1: haired by the bathtub. So, I mean, and and the

27
00:01:31,880 --> 00:01:33,959
Speaker 1: thing is that the mermaid the myth when you're really

28
00:01:34,000 --> 00:01:36,480
Speaker 1: looking to it, I mean, it's it's old, it's fascinating's

29
00:01:36,520 --> 00:01:41,039
Speaker 1: been running forever and continues um to fascinate modern audiences

30
00:01:41,040 --> 00:01:43,880
Speaker 1: in new ways. Yeah, I mean exactly when those things

31
00:01:43,880 --> 00:01:47,560
Speaker 1: that has captured our imaginations through folklore, and you know,

32
00:01:47,640 --> 00:01:50,040
Speaker 1: there's probably a little tiny part in all of us

33
00:01:50,080 --> 00:01:54,320
Speaker 1: that wished that mermaids were an actual thing. Yeah, so

34
00:01:54,320 --> 00:01:56,120
Speaker 1: so why aren't we talking about mer folk? Right? Well,

35
00:01:56,200 --> 00:01:59,480
Speaker 1: we recently did an episode about the centaur Um in

36
00:01:59,480 --> 00:02:01,440
Speaker 1: which we we looked little, you know, a little bit

37
00:02:01,480 --> 00:02:04,919
Speaker 1: at the folk uh tales that gave us the centaur

38
00:02:04,960 --> 00:02:06,640
Speaker 1: and and talked to a little bit about where these

39
00:02:06,680 --> 00:02:09,560
Speaker 1: ideas come from, you know, why to win, why do

40
00:02:09,720 --> 00:02:12,200
Speaker 1: we as humans decide that we need to think about

41
00:02:12,200 --> 00:02:14,400
Speaker 1: half humans havelf horses? And then we looked at some

42
00:02:14,440 --> 00:02:20,040
Speaker 1: fascinating stuff, some basically comparative anatomy, which which a German

43
00:02:20,040 --> 00:02:23,800
Speaker 1: anatomis said, well, let's see if they're Centaurs obviously don't exist,

44
00:02:23,880 --> 00:02:26,280
Speaker 1: but if they did, how might it work? And it

45
00:02:26,320 --> 00:02:30,480
Speaker 1: serves as an interesting thought experiment into into how uh,

46
00:02:30,600 --> 00:02:34,519
Speaker 1: animals actually work on an anatomical level. It's something called

47
00:02:34,560 --> 00:02:38,680
Speaker 1: speculative biology. Speculative biology. Yeah, so right after we had

48
00:02:38,680 --> 00:02:41,680
Speaker 1: the center, we had a listener right in the name

49
00:02:42,000 --> 00:02:46,120
Speaker 1: was Danelle Danielle. Yeah, yeah, she said, hey, please please

50
00:02:46,280 --> 00:02:50,240
Speaker 1: cover mr Folk. I actually think she called them rfolk specifically.

51
00:02:50,400 --> 00:02:52,280
Speaker 1: And and at the time we're like, okay, yeah, maybe

52
00:02:52,280 --> 00:02:54,519
Speaker 1: we'll do our folks. At some point, we weren't in

53
00:02:54,560 --> 00:02:57,519
Speaker 1: a particular hurry, but then Animal Planet did this uh

54
00:02:57,800 --> 00:02:59,960
Speaker 1: an Animal Planet, of course as part of the discovery

55
00:03:00,080 --> 00:03:02,760
Speaker 1: our our our parent company. They did this the show

56
00:03:02,800 --> 00:03:05,520
Speaker 1: about me people, and it was a huge hit. And

57
00:03:05,560 --> 00:03:08,359
Speaker 1: I my sister is like texting me at night saying,

58
00:03:08,400 --> 00:03:10,720
Speaker 1: what's the deal with this Mermaids show? Is? This is

59
00:03:10,760 --> 00:03:13,800
Speaker 1: this legit? And uh? And so we're like, well, okay,

60
00:03:13,800 --> 00:03:16,119
Speaker 1: we we probably should go ahead and do it. Yeah,

61
00:03:16,160 --> 00:03:19,760
Speaker 1: because it's a what if proposition, This this um this show,

62
00:03:19,960 --> 00:03:22,720
Speaker 1: it's called Mermaids The Body Found Now. It's it's um

63
00:03:22,840 --> 00:03:26,720
Speaker 1: presented in a documentary style fashion, which you know, some

64
00:03:26,760 --> 00:03:29,919
Speaker 1: people weren't crazy about. But to be fair, UM, Animal

65
00:03:29,960 --> 00:03:32,840
Speaker 1: Planet did say that this was a bit of science

66
00:03:32,880 --> 00:03:37,120
Speaker 1: fiction that was you know, based on some scientific theories.

67
00:03:37,600 --> 00:03:39,760
Speaker 1: So we wanted to take the premise of this show

68
00:03:40,160 --> 00:03:42,440
Speaker 1: and and start to tease apart from the things they

69
00:03:42,440 --> 00:03:46,360
Speaker 1: talked about, because it's really interesting how they strung this together. Basically,

70
00:03:46,360 --> 00:03:48,640
Speaker 1: the setup is that it's two thousand and four and

71
00:03:48,720 --> 00:03:52,640
Speaker 1: whales were washing up from a llegal deep water sonar

72
00:03:53,080 --> 00:03:57,160
Speaker 1: emanating from US Navy experiment. Because again, whales and dolphins

73
00:03:57,160 --> 00:04:00,840
Speaker 1: that use the echolocation sound is a very important aspect

74
00:04:00,840 --> 00:04:03,400
Speaker 1: of the way they navigate, the way they communicate. UM,

75
00:04:03,840 --> 00:04:05,680
Speaker 1: we've talked about this in the past. We've talked about

76
00:04:05,680 --> 00:04:09,280
Speaker 1: whales and dolphins and uh, and also about underwater sound. Yeah,

77
00:04:09,320 --> 00:04:12,040
Speaker 1: and so in this fictional account, what they're what they're

78
00:04:12,040 --> 00:04:14,480
Speaker 1: saying is that, you know, the Navy is trying to

79
00:04:14,520 --> 00:04:18,240
Speaker 1: cover up something. UM officials are coming out and has

80
00:04:18,320 --> 00:04:22,080
Speaker 1: that suits looking at these beached whales and and pulling

81
00:04:22,080 --> 00:04:25,640
Speaker 1: in specimens and taking them away. UM. And then the

82
00:04:25,720 --> 00:04:29,840
Speaker 1: remains of a mysterious creature is discovered. So then the

83
00:04:30,200 --> 00:04:35,400
Speaker 1: plotline starts talking about, uh, this this fringe hypothesis called

84
00:04:35,520 --> 00:04:39,560
Speaker 1: the aquatic eight hypothesis, which we'll get into and in

85
00:04:39,680 --> 00:04:43,400
Speaker 1: some people actually that insist that it be called the

86
00:04:43,400 --> 00:04:47,719
Speaker 1: the the aquatic eate theory of citing that the that

87
00:04:47,760 --> 00:04:51,440
Speaker 1: it's not a true scientific hypothesis. But that's kind of

88
00:04:51,440 --> 00:04:53,599
Speaker 1: splitting hairs. Well, some people say it's not a theory,

89
00:04:53,640 --> 00:04:57,400
Speaker 1: it's a hypothesis, or it's just an idea. Um, So

90
00:04:57,400 --> 00:04:59,720
Speaker 1: we probably leave it at that. But then they also

91
00:04:59,760 --> 00:05:03,520
Speaker 1: go into not only this aquatic ape idea, but these

92
00:05:03,680 --> 00:05:08,920
Speaker 1: unidentified sound profiles from the ocean, which we've talked about before,

93
00:05:09,120 --> 00:05:12,000
Speaker 1: like the bloop. And then in the in the plot

94
00:05:12,080 --> 00:05:16,040
Speaker 1: of this show, the mysterious body is autopsied and lo

95
00:05:16,160 --> 00:05:21,800
Speaker 1: and behold they find pelvic bone. Actually it's kind of

96
00:05:21,839 --> 00:05:26,560
Speaker 1: half autopsy if it's half here exactly the torso um.

