Bright Side: Belizean Fishermen Claim to Have Seen Mermaid
During the Lenten season many Belizeans look forward to their fish on Fridays. In this week’s episode of the Bright Side, I meet with two men of the sea who share their knowledge, and also made a very interesting claim during our interview. I will leave it up to viewers to decide what they make of this Belizean fish tale.
Sabreena Daly
Sabreena Daly, Stand Up
Its April 1st, the start of the high season for fisher folk. Consumers will make their way on side docks to catch the day’s earnings, as they stock up on the commodity that will soon see a price jump for the Good Friday and Holy Saturday eating. For the people in this trade, this is one of the best times of the year. But this year one fisher family is excited to share that they’ve got more than just fish at good prices. They contacted us to share the details of their almost biggest catch.
James Jones
James Jones, Fisherman
“Well as we sih di thing, we pull out we phone and gone get it outa the bucket, cah da deh we kip we phone soh Ih noh get wet weh wi deh ina wata, but by the time we get we phone fo get a insight a weh we sih, it just went dead. Soh we neva manage fo get no proof fo she sih it ya. Da lone tail part yuh could seh dig.”
James Anderson, Fisherman
“I’ve been a fisherman for quite some years and no, I haven’t experienced something like this before.”
Sabreena Daly
“You said you have never experienced something like this in your life as a fisherman. What did you see?”
James Anderson
“Well, it’s kinda hard to explain. Something very unexplainable, not humanic. People say they have mermaids, its real. But if I should say it is a mermaid, I would be kind of hallucinating, but with her golden hair and everything, they could tell me I’m superstitious but I think it’s a beautiful mermaid. Like, pretty brown eyes, golden hair… pretty, pretty quite interesting.”
You heard it. These seasoned fishermen claim they experienced the first mermaid sighting in Belize. Or at least the first sighting in modern times. But the guys are not entirely sure about what they saw, and had to rule out a few other possibilities.
Sabreena Daly
“So, some of your other colleagues were telling me that you guys mistook it for something else. They told me that you guys thought it was seaweed at the side of the boat. Describe to us what you saw.”
James Anderson
“Yes, ih mih look like seaweed because ah how the hair look long down and den-deh. But as we reach closah and look good and observe, we sih that ih have wa wide tail and human build body soh, we know that that da no fish or soh, that da wa mermaid.”
Sabreena Daly
“Was it a male or female?”
James Anderson
James Anderson
“Well, that yuh can’t tell. Wih can’t tell that part but mostly to me it look like a female conversion with ih small body cause the male body mussy woulda be more bigga.”
But while their tale comes without actual proof, these fishermen insist they will return someday with facts to back up their claim.
James Jones, Fisherman
“I know I gwine back because I want find it. It culd bring lotta tourism to Belize. People could sih that da real stuff we di talk bout and den deh da noh superstition thing weh other people talk bout. We know we literally sih it.Soh we have to probably sih da what.”
Sabreena
“Do plan fo ketch ah?”
James Jones
“Well if we should ketch ah then da that wa be the case. Once we could ketch ah.”
Sabreena
“How does that work? It’s a human, part fish. This da noh something you could sell.”
James Jones
“But we could advertise. You could get picture. We could have a net and bring ah. Put ah eena salt water. Bring ah een soh people could see eh realistic and da noh stupidenss people di talk bout right.”
But Mr. Anderson, the most seasoned of the pair, is not so sure. He says he cannot afford to disrupt the waters that feed him.
James Anderson, Fisherman
“The mermaid is like my barrier reef. She will always be there and when she’s ready to come back, she will be there. My advice to anybody, any mermaid or anything you ever see is let it be, just have the love, have the freedom and be happy for what you see because listen to me, as a fisherman, I live off the sea, I live off the ocean and if I don’t have them, I don’t have the fishes, I don’t have the sardines, I don’t have nothing then who’s gonna feed me? Can you feed me?”
Looking on the Bright Side … I’m Sabreena Daly.
And if you see any mermaids while you are out at sea, we hope you will send News Five your video.
