Featured Image Credit: Vicki Cronis-Nohe / Virginian Pilot
By Jessica Kittel
Don’t believe me? See them for yourself at Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center. Okay, so technically speaking, these mermaids might actually be women with a penchant for free diving in $3,000 custom made silicone fins. No one ever said being a mermaid was cheap. It is certainly not for the faint hearted.
These women free dive in a 100,000-gallon tank that they share with rays and sharks. You can bet they do their very best to avoid collisions with those particular coworkers. Considering the fact that they’re using their bare eyeballs (which are not designed to focus underwater), it is sometimes easier said than done. Their vision while underwater consists entirely of blurry shapes, they have to follow the blinking lights of bracelets worn by onlookers to make it to the glass to say “Hi.”
Each mermaid performs a 20-minute swim routine, holding their breath for about four minutes at a time.
These performances can be seen on Mermaid Mondays during the month of April. Tickets may be purchased online or by calling the aquarium’s guest services at 757-385-FISH (3474). Tickets are $20 for Aquarium members, and $30 for non-members.
The first mermaid show at the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center debuted in 2010 as an attempt to draw more people to the facility. Boy did it work, the early events sold out very quickly and the shows set for this coming April are following suit. This year will feature Malena the Mermaid, as well as her two mermaid friends, and King Neptune. There will also be other mermaids found around the aquarium.
The mermaids themselves hope that their performances will be an inspiration for people to interact more thoughtfully with the ocean. The performances help children connect to the ocean and her creatures by attaching a human face to an otherwise daunting concept. Hales Parcells, who works as a mermaid and an educator during the off-season, hopes they’re “inspiring future naturalists, environmentalists and ocean lovers.”