97
00:05:26,680 --> 00:05:29,359
Speaker 1: So the pelic bones are found and hands are discovered,

98
00:05:29,760 --> 00:05:31,720
Speaker 1: and so then it becomes this question as well as

99
00:05:31,720 --> 00:05:33,920
Speaker 1: then maybe trying to cover up the fact that they

100
00:05:33,920 --> 00:05:38,279
Speaker 1: were using this at illegal sonar system or that there's

101
00:05:38,640 --> 00:05:42,839
Speaker 1: a creature that we are a new species that we

102
00:05:42,880 --> 00:05:46,800
Speaker 1: just don't know about. Mm hmm. So using that is

103
00:05:46,839 --> 00:05:50,800
Speaker 1: our backdrop today, we thought, well, why not talk about um,

104
00:05:50,839 --> 00:05:54,880
Speaker 1: you know, this this idea of these strange noises in

105
00:05:54,920 --> 00:05:58,320
Speaker 1: the ocean, or the aquatic ape theory, or even the

106
00:05:58,880 --> 00:06:02,640
Speaker 1: Mermaid RelA of your. Yeah, so let's start with the

107
00:06:02,640 --> 00:06:06,680
Speaker 1: Mermaid relics of your because that's the part I really enjoy.

108
00:06:06,760 --> 00:06:09,040
Speaker 1: I mean, I love the I love the the the

109
00:06:09,120 --> 00:06:12,000
Speaker 1: a hypothesis as well. But I think it's been important

110
00:06:12,000 --> 00:06:14,800
Speaker 1: to sort of take a step back and look at

111
00:06:14,839 --> 00:06:17,440
Speaker 1: the Mermaid myth and you know where it comes from

112
00:06:17,480 --> 00:06:22,360
Speaker 1: and uh and some of the more interesting variations on it. Um.

113
00:06:22,480 --> 00:06:25,080
Speaker 1: We can't put an actual date on the Mermaid because

114
00:06:25,120 --> 00:06:27,080
Speaker 1: the Mermaid is one of those those stories that has

115
00:06:27,120 --> 00:06:30,080
Speaker 1: existed since time out of mind. As long as humans

116
00:06:30,080 --> 00:06:34,039
Speaker 1: have lived near the sea and struggled really hard to

117
00:06:34,320 --> 00:06:38,239
Speaker 1: live with the sea to go out and and harvest

118
00:06:38,279 --> 00:06:42,360
Speaker 1: its riches. We've we've dreamed of people and or quasi

119
00:06:42,440 --> 00:06:45,359
Speaker 1: people who can do it naturally that live in the ocean,

120
00:06:45,720 --> 00:06:49,239
Speaker 1: and uh and and we've we've speculated about the mysteries

121
00:06:49,240 --> 00:06:52,120
Speaker 1: that this would entail. Um. You see a lot of

122
00:06:52,120 --> 00:06:56,520
Speaker 1: mermaids in in UH in Scottish, Welsh and Irish tales.

123
00:06:56,920 --> 00:07:00,640
Speaker 1: In the UH. In the Scottish and Welsh tales particularly, um,

124
00:07:00,720 --> 00:07:03,120
Speaker 1: you might rescue a mermaid and the mermaid would share

125
00:07:03,440 --> 00:07:07,760
Speaker 1: the secrets of various herbal cures with humans, and then

126
00:07:07,839 --> 00:07:11,840
Speaker 1: sometimes they would marry humans, but the web footed offspring

127
00:07:11,840 --> 00:07:14,560
Speaker 1: would invariably return to the ocean. And and and you see

128
00:07:14,560 --> 00:07:17,480
Speaker 1: this as a common theme too, because you know you

129
00:07:17,520 --> 00:07:20,960
Speaker 1: have some lonely men out there catching fish, and that

130
00:07:21,120 --> 00:07:24,120
Speaker 1: their minds may start to wander and they might think, wow,

131
00:07:24,160 --> 00:07:26,240
Speaker 1: you know what, have I met somebody out here? The

132
00:07:26,320 --> 00:07:29,560
Speaker 1: chances are slim, and she might be part fish, but

133
00:07:29,840 --> 00:07:32,080
Speaker 1: maybe I can find true love, if not on land,

134
00:07:32,160 --> 00:07:35,160
Speaker 1: then at sea. They didn't have mermaid match dot com

135
00:07:35,200 --> 00:07:37,800
Speaker 1: back then. No, not yet, not then, but but hopefully,

136
00:07:37,880 --> 00:07:40,680
Speaker 1: especially with this series being successful, we can start hooking

137
00:07:40,720 --> 00:07:44,239
Speaker 1: people up with mermaids and merfolk and merman uh. During

138
00:07:44,600 --> 00:07:47,560
Speaker 1: medieval times, the mermaid was considered to be an agent

139
00:07:47,600 --> 00:07:50,200
Speaker 1: of the devil in a symbol of the seat and

140
00:07:50,240 --> 00:07:52,640
Speaker 1: get this the way this would work. Often you'd see

141
00:07:52,640 --> 00:07:56,480
Speaker 1: this in you know and carving, so often church related stuff. Um,

142
00:07:57,160 --> 00:07:59,400
Speaker 1: you would see the mermaid holding a fish in the

143
00:07:59,440 --> 00:08:02,480
Speaker 1: fish some balizes the entrapment of the Christian soul that

144
00:08:02,640 --> 00:08:04,920
Speaker 1: was drawn to sin. And of course the mermaid is

145
00:08:05,000 --> 00:08:07,200
Speaker 1: very sinful because she's not wearing a top and all

146
00:08:07,240 --> 00:08:11,720
Speaker 1: that she represents lust and attractiveness and grandeur and riches,

147
00:08:11,920 --> 00:08:14,880
Speaker 1: not wearing a shell. Bra Um. No, not nothing. These

148
00:08:15,080 --> 00:08:17,480
Speaker 1: these early early face It wasn't until later until they

149
00:08:17,840 --> 00:08:21,560
Speaker 1: became tool users, I guess right. Um. Later you see

150
00:08:21,560 --> 00:08:25,160
Speaker 1: mermaids showing up in coat of arms as well. Uh Merman.

