It’s truly hard to ignore the role mermaids have played throughout history. They exist in legends and folklore in all parts of the world. There are documented mermaid sightings throughout history as well, with some as recent as the last 100 years! Here are the most popular documented sightings of mermaids that could have happened in your lifetime.
1943 Kei Islands
Japanese soldiers stationed on the Kei Islands in Indonesia had multiple encounters with mermaids in 1943. The villagers called these creatures “Orang Ikan.” In Malay, Orang means “human,” and Ikan means “fish.”
The soldiers had some interesting stories to share about these creatures while on patrol. Sergeant Taro Horiba, who was stationed at the time on the Kei Islands, instructed the village chief to inform him immediately if any Orang Ikan were captured. That day came, and Sergeant Horiba laid eyes on what he describes as:
“Roughly 4-foot 9-inches tall, pinkish skin, human-looking face and limbs, spikes along its head, and a mouth like a carp.”
Sergeant Taro Horiba tried to get the scientific community involved to validate the sightings, but nothing ever happened.
1967 British Columbia, Canada
A group of tourists on a ferry in Canada reported this sighting. They claimed to see a mermaid with silvery blonde hair. She was eating a salmon and seemed to enjoy the waves crashing over her tail.
The local city offered a $25,000 reward for the mermaid, but no one came forward. There were some who saw the mermaid and swore she was real, but others thought it was a hoax. What do you think?
1998 Kaiwi Point, Hawaii
Jeff Leicher, a diver who operates the Jack’s Diving Locker off Kaiwi Point said, “I feel very lucky that I’m the one to finally prove to the world what people here have known for half a century.”
He claims that “the Kaiwi Point Mermaid is real.”
While diving off the coast, he reported being in the water and hearing the 10 people in the boat screaming and pointing. Looking over, he thought he saw a strange woman swimming. He saw her leap into the air and discovered the lower half of her body was of a fish.
Later on, he was taking photos of underwater life and felt the water moving above him. Looking up, he took a picture of the mermaid for proof.
Click here to read the full story and see pictures.
2009 Israel
In 2009, about a dozen people in Kiryat Yam, Israel claimed to see a mermaid frolicking in the waves near the shore. This was not a one-time event, there were several mermaid sightings over the course of a few months. The Israel government took notice and actually issued a one million dollar reward for anyone that could capture real footage of the mermaid!
No one ever turned in any evidence, but people are still on the lookout today.
2012 Zimbabwe
Apparently, some mermaids just want to be left alone. In 2012, workers were building a dam in Zimbabwe. However, a pesky mermaid spooked the workers, and they refused to finish the project. Water resources minister Sam Sipepa Nkomo told the Senate Committee that the village chiefs were going to perform rituals to get rid of the mermaid, but the workers still refused to go back.
Eventually, foreign workers flew in to finish the project, but to their dismay, the workers had the same experience. They also refused to finish the project. To this day, the dam remains unfinished.
Mermaid Sightings Happen More Often Than You Think
Are you surprised at how recent the latest sightings of mermaids are? They may be more frequent in the last few years since many people learn to swim in mermaid tails!
Comment below if you have had your own mermaid sighting you would like to share!
Author Bio
Molly is the owner of the blog Everything Mermaid and enjoys writing articles not only for her blog but other mermaid sites. She specializes in mermaid folklore, as well as mermaid facts and mermaid sightings.
no no no
Wild, right? You never know when you’ll spot a mermaid!
Theres something out there. There is no way a dolphin took my fish out past the breakers broke the line then later wrapped the broken line with pompano rig still intact around my new line about a hundred times. Maybe it was a diver but they were stealthy as a underwater ninja if that was the case
Whoa! You may have had your own encounter with a mermaid/merman/merperson! 😮🧜
I would like to hear more about whats going on and if u really think whats going on is mermaids.
hi I saw a mermaid I dont no if u mite believe me bout my encounter with that force was real.
What was your mermaid encounter like? What were you doing at the time? Was the mermaid friendly, curious, upset etc ?
Any new current encounters..? Wonder what took your fish and did that to your line?
Where do the mermen hang out? Anyone ever see one?
I find it a little fishy (pardon the pun) that the workers on the dam saw a mermaid and refused to go back, but in Israel no one could get real footage of a mermaid. I’ve seen covers of Real Mermaid Sightings on YouTube, but come on, anything on YouTube can be edited…
i know that youtube can be etided but i wotch a youtuber ow does not etided and i saw a mermaid in the ocen but i have not sen a mernaid or a merman i hop i see one one day.
I spotted a mermaid in Hawaii back in 1994. I was swimming off the coast of Maui when I saw this women with bluish green hair underwater. As she turned and swam away from me I noticed she had a tail like a fish. This tail was split right down the middle.