The Jewel of Norfolk, a mermaid sculpture located in Norfolk, Virginia. NOAA Photo.

Remember the Animal Planet’s world premiere of the science fiction movie Mermaids: The Body Found, on Sunday May 27 at 9PM E/P?

The film (which fooled some into thinking it was a documentary) made enough ripples that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had to come out with a clarifying statement:

…are mermaids real? No evidence of aquatic humanoids has ever been found. Why, then, do they occupy the collective unconscious of nearly all seafaring peoples? That’s a question best left to historians, philosophers, and anthropologists.