151
00:08:26,560 --> 00:08:28,600
Speaker 1: For the most part, when they're depicted, they're they're they're

152
00:08:28,600 --> 00:08:31,960
Speaker 1: generally seen as more aggressive. Uh. They're also like the mermaids,

153
00:08:31,960 --> 00:08:35,000
Speaker 1: you know, fish lower half humans upper half, but they

154
00:08:35,000 --> 00:08:38,160
Speaker 1: have a prevensity to be uglier uh up at the

155
00:08:38,280 --> 00:08:40,640
Speaker 1: up at the top. Uh. And they're also big into

156
00:08:40,720 --> 00:08:44,640
Speaker 1: like some summoning storms, pulling sailors out of ships to

157
00:08:44,679 --> 00:08:49,800
Speaker 1: their death, that kind of thing. Uh merman. Well, he

158
00:08:49,880 --> 00:08:52,680
Speaker 1: was a god, but I'm trying to remember how he

159
00:08:52,760 --> 00:08:55,240
Speaker 1: was depicted. Well, there the true Well you see depictions

160
00:08:55,280 --> 00:08:57,800
Speaker 1: of him where he is uh, where he has mermaid

161
00:08:57,920 --> 00:09:01,160
Speaker 1: esque qualities. And they're also the tris of Greek myth

162
00:09:01,440 --> 00:09:04,040
Speaker 1: which were which were offspring of gods, and they had

163
00:09:04,679 --> 00:09:06,679
Speaker 1: they had lower portions. That were they were they were

164
00:09:06,720 --> 00:09:09,680
Speaker 1: essentially mermien. Um. There were the blue There were the

165
00:09:09,679 --> 00:09:14,040
Speaker 1: blue Men of Niche, which were a humanoid uh blueskin

166
00:09:14,160 --> 00:09:18,080
Speaker 1: creatures that lived supposedly lived in deep water water caves

167
00:09:18,559 --> 00:09:20,880
Speaker 1: near the Isle of Man. Uh. They were ruled by

168
00:09:20,880 --> 00:09:24,719
Speaker 1: a chief. And the interesting thing about these guys that

169
00:09:24,760 --> 00:09:28,520
Speaker 1: they came after your ship. Um. A clever captain could

170
00:09:28,520 --> 00:09:30,920
Speaker 1: beat them with a cunning tongue he could use. He

171
00:09:30,920 --> 00:09:33,480
Speaker 1: could throw out some riddles. Get the murf the mur

172
00:09:33,600 --> 00:09:36,640
Speaker 1: folk these uh, these men of Minich thinking about the

173
00:09:36,920 --> 00:09:39,360
Speaker 1: about this and then making out with them. Uh. They're

174
00:09:39,400 --> 00:09:42,360
Speaker 1: the Nixies of Scandinavia, Germany and Switzerland. And these are

175
00:09:42,400 --> 00:09:45,640
Speaker 1: a fresh water mermaid creature, often gray or gray green

176
00:09:45,720 --> 00:09:49,880
Speaker 1: skinned um and their bodies of course terminating these fish

177
00:09:50,000 --> 00:09:53,320
Speaker 1: monstrosities as well. Uh. There are the marrows of Ireland.

178
00:09:53,360 --> 00:09:56,440
Speaker 1: And these are in these you see traditional mermaids, but

179
00:09:56,600 --> 00:10:01,800
Speaker 1: really ugly mermn They have green teeth, sharp uh, red noses,

180
00:10:01,920 --> 00:10:07,000
Speaker 1: tiny eyes, green hair, webbed fingers. But they're also shape

181
00:10:07,000 --> 00:10:09,960
Speaker 1: shifters who depend on a magical red cap. And they're

182
00:10:09,960 --> 00:10:11,760
Speaker 1: they're basically the good natured and they don't like to

183
00:10:11,880 --> 00:10:14,719
Speaker 1: they'll wander out and using their shape shifting abilities, they

184
00:10:14,760 --> 00:10:19,080
Speaker 1: may marry humans with a magical red cap. There's the

185
00:10:19,080 --> 00:10:23,000
Speaker 1: Welsh Morgan, which was a nursery boogie. Uh that was

186
00:10:23,440 --> 00:10:27,520
Speaker 1: you know, existed solely to scare children into good behaviors.

187
00:10:28,800 --> 00:10:34,800
Speaker 1: Cork Welsh nursery boogie who had abduct bad children. Uh.

188
00:10:34,880 --> 00:10:37,560
Speaker 1: They were the halfway people. These are pretty interesting. These

189
00:10:37,760 --> 00:10:40,679
Speaker 1: this was a myth of the Micmac people of eastern Canada.

190
00:10:41,320 --> 00:10:43,840
Speaker 1: And these mer people sang like a lot of because

191
00:10:44,000 --> 00:10:46,319
Speaker 1: with mermaid traditions you see a lot of the siren

192
00:10:46,360 --> 00:10:48,959
Speaker 1: in the mermaids. You know, they're these creatures that sing

193
00:10:48,960 --> 00:10:53,080
Speaker 1: beautiful songs and they lure sailors to their doom or

194
00:10:53,160 --> 00:10:56,600
Speaker 1: they're like the mermaid and they're they're summoning horrible storms. There.

195
00:10:56,640 --> 00:11:00,280
Speaker 1: Their gods are demi gods of the ocean. Well, the

196
00:11:00,280 --> 00:11:03,640
Speaker 1: the Halfway people of the of Micmac folklore. Uh. They

197
00:11:03,760 --> 00:11:06,520
Speaker 1: sang but that, but not to lure humans to their death.

198
00:11:06,640 --> 00:11:09,800
Speaker 1: They did to warn local fishermen of brewing storms. It

199
00:11:09,880 --> 00:11:12,440
Speaker 1: was only if you managed to antagonize them that they

200
00:11:12,440 --> 00:11:15,080
Speaker 1: would actually summon storms against you. And then, as I

201
00:11:15,120 --> 00:11:17,360
Speaker 1: mentioned in our episode on milk, Uh, there are a

202
00:11:17,440 --> 00:11:21,280
Speaker 1: number of different myths where you see mermaids as herdsman

203
00:11:21,400 --> 00:11:25,520
Speaker 1: or herds women for aquatic cattle beasts that may or

204
00:11:25,559 --> 00:11:29,760
Speaker 1: may not be whales. Um, they're they're various sort of

205
00:11:29,760 --> 00:11:35,280
Speaker 1: hag like creatures. There's a there's for instance, Margreger, a

206
00:11:35,360 --> 00:11:37,400
Speaker 1: mermaid made in the folks editions of the people of

207
00:11:37,440 --> 00:11:41,760
Speaker 1: Greenland that has an ugly flat face and evil eyes. Um.

