Amid the long-standing debate on the existence of mermaids - the half human, half fish mythical creatures, a new video footage aired on Sunday by Animal Planet showed a humanoid leaping off a rock and into the waters of Greenland Sea.
Soon after Animal Planet aired the 2.0 episode of the video titled "Mermaids: The New Evidence", which is a sequel to its hit mockumentary "Mermaids: The Body Found", social media users beagn speculating whether the mermaid-like creature was real or not.
According to the Huffington Post, the new video became a worldwide trend on micro-blogging site Twitter and got television viewers hooked.
Acknowledging the footage to be a 'science fiction' based on 'scientific theory', Animal Planet's parent company Discovery revealed that the whole video showing the mermaid leaping into the sea was staged.
Speaking to Mother Nature Network, Charlie Foley, writer and executive producer of "Mermaids: The New Evidence", said he decided to air the video as a documentary because he wanted people to think it was real.
"I suppose the human psyche is fascinated by mermaids because they're an idealized version of ourselves. The idea of a humanoid creature that lives in the ocean and can breathe underwater. Mermaids belong to a world we know and a world from which we come, but which is now alien to us: That's the world of the oceans, and so we identify with them even as they occupy a place of mystery for us," said Foley.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued an official statement following the broadcast of "Mermaids: The Body Found" stating, "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."
Here is the new video on the mythical creatures by Animal Planet:
