MERMAIDS (DUGONG)

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Promoted to tourists in Aden as a mermaid, the hapless dugong (also known as a sea-cow or manatus), was stuffed and exhibited. In their natural habitat the harmless and docile dugongs would wallow peacefully in the sheltered, isolated, shallow bays  around Aden feeding on seagrass. 

 

There were examples on display in at least four locations: the Grand Royal Hotel, the Hotel De L'Europe,  Bhicajee Cowasjee's & Kaiky Muncherjee's Museum of Antiquities of Ancient Arabia (2400 years old).

 

Detailed studies of the dugong in Arabia in 2005 clearly show it is vulnerable to extinction on a worldwide scale. The Red Sea population is estimated at up to 4,000 dugong. It seems that they are no longer hunted systematically, but are frequently taken as bycatch in trawls and nets and their meat used for human consumption.

 

As slow swimmers living in shallow water, dugong also suffer from the increasing use of motor boats, which may easily injure them near the water surface. Destruction of seagrass beds poses an additional threat.

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"The Merman of Aden" in the Red Sea was exhibited in 1939 at the Ripley Odditorium. Ripley was the creator of the famous "Believe It or Not!" TV series. Mr. Ripley judged it to be a clever oriental fake, half monkey, half fish.

 

Usually such fakes were the female type, like the "Feejee Mermaid" exhibited by the great showman P. T. Barnum (1810-1891).