208
00:11:41,800 --> 00:11:47,200
Speaker 1: There's a creature called the Canito uh in Finland, and

209
00:11:47,200 --> 00:11:49,640
Speaker 1: this was a mermaid creature with the breasts so large

210
00:11:49,679 --> 00:11:53,679
Speaker 1: that she could throw them over her shoulder. And this

211
00:11:53,760 --> 00:11:57,520
Speaker 1: is a really cool In Japan, Uh, their traditional mermaid

212
00:11:57,600 --> 00:12:01,880
Speaker 1: was called Thenno and up and basically they were enormous

213
00:12:01,920 --> 00:12:04,560
Speaker 1: fish with only the head of a beautiful woman. And

214
00:12:04,600 --> 00:12:08,960
Speaker 1: they were benevolent, protective creatures that would warn humans of

215
00:12:09,240 --> 00:12:12,840
Speaker 1: pending misfortunes, both at sea and on land. Uh. And

216
00:12:12,880 --> 00:12:15,760
Speaker 1: then the one final one to mention here, because I

217
00:12:15,760 --> 00:12:19,199
Speaker 1: imagine everyone's seen this one a lot. Uh when you

218
00:12:19,240 --> 00:12:23,720
Speaker 1: go to Starbucks, there's a there's a there's a Meliusine

219
00:12:23,800 --> 00:12:28,000
Speaker 1: or Meliusina, which is a medieval French mr Monster, daughter

220
00:12:28,040 --> 00:12:31,240
Speaker 1: of a fairy and a mortal king. Uh. In the

221
00:12:31,280 --> 00:12:35,120
Speaker 1: older depictions you'd see are addressed in medieval finery above

222
00:12:35,120 --> 00:12:36,920
Speaker 1: the waist, but then she also has the wings of

223
00:12:36,920 --> 00:12:40,480
Speaker 1: a dragon in this double serpentine fish tail below the waist.

224
00:12:41,000 --> 00:12:43,400
Speaker 1: And you see this creature showing up in a lot

225
00:12:43,400 --> 00:12:48,040
Speaker 1: of coat coat of arms, but also most notably at Starbucks.

226
00:12:48,480 --> 00:12:51,640
Speaker 1: You know, I actually have a Mermaian at home. Yeah,

227
00:12:51,760 --> 00:12:53,920
Speaker 1: I could you not? Well, I mean not obviously a

228
00:12:54,000 --> 00:12:58,000
Speaker 1: real Mermaian, but it is because not your husband, because

229
00:12:58,040 --> 00:13:01,840
Speaker 1: I saw him walking on two legs acincing like daggers

230
00:13:01,840 --> 00:13:06,520
Speaker 1: were in his his legs or in his feet. Um. Yeah, Actually,

231
00:13:06,600 --> 00:13:09,839
Speaker 1: I've got an old carney ride, or it was. It's

232
00:13:09,880 --> 00:13:12,719
Speaker 1: a carved wood mermaids about five ft long, and it's

233
00:13:12,720 --> 00:13:14,760
Speaker 1: got a little cut out in the center where kids

234
00:13:14,880 --> 00:13:17,840
Speaker 1: can get in and ride. But it's obviously they are

235
00:13:17,880 --> 00:13:20,440
Speaker 1: all linked together. But I have just one and it

236
00:13:20,559 --> 00:13:23,680
Speaker 1: is terrifying, and it has huge glass eyes. Someone put

237
00:13:23,679 --> 00:13:25,400
Speaker 1: glass eyes in it, and my daughter hates it, but

238
00:13:25,480 --> 00:13:32,680
Speaker 1: it hangs exactly right. It was her cradle first. I'm kidding, um,

239
00:13:32,720 --> 00:13:35,760
Speaker 1: but yeah, I mean we definitely have had a relationship

240
00:13:35,840 --> 00:13:39,640
Speaker 1: with this idea of of mermaids and um, you know,

241
00:13:39,720 --> 00:13:42,360
Speaker 1: it's pervaded our culture. And I think that that that

242
00:13:42,360 --> 00:13:45,079
Speaker 1: that bit of wood sculpture I have is from like

243
00:13:45,120 --> 00:13:49,760
Speaker 1: the nineties or something so like sort of Fiji mermaid days. Yeah,

244
00:13:50,200 --> 00:13:53,040
Speaker 1: which I sent you a picture earlier. Just a real

245
00:13:53,120 --> 00:13:57,240
Speaker 1: quick on modern mermaids as we see them in films. Um,

246
00:13:57,320 --> 00:14:01,200
Speaker 1: in the rob zombie horror movie House of a Thousand Corpses,

247
00:14:01,600 --> 00:14:04,640
Speaker 1: you get to see a pre Dwight shoot Rain Wilson

248
00:14:05,200 --> 00:14:08,160
Speaker 1: um sewn to a fish as a as a a

249
00:14:08,400 --> 00:14:14,439
Speaker 1: Fiji mermaid. It's pretty It made me kind of scream inside.

250
00:14:14,760 --> 00:14:17,400
Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean these Fiji mermaids were something that

251
00:14:17,480 --> 00:14:22,880
Speaker 1: we're we're often pro offered by Huckster's right, the turn

252
00:14:22,880 --> 00:14:25,800
Speaker 1: of the center. Fish, you get a monkey, you sew

253
00:14:25,840 --> 00:14:28,760
Speaker 1: them together. Uh. You know, corpses, you haven't kind of

254
00:14:28,760 --> 00:14:31,600
Speaker 1: preserved they either you know, dried out or maybe I

255
00:14:31,640 --> 00:14:33,560
Speaker 1: guess you could also most of them you see dried

256
00:14:33,560 --> 00:14:35,800
Speaker 1: out and kind of mounted and stuff. But I guess

257
00:14:35,800 --> 00:14:37,600
Speaker 1: you could also have put them in from how the

258
00:14:37,640 --> 00:14:40,240
Speaker 1: height if you wanted to. Uh, and then you so, hey,

259
00:14:40,280 --> 00:14:44,040
Speaker 1: here's the actual proof that mermaids existing, people would panicle

260
00:14:44,080 --> 00:14:45,680
Speaker 1: for it, right, and you know, back in the day

261
00:14:45,680 --> 00:14:48,160
Speaker 1: when you didn't necessarily have a lot of evidence, Um,

262
00:14:48,320 --> 00:14:50,920
Speaker 1: that was like, oh good, yeah, but that is that

263
00:14:50,960 --> 00:14:53,600
Speaker 1: could be a mermaid, all right. So that was an

264
00:14:53,600 --> 00:14:59,600
Speaker 1: older sort of scientific, if you will, proof that mermaids

265
00:15:00,120 --> 00:15:03,440
Speaker 1: did exist or could exist, because here is this body. Uh,

266
00:15:03,520 --> 00:15:06,760
Speaker 1: you examine it, you realize it doesn't really hold up. Uh.

267
00:15:06,800 --> 00:15:10,280
Speaker 1: Today we have a similar situation with the aquatic Gate.

