I have always thought I would like to be a mermaid. I often wonder if I might have been a mermaid or some other type of naiad in a previous life. I love to swim. I feel like I am in my element when I am cavorting and frolicking in a lake or spring, or even the sea. That is about the only time that I feel “graceful.”

This past August (2009), a series of mermaid sightings began to be reported in the coastal town of Kiryat Yam, in Israel. There have been several dozens of sightings of a female mermaid in this coastal town by the Mediterranean Sea, near Haifa.

Shlomo Cohen, one of the first eyewitnesses, says that he saw the mythical creature one day when he was hanging out with friends on a late evening in August, near sunset.

Cohen and his group saw a figure lying on the beach that appeared to be female. Initially, they assumed it was just another person enjoying the beach and the sea, although her body did appear to be positioned in an odd manner on the sand.

When they drew nearer to the form, “she jumped into the water and disappeared.”

Cohen stated that they “were all in shock” because “she had a tail.”

Evidently, over the last several months, there have been a significant number of sightings of the mermaid on this beach, always near sunset.

All of the witnesses indicate that the creature looks to be a combination of a fish and a young girl. Some bystanders called her “beautiful.” Another gentleman showed a picture of a rather unattractive “corpse of a creature” said to be a mermaid found not long ago in Teluk Pahang, Malaysia, and claimed the Israeli mermaid looks similar to that.

Evidently, the mermaid even performs dolphin-like tricks and smiles for the bystanders for a few moments before disappearing beneath the Mediterranean Sea “for the night.”

The local government of Kiryat Yam is currently offering a million dollar reward for a legitimate photograph of the mermaid.

Natti Zilberman, town spokesman, states that a real mermaid would bring in many people and the reward money would be “well-spent.”

References:

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2009/08/17/hancocks.israel.mermaid.cnn

http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/story?id=8310324&page=1&page=1

http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/viewnews.php?id=160568

http://www.livescience.com/strangenews/090813-bad-mermaid.html