268
00:15:10,360 --> 00:15:12,600
Speaker 1: We should probably take a quick break, but when we

269
00:15:12,640 --> 00:15:17,400
Speaker 1: come back, we will perform a necropsy on the idea

270
00:15:17,800 --> 00:15:25,960
Speaker 1: of the aquatic days. All right, we're back, so you

271
00:15:26,000 --> 00:15:29,280
Speaker 1: can imagine this here in our our podcast studio, and

272
00:15:29,280 --> 00:15:31,760
Speaker 1: and stretched out before us on the table is the

273
00:15:31,800 --> 00:15:34,960
Speaker 1: aquatic Gate. Uh. And we are going to cut this apart,

274
00:15:35,160 --> 00:15:38,120
Speaker 1: look at it, feel it, uh, and see which parts

275
00:15:39,160 --> 00:15:43,080
Speaker 1: feel truthful, which parts feel made up, which parts feel

276
00:15:43,120 --> 00:15:45,280
Speaker 1: like a fish, which parts feel like a human. Let's

277
00:15:45,360 --> 00:15:49,480
Speaker 1: time travel first. Okay, a million years ago, million years

278
00:15:49,640 --> 00:15:52,840
Speaker 1: the earth is. You know, there's earthquakes, there's all sorts

279
00:15:52,840 --> 00:15:57,400
Speaker 1: of crazy things going on. There's coastal flooding. Okay, and

280
00:15:57,520 --> 00:16:00,320
Speaker 1: it's kind of like our future. It's much like her

281
00:16:00,360 --> 00:16:04,360
Speaker 1: path right. Uh. And so the idea, this, this aquatic

282
00:16:04,400 --> 00:16:10,960
Speaker 1: ape idea, is that hominin hominins, hominal hominins split off

283
00:16:11,000 --> 00:16:15,840
Speaker 1: from terrestrial apes millions of years ago and because of

284
00:16:15,840 --> 00:16:18,400
Speaker 1: this this coastal flooding and they were treated into the water,

285
00:16:18,720 --> 00:16:22,760
Speaker 1: evolving into aquatic creatures somewhat related to humans. So it's

286
00:16:22,800 --> 00:16:24,400
Speaker 1: kind of like it's kind of like in the morning,

287
00:16:24,720 --> 00:16:26,640
Speaker 1: you wake up, you get out of bed, you realize

288
00:16:26,640 --> 00:16:29,160
Speaker 1: you're too tired, you don't really like the waking world,

289
00:16:29,160 --> 00:16:30,760
Speaker 1: so you creep back into bed for a little bit.

290
00:16:30,760 --> 00:16:35,640
Speaker 1: It's it's similar. Mammals have have have risen out of

291
00:16:35,640 --> 00:16:38,320
Speaker 1: the ocean. They've they've they've come onto the land, and

292
00:16:38,360 --> 00:16:41,520
Speaker 1: then for whatever reason, they decide this is not working out.

293
00:16:41,520 --> 00:16:43,360
Speaker 1: I'm gonna actually go back in the water now, which

294
00:16:43,360 --> 00:16:46,280
Speaker 1: is something you see with with whales and dolphins. So

295
00:16:47,640 --> 00:16:50,280
Speaker 1: taking that argument and uh and saying hey, maybe it

296
00:16:50,360 --> 00:16:53,520
Speaker 1: happened with apes as well, taking the argument and then

297
00:16:53,640 --> 00:16:58,040
Speaker 1: even saying like okay, well what about our lack of

298
00:16:58,080 --> 00:17:00,640
Speaker 1: body hair. Yeah, we think that we can. You know,

299
00:17:00,640 --> 00:17:05,080
Speaker 1: proponents of this idea and our idea, we grew body here,

300
00:17:05,119 --> 00:17:08,880
Speaker 1: we evolved into hairy creatures when we initially came out

301
00:17:08,880 --> 00:17:11,840
Speaker 1: of the the the oceans of the the primordial earth,

302
00:17:12,480 --> 00:17:15,480
Speaker 1: and then when we returned, we lost that hair because

303
00:17:15,520 --> 00:17:18,000
Speaker 1: it was unnecessary. Uh. And then you can point to

304
00:17:18,040 --> 00:17:20,440
Speaker 1: examples like a hippo or a dolphin and say, look,

305
00:17:20,480 --> 00:17:23,840
Speaker 1: there you go, an aquatic mammal doesn't have hair, and

306
00:17:23,880 --> 00:17:25,719
Speaker 1: that is why we don't have hair, because we used

307
00:17:25,760 --> 00:17:29,119
Speaker 1: to be merc creatures. Well, but people would say some

308
00:17:29,119 --> 00:17:31,159
Speaker 1: people would say that doesn't really add up in your

309
00:17:31,200 --> 00:17:34,840
Speaker 1: kind of cherry picking details. You're kind of choosing with

310
00:17:34,880 --> 00:17:39,439
Speaker 1: your with your aquatic mammals too, because otters are pretty hairy,

311
00:17:39,560 --> 00:17:42,040
Speaker 1: beavers are pretty hairy. I mean, these are all aquatic

312
00:17:42,080 --> 00:17:46,359
Speaker 1: mammals that have kept a very you know, thick coat

313
00:17:46,440 --> 00:17:49,520
Speaker 1: of hair. Right, And then you have the problem of

314
00:17:50,080 --> 00:17:53,040
Speaker 1: evolution itself in terms of like, well, how could this

315
00:17:53,080 --> 00:17:55,960
Speaker 1: occur in this time period? Because if it took whales

316
00:17:56,119 --> 00:18:00,000
Speaker 1: from from going to terrestrial to aquatic beings ten million years,

317
00:18:00,760 --> 00:18:02,600
Speaker 1: how could it be that, you know, in a million

318
00:18:02,680 --> 00:18:06,359
Speaker 1: years that this could happen with with apes aquatic apes,

319
00:18:06,960 --> 00:18:09,280
Speaker 1: So that that's obviously one of the big questions that

320
00:18:09,320 --> 00:18:13,399
Speaker 1: comes up um as well is is the philogenny that

321
00:18:13,520 --> 00:18:18,200
Speaker 1: this tree of life concept of organisms um that are

322
00:18:18,400 --> 00:18:21,800
Speaker 1: are detailed by us and they are cold from evidence

323
00:18:21,880 --> 00:18:26,439
Speaker 1: from morphological, biochemical, and gene sequenced data. Right, So this

324
00:18:26,520 --> 00:18:30,080
Speaker 1: aquatic ape actually would exist outside of this organization, and

325
00:18:30,160 --> 00:18:34,080
Speaker 1: this organization this philogenny is really the bedrock the central

326
00:18:34,119 --> 00:18:38,800
Speaker 1: idea of evolution. So that's spotty too. Yeah, and another

327
00:18:38,920 --> 00:18:41,720
Speaker 1: some of the other things that are thrown out there

328
00:18:41,800 --> 00:18:44,320
Speaker 1: is is proof of the aquatic ape theory. Are are

329
00:18:44,320 --> 00:18:46,640
Speaker 1: pretty suspect as well, Like the idea that, oh, well,

330
00:18:46,640 --> 00:18:49,240
Speaker 1: look look at the human body. It's so it's a

331
00:18:49,359 --> 00:18:51,679
Speaker 1: streamlined clearly it was made to swim. Well, not so

332
00:18:51,760 --> 00:18:54,480
Speaker 1: much because you look at at truly aquatic mammals and

333
00:18:54,480 --> 00:18:56,600
Speaker 1: they tend to have more of the torpedo shape. Well,

334
00:18:56,600 --> 00:18:59,280
Speaker 1: and it's actually pretty hard for us to swim in general,

335
00:18:59,440 --> 00:19:01,280
Speaker 1: right like such, and other people say, oh, we're such

336
00:19:01,320 --> 00:19:04,520
Speaker 1: great swimmers, and we're not really great swimmers. I mean,

337
00:19:04,520 --> 00:19:09,560
Speaker 1: Michael Phelps maybe, but but he is aside, everyone else

338
00:19:09,680 --> 00:19:12,800
Speaker 1: is kind of kind of lacking. Okay, so we've talked

339
00:19:12,800 --> 00:19:15,680
Speaker 1: about aquatic apes. Let's talk about the mermaid problem. The

340
00:19:15,760 --> 00:19:18,960
Speaker 1: mermaid problem like as then we have a mermaid problem,

341
00:19:19,000 --> 00:19:21,120
Speaker 1: and we need to put out some traps to catch

342
00:19:21,160 --> 00:19:24,679
Speaker 1: some mermaids. Yeah, some combat, little huge traps, right that

343
00:19:24,720 --> 00:19:27,160
Speaker 1: you just put behind your kitchen counter or your bathtube,

344
00:19:27,359 --> 00:19:30,119
Speaker 1: because they're going to show some lobsters and some shells

345
00:19:30,119 --> 00:19:32,160
Speaker 1: in there and a little bit of gold and they'll

346
00:19:32,160 --> 00:19:35,080
Speaker 1: be attracted, you know. Now. The mermaid problem is this

347
00:19:35,160 --> 00:19:37,639
Speaker 1: idea is that if they really existed, then what about

348
00:19:37,960 --> 00:19:42,560
Speaker 1: their reproductive abilities? Um? And this is also it's kind

349
00:19:42,600 --> 00:19:44,879
Speaker 1: of like what we got into with the center. Yeah,

350
00:19:45,680 --> 00:19:47,920
Speaker 1: where is it going to go? How's it gonna work? Yeah?

351
00:19:48,000 --> 00:19:52,760
Speaker 1: Because human human and equine biologies rather rather different, and

352
00:19:52,840 --> 00:19:55,360
Speaker 1: you if you try to merge the two, it's problematic.

353
00:19:55,560 --> 00:19:58,160
Speaker 1: Even more so when you're trying to combine a human

354
00:19:58,200 --> 00:20:02,080
Speaker 1: and a fish. Yeah. Uh. And um, here's the thing too.

355
00:20:02,080 --> 00:20:05,040
Speaker 1: If you've got the torso of a human and the

356
00:20:05,080 --> 00:20:07,679
Speaker 1: trunk of the fish tail, then you've got all sorts

357
00:20:07,720 --> 00:20:11,679
Speaker 1: of logistical nightmare problems going on here, because apparently if

358
00:20:11,720 --> 00:20:13,359
Speaker 1: you've got the breast, then there's going to be some

359
00:20:13,400 --> 00:20:16,480
Speaker 1: sort of lactation going on, right, And then if you've

360
00:20:16,520 --> 00:20:19,399
Speaker 1: got a navel, then that suggests that there's going to

361
00:20:19,440 --> 00:20:22,920
Speaker 1: be some sort of umbilical cord tied to any sort

362
00:20:22,920 --> 00:20:27,240
Speaker 1: of progeny. So then you look at the tail itself

363
00:20:27,400 --> 00:20:30,840
Speaker 1: and you say, ah, where where would all the stuff go?

364
00:20:31,119 --> 00:20:34,480
Speaker 1: Where would all the genitalia go? And you can look

365
00:20:34,520 --> 00:20:36,639
Speaker 1: to something like a dolphin, for instance, and you can

366
00:20:36,640 --> 00:20:39,240
Speaker 1: say that there could be a genitalia slit much like

367
00:20:39,280 --> 00:20:42,520
Speaker 1: there's with a dolphin, But that still doesn't all sort

368
00:20:42,520 --> 00:20:47,240
Speaker 1: of line up with how would um with the torso

369
00:20:47,280 --> 00:20:49,959
Speaker 1: of human and this idea of a umbilical cord, how

370
00:20:50,000 --> 00:20:54,280
Speaker 1: would all this work together? Yeah, it's it's really hard

371
00:20:54,320 --> 00:20:56,959
Speaker 1: to to try and form a like a full theory

372
00:20:57,480 --> 00:21:02,520
Speaker 1: of mermaid anatomy. Yeah, and yet because people have been

373
00:21:02,600 --> 00:21:07,040
Speaker 1: so entranced by this idea of mermaids, especially lately, UM

374
00:21:07,240 --> 00:21:11,880
Speaker 1: Noah has actually put up a special fact sheet about

375
00:21:12,080 --> 00:21:15,000
Speaker 1: mermaids and they went to to the links to say,

376
00:21:15,280 --> 00:21:21,080
Speaker 1: no mermaids have ever been found. Just about that, I mean,

377
00:21:21,119 --> 00:21:24,000
Speaker 1: certainly throughout history to humans have I mean, part of

378
00:21:24,040 --> 00:21:26,320
Speaker 1: it has been this sort of dream of what would

379
00:21:26,320 --> 00:21:27,840
Speaker 1: it be like if there were people in the in

380
00:21:27,880 --> 00:21:29,520
Speaker 1: the ocean, and what would it be like if I

381
00:21:29,560 --> 00:21:32,720
Speaker 1: could need a beautiful woman out here in the sea.

382
00:21:32,920 --> 00:21:34,480
Speaker 1: But then the other. The other part of that, we've

383
00:21:34,600 --> 00:21:37,639
Speaker 1: we've often seen other creatures from a distance. We've seen

384
00:21:37,800 --> 00:21:41,920
Speaker 1: seals or sea lions or manatees and uh, and we've

385
00:21:41,960 --> 00:21:45,520
Speaker 1: fooled ourselves into thinking that we saw something that was

386
00:21:46,200 --> 00:21:48,840
Speaker 1: half man and half fish. Right. And here's the other

387
00:21:48,880 --> 00:21:52,560
Speaker 1: problem with this. If if mermaids are are going to

388
00:21:52,640 --> 00:21:55,760
Speaker 1: be uh, this new species, this this idea that there

389
00:21:55,760 --> 00:21:58,959
Speaker 1: would be a new species, and um, they would be

390
00:21:58,960 --> 00:22:01,600
Speaker 1: connected to this bluep sound that we talked about. And

391
00:22:01,680 --> 00:22:04,200
Speaker 1: we'll get more into that. Um. In order to produce

392
00:22:04,280 --> 00:22:07,080
Speaker 1: that bluop song sound, they would have to be at

393
00:22:07,119 --> 00:22:10,680
Speaker 1: least a hundred and ten feet long, longer than any

394
00:22:10,760 --> 00:22:13,560
Speaker 1: other known organism, so that you would think that you'd

395
00:22:13,560 --> 00:22:17,400
Speaker 1: be able to spot that pretty easily, right, Um, Which

396
00:22:17,760 --> 00:22:20,520
Speaker 1: that gets into this whole blup idea in the first place.

397
00:22:20,600 --> 00:22:24,440
Speaker 1: We talked about this before in our Underwater Sounds podcast,

398
00:22:24,800 --> 00:22:27,400
Speaker 1: but just to bring it up again. The blue sound

399
00:22:27,480 --> 00:22:32,000
Speaker 1: was actually recorded in originated from a point about fift

400
00:22:32,480 --> 00:22:36,080
Speaker 1: miles west of the southern Chilean coast, and it was

401
00:22:36,119 --> 00:22:38,959
Speaker 1: powerful enough to be picked up on sensors located up

402
00:22:38,960 --> 00:22:41,040
Speaker 1: to three thousand miles away. Now there are a bunch

403
00:22:41,080 --> 00:22:44,920
Speaker 1: of different sounds that um that Noah has picked up

404
00:22:45,000 --> 00:22:50,040
Speaker 1: and has catalogued. But this is and remains an unidentified sound.

405
00:22:50,600 --> 00:22:54,040
Speaker 1: And um, there is this idea that the sound profile

406
00:22:54,240 --> 00:22:59,760
Speaker 1: sounds animalistic, but we're not quite sure. You know. Again,

407
00:22:59,800 --> 00:23:04,360
Speaker 1: there's there's the morphology problem. If this emanated from an animal,

408
00:23:04,440 --> 00:23:07,560
Speaker 1: it's got to be huge, a huge animal that would

409
00:23:07,600 --> 00:23:10,359
Speaker 1: be easily spotted, right and would have to have would

410
00:23:10,400 --> 00:23:14,360
Speaker 1: have to work fit into the ecosystem itself. Um, which

411
00:23:14,359 --> 00:23:16,040
Speaker 1: is which is another thing you get into when you're

412
00:23:16,119 --> 00:23:20,320
Speaker 1: we're talking about any cryptozoological creature via a a mermaid

413
00:23:20,440 --> 00:23:23,720
Speaker 1: or bigfoot. Um, you know where where how is that?

414
00:23:23,720 --> 00:23:26,200
Speaker 1: How would this fit into a given ecosystem? Where where

415
00:23:26,280 --> 00:23:29,480
Speaker 1: is its uh it's protection particular niche in the system

416
00:23:29,560 --> 00:23:32,400
Speaker 1: at large and uh and and often that that's where

417
00:23:32,400 --> 00:23:34,360
Speaker 1: you see a lot of big holes. We'd be like, well,

418
00:23:34,400 --> 00:23:36,240
Speaker 1: we would we would have observed it because there would

419
00:23:36,240 --> 00:23:38,720
Speaker 1: be ex number of them. We would uh you know,

420
00:23:38,760 --> 00:23:42,760
Speaker 1: we would we would see evidence of their feeding. Yeah,

421
00:23:42,800 --> 00:23:45,240
Speaker 1: and so you know the the animal planets, Uh, what

422
00:23:45,359 --> 00:23:49,239
Speaker 1: if scenario of of mermaids definitely entertaining. But you can

423
00:23:49,320 --> 00:23:51,600
Speaker 1: kind of see how when you start to look at

424
00:23:51,680 --> 00:23:55,600
Speaker 1: some of those details in earnest um. I mean, and

425
00:23:55,680 --> 00:23:57,919
Speaker 1: everybody knows that they're not for real anyway, but you

426
00:23:57,920 --> 00:24:01,320
Speaker 1: can see how the the sort of organism probably would

427
00:24:01,480 --> 00:24:03,840
Speaker 1: never exist. Yeah. But I love the idea of just

428
00:24:03,880 --> 00:24:07,040
Speaker 1: getting people talking about it, you know, like just you know,

429
00:24:07,080 --> 00:24:09,639
Speaker 1: get get people drawn into to view a show about

430
00:24:09,640 --> 00:24:12,080
Speaker 1: mermaids and then uh, you know, then let's discuss the

431
00:24:12,119 --> 00:24:15,080
Speaker 1: science of it. Let's uh, I mean, it's it's good

432
00:24:15,080 --> 00:24:17,159
Speaker 1: food for thought, all right. You know, I'm gonna be

433
00:24:17,200 --> 00:24:19,600
Speaker 1: a total downer here too, Okay, Okay, I'm gonna say

434
00:24:19,600 --> 00:24:21,440
Speaker 1: to the other thing that I think that it does

435
00:24:21,520 --> 00:24:24,760
Speaker 1: and inadvertently is to throw a little light on this

436
00:24:24,880 --> 00:24:28,280
Speaker 1: problem of sonar. As you say, um, you know, this

437
00:24:28,320 --> 00:24:31,480
Speaker 1: has been a concern with with naval testing and just

438
00:24:31,680 --> 00:24:35,160
Speaker 1: general noise pollution in the oceans. Yeah, and as you say,

439
00:24:35,240 --> 00:24:40,399
Speaker 1: dolphins oils they use echo location um and just um.

440
00:24:40,440 --> 00:24:44,119
Speaker 1: Just not too long ago, earth Watch reported that three

441
00:24:44,119 --> 00:24:47,680
Speaker 1: thousand dolphins were found dead along the coast of Peru,

442
00:24:47,840 --> 00:24:50,920
Speaker 1: and they were killed by deep water sonar sonar systems

443
00:24:51,040 --> 00:24:56,880
Speaker 1: using seabed oil. UM exploration and researchers at the Organization

444
00:24:57,000 --> 00:24:59,840
Speaker 1: for the Conservation of Aquatic Animals says that they found

445
00:25:00,000 --> 00:25:03,600
Speaker 1: image in the dolphins middle earbones which was caused by

446
00:25:03,720 --> 00:25:07,800
Speaker 1: ships son are blast and these acoustic booms actually disorient

447
00:25:07,880 --> 00:25:10,920
Speaker 1: the animals and they produce hemorrhages and this is why

448
00:25:10,960 --> 00:25:14,880
Speaker 1: they beached themselves. So actually, uh, the Animal Planet show

449
00:25:14,920 --> 00:25:18,359
Speaker 1: does go into detail about this in the fictionalized account. Um,

450
00:25:18,400 --> 00:25:20,840
Speaker 1: but I did think it was important to to bring

451
00:25:20,840 --> 00:25:23,480
Speaker 1: this up, that that that is an actual, you know,

452
00:25:23,520 --> 00:25:27,000
Speaker 1: part of the show, that that does have um, a

453
00:25:27,080 --> 00:25:30,600
Speaker 1: foundation in reality. Downer Yeah, yeah, kind of a downer.

454
00:25:30,720 --> 00:25:34,120
Speaker 1: And plus mermaids don't exist, so there's that too. So

455
00:25:34,160 --> 00:25:37,320
Speaker 1: I'm sorry for for anyone who was listening hoping for

456
00:25:37,320 --> 00:25:39,600
Speaker 1: for something different, but it would it would have been

457
00:25:39,640 --> 00:25:41,480
Speaker 1: kind of jerky if we hadn't just come clean on

458
00:25:41,520 --> 00:25:43,200
Speaker 1: that and said, well, they might have existed, because I

459
00:25:43,200 --> 00:25:45,440
Speaker 1: don't want to build up false hope, especially for those

460
00:25:45,480 --> 00:25:48,440
Speaker 1: lonely sailors out there who are listening to this podcast. Yeah,

461
00:25:48,480 --> 00:25:50,160
Speaker 1: but you don't want to be at a cocktail party

462
00:25:50,200 --> 00:25:55,639
Speaker 1: and start like dropping mermaid fats, you know. Ah, the

463
00:25:55,680 --> 00:25:58,000
Speaker 1: mermaids are are they continue to just be a really

464
00:25:58,000 --> 00:26:01,119
Speaker 1: fascinating creature at least you know, in the in the

465
00:26:01,160 --> 00:26:03,840
Speaker 1: mind and whether you're just thinking about it as as

466
00:26:03,880 --> 00:26:07,000
Speaker 1: a folk tale idea or is a possible scientific reality,

467
00:26:07,080 --> 00:26:10,199
Speaker 1: or as a it's just a fodder for for movies.

468
00:26:10,560 --> 00:26:14,280
Speaker 1: A couple of other film mermaids that come to mind. Uh.

469
00:26:14,320 --> 00:26:17,000
Speaker 1: There was a movie called The She Creature years ago.

470
00:26:17,000 --> 00:26:19,560
Speaker 1: I believe it had rufus Sewel in it and uh,

471
00:26:19,800 --> 00:26:23,800
Speaker 1: and it was like an old timy horror story on

472
00:26:23,840 --> 00:26:26,560
Speaker 1: a boat, and there was like a mysterious mermaid, but

473
00:26:26,640 --> 00:26:29,720
Speaker 1: she had like a dual nature, so sometimes she looked like, uh,

474
00:26:29,760 --> 00:26:33,120
Speaker 1: you know, typical pretty lady on the top, half fish

475
00:26:33,160 --> 00:26:35,120
Speaker 1: on the lower, and but then she would also turn

476
00:26:35,160 --> 00:26:37,800
Speaker 1: into this aquatic monster that kind of looked like a

477
00:26:37,800 --> 00:26:40,560
Speaker 1: Fiji mermaid. Uh. And then there was a there was

478
00:26:40,600 --> 00:26:45,080
Speaker 1: another film that came out called Dagon, which loosely based

479
00:26:45,280 --> 00:26:49,040
Speaker 1: on HP Lovecraft's uh the Shadow over in Smith and

480
00:26:49,080 --> 00:26:53,720
Speaker 1: some of the other aquatic horror tales and uh this

481
00:26:53,880 --> 00:26:55,840
Speaker 1: uh it was this movie was kind of a mixed bag,

482
00:26:56,080 --> 00:26:59,240
Speaker 1: but it did depict a mermaid with that double tail

483
00:26:59,800 --> 00:27:02,760
Speaker 1: the star about stage, which is kind of neat. So

484
00:27:03,080 --> 00:27:06,879
Speaker 1: if you ever find yourself, uh considering picking up that film,

485
00:27:07,160 --> 00:27:09,080
Speaker 1: it has some moments that work, and you do get

486
00:27:09,080 --> 00:27:11,600
Speaker 1: to see a a double tailed mermaid in it. So

487
00:27:11,920 --> 00:27:14,920
Speaker 1: there's that. I really wish that Splash would be remade

488
00:27:15,560 --> 00:27:20,719
Speaker 1: with droll Hannah and uh, Quentin Tarantino would direct it

489
00:27:21,560 --> 00:27:26,080
Speaker 1: a horror film or she's just okay, that's a horror film, now, okay,

490
00:27:26,280 --> 00:27:29,520
Speaker 1: horror film. Yes, there's a lot of I mean, it

491
00:27:29,600 --> 00:27:31,399
Speaker 1: clicks because clearly you look at the folk tales as

492
00:27:31,600 --> 00:27:33,280
Speaker 1: there are many of these stories where it's like the

493
00:27:33,280 --> 00:27:36,280
Speaker 1: Mermaid is there, the mer people are dragging humans down

494
00:27:36,920 --> 00:27:39,920
Speaker 1: and they're you know, to some watery hell of drowned sailors.

495
00:27:39,960 --> 00:27:42,240
Speaker 1: There's there's all sorts of horrible stuff with the Mermaid.

496
00:27:42,720 --> 00:27:45,880
Speaker 1: It seems like you would see more horror tales involving

497
00:27:45,920 --> 00:27:50,200
Speaker 1: them rather than just straight up fantasy. But well maybe

498
00:27:50,200 --> 00:27:51,760
Speaker 1: we will. But then again, you said, you said that

499
00:27:51,800 --> 00:27:54,760
Speaker 1: in the Christian's Christian Anderson there was more more horror

500
00:27:54,760 --> 00:27:57,560
Speaker 1: than we have. There's always horror and gore. Yes, yes,

501
00:27:57,840 --> 00:28:00,080
Speaker 1: so there you go. Mermaids. You can check out the

502
00:28:00,080 --> 00:28:02,800
Speaker 1: show on Animal Planet and you can also write into

503
00:28:02,920 --> 00:28:05,040
Speaker 1: us and like, let us know what you think about Mermaids.

504
00:28:05,080 --> 00:28:07,680
Speaker 1: Do you have particular thoughts about mermaids and folk tales,

505
00:28:08,040 --> 00:28:11,680
Speaker 1: mermaids and legend and myth, Mermaids at the cinema, I

506
00:28:11,720 --> 00:28:14,800
Speaker 1: don't know, mermaids in video games? Where wherever mermaids gathered?

507
00:28:14,840 --> 00:28:17,240
Speaker 1: Mermaids in space, mermaids in space. I'm not sure how

508
00:28:17,280 --> 00:28:20,240
Speaker 1: that would work, but I'm all for it. Um. And

509
00:28:20,280 --> 00:28:23,440
Speaker 1: there you know there's actually um. I forgot to mention

510
00:28:23,480 --> 00:28:26,840
Speaker 1: the merror creature that is a half pope. I should

511
00:28:26,840 --> 00:28:31,680
Speaker 1: have like the pontiff. Yeah, is this in the pontiff?

512
00:28:31,680 --> 00:28:33,280
Speaker 1: I'll have to throw him on the block press because

513
00:28:33,280 --> 00:28:36,320
Speaker 1: he's pretty cool. But yeah, they're They're just countless cool

514
00:28:36,359 --> 00:28:38,760
Speaker 1: mermaids from history. Um, So let us know what you

515
00:28:38,760 --> 00:28:40,040
Speaker 1: think about that. Let us know what you think about

516
00:28:40,040 --> 00:28:44,600
Speaker 1: this aquatic eight uh theory slash hypothesis. If you have

517
00:28:44,640 --> 00:28:46,240
Speaker 1: any thoughts on that, we'd love to hear from you.

518
00:28:46,240 --> 00:28:48,560
Speaker 1: You can find us on Facebook, where we are stuff

519
00:28:48,600 --> 00:28:50,440
Speaker 1: to blow your Mind, and you can also find us

520
00:28:50,440 --> 00:28:53,080
Speaker 1: on Twitter, where we go under the handle below the mind,

521
00:28:53,440 --> 00:28:55,520
Speaker 1: and you can always drop us a line at blew

522
00:28:55,560 --> 00:29:04,040
Speaker 1: the Mind at house to coorts dot com. For more

523
00:29:04,080 --> 00:29:06,960
Speaker 1: on this and thousands of other topics, visit Howstuff Works

524
00:29:06,960 --> 00:29:11,960
Speaker 1: dot com